Soup to Dutts

Until a few weeks ago, I had made lasagna maybe three times, and each time it had come out a runny mess. But no more. OK, maybe "queen" is too dramatic of a word to use, but I feel like I have finally brought this dish into submission, thanks to my secret weapon: oven-ready noodles. I don't know what possessed me to volunteer to bring lasagna to small group, but there it was, and two pans of it nonetheless. Then I remembered my track record with it, and I was suddenly overcome with this feeling of "what have I done?!" I found some recipes online that looked promising (lots of good reviews, in other words), and we headed to the grocery store. That's when I saw them...oven-ready lasagna noodles, right next to the regular lasagna noodles, for the same price. It was one of those moments where the box looked like it was glowing, and you could hear angels singing...it sounded too good to be true! So I read the back of the box, and it turns out that there really

I started a 99 in 999 list this year instead of making a resolution, trying to accomplish 99 goals in 999 days. #1 on the list was to try 100 new recipes, and I started New Year's Day by making Fajitas Primavera (found on allrecipes ). These sounded much more interesting than other veggie fajitas I've seen. In addition to peppers and onions, these also had mushrooms, tomatoes, corn, kidney beans, green beans, and asparagus. Yes, asparagus. As far as ingredients added for even more flavor, there was Worcestershire sauce, cumin, chili powder, oregano, black pepper, garlic, cilantro, and...the juice and zest of one lime. (After I gathered all the ingredients, I thought they looked kinda purty, so I took a picture.) Having never juiced or zested anything in my life, I was a little intimidated, but mostly excited. We have a zester that's never been used, so this was its maiden voyage. Worked like a charm! Here's the finished product. Not bad, huh? And they were deliciou