The Best Way to Cook Lasagna Noodles

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

Many years ago, I got an important cooking tip from my Aunt Esther.  (pictured)

This is the perfect time to share it with you!

Why?

Keep reading.

THE VERY BEST WAY TO COOK LASAGNA NOODLES:

Put your dry lasagna noodles in a pan. That part may sound easy, but not all pans will hold a stiff lasagna noodle before it softens and bends. Make sure you find a pan that does fit the noodle. I happen to have a rectangular pan that does the trick nicely.
Fill the pan with water, cover and put it on a burner set to HI.

Hang around, watching the pan until it boils. If you get distracted and turn around even for 2 seconds, that will be the time the pan will reach a full boil and boil over. All over your stove top.

So WATCH!

As soon as the water reaches a full boil, turn the burner off. Set your timer for 20 minutes. EXACTLY 20 MINUTES.

OK--you have options here.....

Best Meatloaf Recipe

This is the best meatloaf recipe I have ever found.  My kids grew up on this and love it.  It came from Sandy McGowen in Georgia in one of those recipe books where everyone donates their favorite recipe.

1 1/2 lb. ground beef
3/4 cup cracker crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup brown sugar (the secret ingredient!)
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste.

Combine the beef, eggs, Worcestershire and tomato sauce.  Then add the brown sugar and cracker crumbs. I usually need to add more cracker crumbs than is called for.  I use Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs.

Shape it in a loaf, place it on a baking pan leaving an inch around each side.  Spread the tomato paste on the top.

Cook at 350, covered with foil for 50 minutes.  Uncover and cook another 10 or 15 minutes.

Where Do You Find Encouragement and Direction?

"Just because they die, she said,

doesn't mean they go away."

- Brian Andreas, Storypeople

I spent the night at my mother's and slept in Nana's bed which Nana no longer needs.

I woke up in Nana's bed next to Nana's well-worn Bible, opened it to the bookmark I made her so long ago next to the verses she vigorously underlined. And wake reminded of a grandma's love, an example I study as I am now a grandma myself.

Nana was here. 

Self-indulgently, I shed a few tears and missed my Nana so much.  Does she know how much?  Wistfully, I posted the picture and my thoughts on Facebook, using technology to uplift, encourage, share.

I soon found the following response from my third cousin -- my Nana's sister's granddaughter....

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe and it's great for using those cookie cutters and making adorable holiday shapes.

1 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk.  If you don't have sour milk around, use regular and put 1 tsp. vinegar in it)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon
1 tsp. nutmeg

Mix Crisco, sugar and eggs.  Beat til creamy.  Add baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, lemon, salt and nutmeg.  Beat til creamy.  Stir in flour and milk alternately.  Beat until smooth.  Chill for at least one hour.

Roll out and cut with cookie cutters or a glass turned upside down.  Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake 10 - 12 minutes at 350.

Enjoy!  This recipe is from my mom.

Surviving Your Serengeti, Book Review

Surviving Your Serengeti:  7 Skills to Master Business and Life

A fable of self-discovery

by Stefan Swanepoel

Thomas Nelson Publishers

I recently reviewed this book for Thomas Nelson.  I was attracted to it because it's a fable designed to help both in self-discovery and in business life.  What an odd mix.  I just had to take a peek.  As adults, we rarely study fables.

This fable followers some travelers who witness the annual thousand-mile migration of over two million animals across the African Serengeti Plains.  The strength and survival skills of seven of these animals is studied and pared down to seven skills that we can apply to our own struggles in life, specifically in the business realm.  Each chapter continues the story, zooms in on one skill and ends with bullet-point application tips......

Test Kitchen: Can Ketchup Really Clean Copper

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

Good thing we named our Test Kitchen "MORSE'S" instead of "RUTH'S" Jim saw this little household hint on American Restoration, did the research, took the pictures for this whole shebang.

He drew the line at writing up his finding, though. There goes his paycheck.

Guess what common household food item can be used to clean copper?

I know, I know--everyone says salt and lemon juice can clean copper, but I've tried that routine with very little success. HOWEVER! This food product actually cleans copper quite successfully!

Are you ready?

Sitting on the edge of your seat?

Holding your breath?

The food item is:

KETCHUP!

Yup.....

Indian River City United Methodist Church, Titusville, FL

One thing I enjoy about traveling is visiting a local church.

When I was in Titusville, FL for the NASA social I visited Indian River City United Methodist Church.  I attended the contemporary service on a warm, sunny Sunday after drinking my coffee at a park by the river.   Imagine my delight when I rounded the corner behind the church, heading back to the building where the service would be held and I found this coffee serving gazebo in the courtyard -- their Welcome Center.  Genius, right?  A welcome center in a gazebo outdoors! Just perfect.

The next thing I loved was the music.....

Cupcake Review: Hot Chocolate and Lemon Cranberry

So . . . I casually walked by Cupcake in the Vista again last week and peeked in to see what the day's flavors were.  Hot Chocolate and Low-Fat Lemon Cranberry.  And they were calling my name.

I snuggled these beauties in the corner of my car and drove off to find someone to do the taste test.....

NASA's Mobile Launcher Up Close and Personal

I was one of a handful of social media loudmouths recently given unprecedented access to many of NASA's secret gardens including the massive Mobile Launcher (ML).

The ML was originally designed for the Apollo Program and later used to assemble and transport the Shuttles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It basically consists of the lower platform, maybe 25' tall, and the upper umbilical tower, maybe 400' tall.  As NASA restructures following the dissolution of the Shuttle program, the launch pads are one of their most recognizable assets.   They've removed a lot of the structures used specifically for the shuttle, removed a million miles of cable, put up lightning towers and now have a clean launch pad that others can use for a short period of time.  

How do you photograph such a monster?

The goal, according to Jeremy Parsons, a mission operations engineer with NASA's Ground Systems Development, is to

"increase our users and drive down the cost of deep space exploration.  Leveraging the experience of the engineers who worked on the shuttle to be early in the design of the Space Launch Systems (SLS) vehicle, to make it easy to use, reliable, sustainable.  We run simulations to estimate what we need, the time frame, chance of success... change our designs to see how we're doing.  Figure out how we'll process this vehicle and relate that back to the design center.  We work on it in a 3D environment so when the vehicle arrives, we hit the ground running.....

She could tilt her head and follow

the delicate push of gossamer wings

and know the direction of someone's sorrows.

She would close her eyes,

touch the breeze with the tips of her fingers

and follow the shift of tomorrow's pain.

~ from The Arms of God by Lynne Hinton

Lindsey Stirling, Violinist

I heard about Lindsey Stirling from Larry King when he tweeted the words hip hop violinist.  You know that caught my attention.

I almost cried watching this. We need more young people to be:

bold

innovative

ambitious

passionate

The Loft Sessions, Bethel Music

In the midst of my posts about NASA,

I have to interrupt with this amazing music.

Bethel Music - The Loft Sessions

Acoustic creativity with modern melodies.

Buy It Now.

NASA Swamp Works Research and Technology Lab Features RASSOR and OVEN Prototypes

He had me at hello.

You can't see me (I'm hidden behind Tim) but I'm sitting across the table from the guy in the white shirt, NASA Physicist and Planetary Scientist Phil Metzger and I'm totally entranced by his stories of innovative research that will enable long term exploration of space.  That and the stories about stuff he found digging through Apollo leftovers as they cleaned out the building formerly used for Apollo flight training.  By the end of the evening, we were tweeting like old friends.  OK, maybe just 2 or 3 tweets, but still.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center just celebrated the grand opening of its Swamp Works, a Technology and Research Lab in the EDL building (Engineering Development Lab) formerly used in the Apollo days.  The Apollo crew trained here on simulators and also had a boulder garden out back where they would test drive the lunar rover.....