The Phantom Menace

This morning the weirdest thing happened...

Now with my increasing belly, I've started to feel the difference between lying on my back and lying on my back with a bowling ball attached to it. So this morning, I woke up with a full bladder (as per usual)... hobble over to my bathroom..get ready to do my business and I had a phantom pee! A phantom pee! I get all ready to go and nothing... I guess since the baby wasn't sitting on my bladder anymore I didn't have to go.. no pee not so much as a trickle! Silly bugger! A phantom pee, one minute its there and the next minute its gone.

Conservative Hockey Night in Canada

I was just reading the news on msn's Canadian website and I read the funniest thing. Canada's pride and joy, Don Cherry is now getting into politics. According to msn.com he has made recorded messages endorsing the the local Conservative party member in the Toronto area.

Can you imagine... 5:30pm, just sitting down to dinner and the phone rings...you answer it and its a prerecorded message from Don Cherry??!!, the Don Cherry part isn't so bad, its the fact that its about the Conservative party. What a way to ruin your dinner!

The Sinister Black Friiiiiiiday

Today, I guess in American terms is "Black Friday" dun dun dun! Sounds so sinister, sounds like a war holiday or an anniversary of some tragic accident in American history.


But in actual fact, its the day after Thanksgiving and their equivalent of our "Boxing Day". Boxing day sounds more shopper friendly... perhaps Black Friday refers to the poor retail people that have to work on the busiest shopping day of the year... its the doom and gloom of having to deal with irrational shoppers looking to save 50 bucks on their flat screen t.v. It does make sense to have a heinous shopping day with wicked deals before Christmas instead of after but in the same aspect on Boxing Day you can buy all the crap you wished you got on Christmas.. Maybe Canada should have both??

So today being the day after an American holiday, we are faced with the television marathon. Lets see... TLC has What Not to Wear, A&E has Criminal Minds, National Geographic has The Dog Whisperer and well, now that its technically after Thanksgiving we are now cursed with Christmas movies, music and television. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Grinch.. but I feel that Christmas should stay in December...not November and NOT the day after Halloween when they clear out the candy to make room for Santa hats and Christmas balls.

Elkford has been amazing for that, at the beginning of November, Rebecca and I were driving down the street and people already had their Christmas trees up. Maybe its because of the weather? Because it snows so early here? I don't know, I come from a family that sets the tree up on December 22nd and takes it down on New Years Day...So this November business is totally foreign to me! Can't blame Elkford for trying... but if the town has been decorated since early November what is it going to look like when it gets closer to Christmas? We're in the East Kootenays not the North Pole! :)

Crock-pot Lasagna

Like always, Terry comes home from work to me in the kitchen brewing up some culinary wonders. Some questionable, some genius but Terry being the good sport that he is, always sucks it up and eats it! After all, I'm the only house wife he has and when you come home from work at 8pm, you don't have the choice of being picky! haha

So yesterday, after stewing about what to make for dinner and after feeling slightly sorry for my Crock-pot that has been neglected for over a year, I remembered an episode of Oprah I saw where Jessica Seinfeld made a full lasagna in a crockpot. Bingo! I looked up the recipe on the internet..but wasn't too keen on all the ingredients not to mention buying fresh ingredients in Elkford can be a bit of a chore. So I just used the basis of it...the basis being of layering and how long to cook for and at what temperature. Anyways, long story short, it was a breeze and you can just set it and forget it (yea yea catchy phrase)

What you need:

Raw Lasagna noodles
Tomatoes
Spinach
Italiano cheese (Mozzarella, Parm, Emmintal...etc)
Pasta sauce fixin's
So the premise is this:

Make up your meat or veggie sauce (cook beef before hand) in a bowl
Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of your Crock-pot
Lay down your lasagna noodles, 3 fit in mine and of course you can break the noodles to fit
Spread some spinach, then cheese, then noodles, then sauce... you get the idea :)
Layer it up, cook it on low for 3-31/2 hours until noodles are soft

The best part about it is you can serve it right from the pot and the layers hold up pretty well when cut. Terry asked me if it was easier than making lasagna in the oven and I would say yes, because you don't have to precook the noodles and with the Crock-pot, you don't have to worry about it cooking all day, you can pre-make it and precook it.

If you want Jessica Seinfeld's recipe go to: www.Oprah.com/food/Crock-Pot-Lasagna-Recipe or just use your own recipe like I did.