On the fifth (reading) day of Christmas

At Relief Society earlier this month, we were given a folder of handouts to help us find imaginative ways to celebrate the season. In 2005, the church published a list of readings in the scriptures, to correspond with the twelve days of Christmas. Some of these scriptures will be familiar to you, as they come from the KJV of the Bible. Others will be new to you, but harmonious with what you already know.

As this is a copyrighted article, I am not cutting-and-pasting each day’s reading into my blog posts. Instead, I will post the link and this notice, and you can just read that day’s portion if you choose. I would love to hear your thoughts and impressions.

Consider these my Christmas card(s) to you.

Kristen asked for my lasagna recipe. Here it is, such as it is.

Enough noodles to fill a pan ~ either a 9x13 or my slightly smaller 8x12, or one of the big disposable pans ~ four layers deep. Boil in lots of salted water with just a dollop of olive oil.

Enough bottled sauce to make it all happy and juicy. At least one quart, maybe a quart and a half to two, depending on your preference.

One tub part-skim ricotta, 8 ounces or more, with one or two beaten eggs stirred in and dried herbes de Provence to taste; somewhere between a teaspoonful and a tablespoonful.

One or two 8-oz bricks of Neufchatel or light cream cheese, softened. Not the fat-free kind; it’s mostly water. You could stir in some fennel seeds and not go far wrong.

Four to 8 oz of mozzarella, grated coarsely.

Spread a thinnish layer of red sauce on the bottom of the pan. Top with a layer of noodles and one of your cheeses.

Lightly cover with more red sauce, another layer of noodles and your second cheese.

Repeat with another layer of red sauce, noodles, and your third cheese.

More red sauce, the last layer of noodles, more cheese in any combination.

The last of the red sauce, and a generous grating of fresh Parmegiano-Reggiano or Asiago. Or the dried-out stuff that comes in a tube, which most of us grew up with, if you must.

Bake at 350°F for roughly half an hour. Serve with tossed salad [preferably from a bag, LOL] and lots of garlicky bread.

My big secret is using four or more different cheeses. You can use a meat-based sauce if you like, or not. I suppose if you absolutely had to, you could use firm tofu for one of the cheeses, and nobody would be the wiser.

I find that the cheese and the commercial sauce provide enough salt for flavor but not so much that I wake up at 2:00am with screaming ankles.

Tithing settlement is checked off the list for this year. My visiting teacher(s?) are coming tonight. Might be a good idea to clear some space on the couch.

I realized last night that it is one week until Christmas. I am starting BittyBit’s scarf today, as soon as I finish DecoratorDude’s ornament. I am about half-past ready for some instant gratification, and her scarf should provide that.