Cookin' with Sal

Sally Ann Shurmur

Star-Tribune

In June 1997, we began this adventure called Cookin'. Constant Readers have read a little bit about food and a lot about Peggy Jane the Mom and Fritz the Dad, Skinny Son and Mouse the Daughter, Scott the Brother and Susie the Sister.

They've met the friend and they know about the aversions to raw onions and fresh tomatoes.

In April 2001, for reasons still a mystery to me, we began Talkin' and after cruising through the calendar, have found a home on Sundays. There, Constant Readers have read plenty about football but also about adventures in a golf cart and on a motorcycle, the drama of raising a teenaged girl and the life of a single mother/working woman who doesn't particularly deal well with stress.

Then came Dishin' on the "Web," which I fought kicking and screaming and now absolutely think is the coolest ever. When cousins in Michigan and former extended family in Seattle find me with a click, it's just wow.

The next chapters will be bundled together in a cookbook, titled "Eatin' with Sal - A Wyoming Cookbook."

I could not any way be more thrilled.

And it will be recipes from you, my family of Constant Readers, from your weeknight favorites to special occasion recipes. The only Sal will be chapter introductions and some recipes sprinkled in throughout.

As well as great food from great Wyoming cooks like you, we'll include art and photographs that depict Wyoming at its most beautiful.

Send recipes to be considered to recipes@trib.com or mail to Eatin' with Sal, P.O. Box 80, Casper, Wy, 82602.

Photography and art for consideration may be sent as small JPEG files to recipes@trib.com.

The deadline for both recipes and art is Feb. 29, 2008. Then we'll be leaping (get it?) toward production with availability set for late summer.

Meanwhile, Cookin', Talkin' and Dishin' will continue.

Here's a hamburger recipe that is the best lasagna I've ever had. It's Peggy Jane the Mom's recipe, but then that's no surprise.

Mom's Lasagna

8 ounces lasagna

2 pounds ground beef

12 ounces sweet or mild Italian sausage (bulk, not link)

1 onion, chopped

6 cloves (the small pieces) (or to taste) garlic, minced

1 large (fat) can tomatoes

2 cups tomato paste

1 large and 1 small carton small-curd cottage cheese

2 eggs

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1-1/2 pounds Mozzarella slices

Garlic powder (optional)

Chopped parsley

Oregano (approximately 3 tablespoons or to taste)

Brown Italian sausage in non-stick skillet. Remove sausage from pan but save drippings. Brown chopped onion and minced garlic in sausage drippings.

Brown hamburger in same pan and drain in small-holed colander so onions and garlic stay with hamburger.

Return hamburger, browned sausage, onion and garlic to same pan.

Add drained tomatoes, tomato paste, "two tomato paste cans" of water and oregano. You want the mixture to be fairly moist, because it cooks a long time.

Simmer a few minutes and then check seasonings. If you need more garlic, use garlic powder. If the tomatoes taste too acidic, add a pinch of sugar.

In bowl, stir cottage cheese, two beaten eggs, 1 cup Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Boil lasagna according to package directions, drain and rinse in warm water to prevent sticking.

Place 1/2 cup meat sauce on bottom of 9x13 or other rectangular lasagna pan to prevent lasagna from sticking.

Arrange half of lasagna in pan, half cottage cheese mixture, half of meat sauce and then half of Mozzarella in layers. Repeat all layers, ending with Mozzarella on top.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour, 15 minutes. Check to make sure top layer of Mozzarella doesn't get too brown. If it starts to brown way before 75 minutes are up, cover with foil and continue cooking.

When cooking time is over, remove from oven and let sit at least 10 minutes before cutting, which will help to solidify filling.

If you don't get nice, neatly cut squares, you may not have waited long enough to cut it, or your meat mixture may have been too moist.

The bottom line is it tastes great, whether it is in neat squares or not.

Makes 8 huge servings or 10-12 smaller ones.

Note: Mom thinks this tastes better the second day, so she often bakes it, refrigerates it and then rewarms it in the oven before serving.

Community News editor Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at (307) 266-0520; sallyann.shurmur@trib.com or see her profile and blog at my.trib.com/Sal/blog