Dinner in Sweden

This will be a very common dinner for me while I am here in Sweden. Simple white rice, with potatoes and sauteed carrots, onion, red peppers, mushroom and egg. With the Saute I used paprika, salt, pepper and basil. Oh, I also threw in some Swedish Meatballs! They are actually pretty good. At the beginning I bought a big package of them so I will be using them in most every meal I make.

Wine from the Rueda region of Spain

An amazing wine, it was introduced to me by my great friend, Marcella Favila back in SF! This was my first bottle that I had in Spain, with three other people that I met in Spain. Such an incredible wine, it is definitely my favorite white wine, hands down. It is more fruity then a Chardonnay and the bouquet is very lite. Both the grape and wine region are called Rueda and I believe it is something between a Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Not to heavy, nice crisp taste but not to much. More body then a Sauvignon Blanc, but apparently very common in Spain.

Grey's Papaya hot dogs w/ everything and a banana daiquiri drink

I have always heard about this place in movies. Now finally going I would definitely agree with the hype. I had the regular hot dogs with a banana daiquiri. SOOOOO good. The prices are really good as well, friendly service that is quick and simple. So far New York is a great place.

Lasagna

Ok, I know it's not the best picture however I didn't have a camera till the following day. So this is a shot of the last leftover piece, which still proved to be amazing. hahaha. This has got to be one of the best Lasagnas I have made so far, and I think what made it was the better quality cheese that I used. Rather then using Ricotta cheese I went to Cow Girl Creamery and I picked up some Burrata cheese. Similar to ricotta and Mozzarella. It is another light milky cheese and the consistency is very stretchy and holds together nicely. It was definitely worth the price. The sauce I used Carrots, Green Bell pepper, Onion, Garlic, simple red wine, Parsley, Basil, Oregano, Cinnamon, Salt & Pepper. When I was browning the meat I like to salt it really well, and I also threw in some cajun spice seasoning along with GArlic and Onion to help with the flavoring of both the meat and oil. To start the sauce I like to saute the onion and Garlic for at least 5 to 8 minutes to get the juices from those flowing and mixing with oil and butter. The add the rest of the ingredients. This sauce simmered for about 45 minutes, which is a good amount of time, however it could have gone longer because it had the ground beef. The wine was obviously used to dilute the tomato paste and stewed tomatoes, however I making sure not to use to much. After the sauce was done, the layering of the lasagna was the easy part. In the following order from the bottom: Sauce, Noodle, Sauce, Spinach, Sauce, Noodle, Sauce, Bell Pepper, Burrata Cheese, Sauce and then a combination of shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese and Mozzarella cheese. In the end after I think about it the Lasagna had a really nice creamy taste to it that was not to much. The dish held it's own, but sometimes when people make Lasagna it is to creamy and in my opinion to much the creaminess starts to take over the entire dish where as in this case the creaminess stayed in one area. Which I think was due to the cheese. I will be using this one from now on when I make my Lasagna.