Home made lasagne

I love the weekend because breakfasts can be so adventurous, so much better than my standard Weetabix. Mr P made me pancakes again this morning (I am such a lucky girl). I had them with sugar and lime whereas he had cheese. They were very yummy and he is an amazing pancake maker.

I went home to see the parentals this weekend, so on arriving home ma n pa made a tasty asian selection for lunch consisting of a thai chicken soup (Tesco finest and ABSOLUTELY gorgeous) and then a vegetable spring roll and a chicken tikka samosa. It was all very tasty, however due to the ulcer of doom still reigning my bottom lip it was a little difficult to eat.

I held a little dinner party with three friends this evening, which went very well indeed. I decided to make lasagne as its a dish everyone likes and one which you can just bung in the oven with minimal faffing. I decided to make the bolognaise mix a few hours in advance in order to give it time to infuse.

First I chopped some onions and sweated them with some finely chopped and crushed garlic (which my mum did). After these had softened I added 800 grams of lean mince and some diced smokey bacon then let both cook before adding a tin of chopped tomatoes and a carton of passata. After letting it simmer a little longer I added some chopped red and green pepper then seasoned it with salt, herb de Provence, crushed coriander seeds, crushed chilli seeds and cinnamon. I then left it simmering gently for about an hour.

Later on once the girls were here and we were drinking sparkling pinot grigio whilst tucking into various types and flavours of crisps, caramelised onion humous and pitta breads I arranged the lasagne in its dish. First I put a layer of the meaty sauce followed by some sliced fresh mozzarella and then a layer of fresh pasta, I repeated this several times before topping the last layer with white sauce and covered that in fresh mozzarella and grated Parmesan. I then put it into the oven for 25 minutes until it was slightly brown on top.

I served it with a (Tesco finest) garlic bread pizza and some salad. Oh and a glass of that mini red chianti Dan spoke about last week. It was all very nice and my guests seemed to enjoy it however after slaving over it all afternoon I was pretty much sick of the sight of it so didn't quite demolish mine.

After refraining from the table to watch X Factor I popped a delicious apple and sultana crumble in the oven which my wonderful friend Faye's mum had made. It was lovely with a really tasty crumble topping. I served it with some custard which I unfortunately burnt, but it was still tasty nonetheless. A very very successful evening.