The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City

Maybe I'm not a Real Housewife of Salt Lake City (yet) or Draper (would be even better... I did have a Tahoe rental for a day. Back me up, Gard. It was good huh!?), BUT I am working on my domestic skills. Ever since Billy and I did this whole marriage thing, I figured I would give those domestic skills a whirl. I'm not a "good cook" per se, but I've mastered a few recipes. Examples below:

1. Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. After re-working an incredibly difficult and time consuming recipe from the Joy of Vegetarian Cooking that once took me an entire Saturday to make, this is the recipe I've come up with:

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

2 medium-large eggplant (quartered and cut in 1/2" slices)

5 medium zucchini (cut in 1/2" slices)

3 yellow summer squash (cut in 1/2" slices)

3 pounds ripe tomatoes

1/2 cup Olive Oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 deg. Mix vegetables in olive oil and salt and pepper, put in a roasting pan and roast in oven for about 20 minutes. Mix up the vegetables and roast another 20 minutes.

Boil a pound of lasagna pasta, meanwhile mix:

1 lb ricotta cheese

2 large eggs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

Drain, separate noodles. Assemble the lasagna arranging alternating layers of noodles, 1/3 ricotta mixture, 1/4 lb of mozzarella cheese, 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, and noodles again.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes at 375 deg. Uncover and bake until golden and bubbly about another 15 minutes.

Although a little time consuming, this makes enough for Billy and I to eat dinner and about 3 lunches. And that's saying something, because Billy eats a lot.

2. Rhubarb Pie. Something about Rhubarb Pie screamed "America" to me (and it's July, people, so this month is about America). I have this outrageously large rhubarb plant growing in our garden. After doing some google research on "how to harvest rhubarb," I made my first homemade fruit pie!! It was gutsy to start with Rhubarb since it can be so tricky, but it's what we had in the garden and I figured what they hay! I used frozen pie crusts. I might try making my own next time.

Rhubarb Pie

4 cups chopped rhubarb

1 1/3 cup of white sugar

6 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 tablespoon butter

1 - 9 inch double pie crust set or recipe

Preheat oven to 450 deg

Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over one of the pastry crusts.

Heap rhubarb over the mixture and sprinkle with the remaining sugar and flour.

Dot with small pieces of butter

Cover with top crust.

Place pie on lowest rack in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue bake for 40-45 minutes.

Serve with some vanilla ice cream.

I even took the pictures this time! And I will ask all 3 of you that read this blog, what I ask Billy every time I attempt to cook or bake:

Are you proud of me?!