more than painting

I did more than painting today!  (I went to the farmer's market, the grocery, and the bagel store.)  I also cooked!  I've been holding onto a recipe from Cook's Illustrated for a veggie lasagna. I enjoy their show on PBS and have found all their recipes to be good and a few of them to be worth the effort. Tonight's dinner has not yet been judged for that effort to deliciousness balance.  But it looks good and with these ingredients, how could it be bad?

I started by cubing eggplant and tossing it in the microwave for ten minutes w/some salt. Seemed like a good time saver. While it cooked I picked up Bug from piano lessons and asked Pook to make the "no cook Alfredo sauce." He did, using cottage cheese, Parmesan and heavy cream. (We added milk because it seemed too thick... possible flaw in the recipe.) Then I sauteed yellow squash, zucchini, and the eggplant in two batches while I chopped more of each veggie, some basil and thyme from the garden and a few fresh tomatoes (to make up for the problem of not having enough canned tomatoes to make their "no cook tomato sauce" correctly.) All that layered with grated mozzarella and no-cook noodles. It is teetering over the top of the glass pan, but I blame that on my over-exuberant veggie purchasing at the farmer's market, not the recipe.

And the verdict is...

 ...worth the work..I think. We always need ideas for squash and eggplant in the summer, so this will be a keeper. I will decrease the amount of cheese and be careful that I don't overload the pan - meaning I should own a food scale so when a recipe calls for a pound I can give it a pound - but it was delicious despite the effort.