Momoyama & Martha Care Package

Today was a great day! My Momoyama tree peony has a hugeeeee bud on it. I am so excited to see the beautiful flower that this bud will burst into. Look at the size of the bud in my hand and I don't have small hands. I would say that the bud is about the size of an egg. 

Then after on my doorstep was the wonderful Martha Care Package sent over by the too generous Claudine K. at Good Things, Life of a Martha Stewart Wannabe. I was so excited when I opened the package. I even used the new rubber scrapper when making dinner. There was even a pill of some type in the bottom of the box! I hope you didn't need that Claudine!

I made "roadmap" lasagna my friend Steph calls it. The reason that she calls it that is because it is a lasagna that you need a map to find which section is which. It has different sections to accommodate different tastes. Brian doesn't like ricotta cheese but I do, I don't eat meat but Brian does. I did get one great idea from Steph, you puree an entire bag of spinach into the ricotta cheese and it makes it a beautiful color, and it is a nice way to get an entire bag of spinach into your food! I use the Ina Garten method of not boiling the noodles but putting them in a bowl of really hot water. Then homemade sauce, on my side of the roadmap there is the green spinach and cheese filling and then some sauteed veggies for the inside (in my new Martha Stewart Collection cast iron enamel pot!)