#lasagna project

[theahole]

Lasagna Project # 12: Ramen Lasagna

No tomato sauce in this one!

What you need to make the cheese sauce:

4 oz gruyere cheese, shredded 4 oz muenster cheese, shredded 4 oz colby jack cheese, shredded 1 12 oz can evaporated milk 4 oz ricotta cheese

Mix the cheese and the evaporated milk (shake the can first) in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until cheese is melted.  Keep in mind the muenster may not melt entirely.  Take off heat and mix in ricotta.  Make sure you turn the stove off.

What you need to make the lasagna:

cheese sauce (above) 3 packs ramen (chicken flavor) 1 1/2 cups finely chopped pulled pork 6 hard boiled medium eggs, cut in half about four lasagna noodles, snapped in half 4 oz gruyere cheese, shredded 4 oz muenster cheese, shredded 4 oz colby jack cheese, shredded

Cook the lasagna according to package directions.  Drain and rinse lasagna.

Cook ramen according to package directions, then drain the noodles and keep them.  Mix together noodles and cheese sauce.

Line your lasagna pan with kitchen parchment.  Lay down a thin layer of ramen and cheese sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Cover that with a layer of muenster.

Use most of the pulled pork to cover the cheese.  Top this with a layer of lasagna noodles.

Next add a layer of ramen and sauce.  On top of that put a layer of hard-boiled eggs.

Top that with another layer of lasagna noodles.

Put down your last few tablespoons of pulled pork.  Add your last layer of ramen and sauce, and top the whole thing with the last of the shredded cheeses and a sprinkling of onion powder (we kind of forgot about this part).

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.

Notes: The eggs look cool just cut in half, but for ease of eating, dicing them is a better idea.

Verdict: weird but good.  A success!

[aether-earth-and-sun]

New page!  And, um, last (actual comic) page.  Announcement below the links!

https://tapas.io/episode/1105297 http://aether.cfw.me/comics/570 Alright. This is sort of a long time coming, but I gotta be straight with you guys because you’ve stuck with me for the longest time with Aether. I’m so burnt out on Aether. I’ve been doing it for 4 and a half years now and while I’m extremely proud of what we’ve done, I’m just not in the same place I was when I started. When I started the comic I didn’t have anything else going on--I had no job, I was floundering to find myself artistically, and I was fresh and excited to work on an original story. But stuff has changed! Between new art interests, new jobs, some health issues, and just…life happening, I just don’t have the same passion I did when I started. I find myself wishing I had more free time to pursue my other interests in addition to doing other kinds of art, instead of having to pick one or the other (or neither). I feel guilty when I do other kinds of work, and that’s...well, it’s sort of miserable! I still love the story, but trying to get myself to draw pages feels like wading through molasses. And I know Will’s having trouble with scripts too. I absolutely wanted to finish the comic--we’re in the final chapter, and there are probably 60-70 pages left to go. But that’s 30 weeks of comics for me--30 weeks of dragging my feet and making pages that aren’t up to my standards because my heart isn’t in it. Maybe that sounds silly or selfish, but I simply don’t want to make sub-par work just to finish the story, and that’s on top of being burnt out. Hell, we’re having a hard time even thinking of the right way to show the ending. BUT, I also really don’t want to leave it hanging here. This is, possibly, the worst place to stop the story, and these characters do still mean something to me, even if I’m exhausted with the comic itself. And I know (because I know myself very well) that if I stop now with the intent to come back later, I never will. So here’s what I’m going to do, and I hope everyone is okay with it. I’m going to create a series of a few illustrations to show how the story wraps up, and I’m going to write a bit of an epilogue to explain some loose ends. If anyone has any questions, I’m happy to answer those too. I don’t realistically know how many people would be, like, heartbroken if they didn’t see an ending to the story, but I feel bad stopping here, both for myself and for any readers who do care. I know it’s not the whole comic I promised, but I hope you understand why I’m doing this, and I hope it’s a good compromise. I’m gonna try to make the illustrations nice to make up for...the whole situation, I guess, so I’m not sure when I’ll have them done, but rest assured I’ll finish them. I want to send off this project somehow--it’s the largest one I’ve ever done, at over 500 pages of comic, and I’ve learned a lot from doing it. I owe it and you readers that much. Whether you’ve been here from the beginning or just started reading recently, I’m so grateful that you’ve read and (hopefully!) enjoyed Aether. Thanks, as always, for sticking with me.

[theahole]

Lasagna Project #11: Cheeseburger Lasagna

Make a cheese sauce using:

1 and 1/2 cups shredded mild Gruyere cheese

1 and 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 pint half and half

5 ounces ricotta

Mix the shredded cheese and half and half together in a saucepan and cook them on low heat, stirring constantly, until the cheese is melted.  Take the pan off the heat and mix in the ricotta.

To make the rest of the lasagna you'll need:

1 pint mashed potatoes

3 1/2 ounces good cheddar cheese spread (we used Kaukauna Spreadable Cheddar)

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar

8 hamburger patties, cooked medium well and cut into rough cubes

4 lasagna noodles, broken in half, cooked according to package directions, and rinsed

4 Compari tomatoes, diced

1 pint of chopped onions (optional)

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Dice your tomatoes.

Cook your hamburgers.  If you are using onions, you can saute them in the pan before starting the burgers.  Set the onions aside before cooking the beef.

Chop the burgers into roughly bite-sized pieces.

Mix the mashed potatoes, cheese spread and four ounces of grated sharp cheddar.

Line your lasagna pan with kitchen parchment, and put a thin layer of cheese sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Top this with a little chopped burger.

Add another thin layer of sauce, and top with a layer of noodles.

Now add a heavier layer of meat, about half what you have left, and a heavier layer of sauce.

Top this with your diced tomatoes.

Put a layer of noodles over your tomatoes, and top the noodles with the last of the meat, and then the last of the cheese sauce.  Here is where you add the sauteed onions, if you are using them.  Since onions make me gag, they were only used on a third of this lasagna.

Top the onions with 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar, and top that with the mashed potato mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 65 minutes.

Note: This smells amazing.

Verdict: Delicious!  A success!

[theahole]

Lasagna Project #8: Lasagna Pizza

Okay, so this project is not quite up to snuff.  I will tell you what happened, and then in the notes I will tell you the things we thought might fix it.  We at the Lasagna Project are all about learning!

To make the Lasagna Pizza, you will need:

pizza crust tomato sauce cheese sauce (1/2 pint light cream, 2 ounces Monterrey jack, 2 ounces muenster, 1/4 cup ricotta) 2 lasagna noodles, broken in half, cooked according to package directions shredded mozzarella

I had taken it upon myself to make the crust.  I have made pizza crust before and it turned out quite well.  However, it is not often that I have made pizza crust, put it in a too-small container with a lid, and then drove around in a steamy-hot car for an hour.  This was a first.

The first sign of badness was I opened the container of dough and it smelled fermented.  However, we pressed on.

Ignoring the fact that you should knead the dough some more after it had risen, I just kinda pushed it stickily about in the bottom of this parchment-lined casserole.

That mess was smeared with a generous amount of pizza sauce.

Some of the cheese sauce went on top of that.

We topped the cheese sauce with two halves of a lasagna noodle.

Then another layer of tomato sauce, topped with cheese sauce and another broken lasagna noodle.

Topped again with tomato sauce, then cheese sauce.

The finishing touch was a generous layer of mozzarella cheese.

We cooked this at 350 Fahrenheit for half an hour.

After letting it cool, we tried the pizza.  It made me very sad.

We all agreed that the topping was wonderful, but the crust had not cooked at all.

Notes: Don't do it this way.  I think the best way is to make pizza crust ahead of time and par-bake it, and maybe use storebought crust, which is easier. My brother thinks you should just make it like a pizza, but I'm not sure what he means. Anyway, we'll probably come back to this project someday.

Verdict: yukko!

[theahole]

Lasagna Project #9: Pesto and Angel Hair Lasagna

I don't have many photos for this one.  I'm going to blame that on my brother, who is the main camera-wrangler and layer-maker.  For all I know, it's my fault for being distracting.

The first steps are thus:

Make a cheese sauce by combining 1 pint half and half with 4 ounces Muenster cheese and 4 ounces Colby Jack cheese and stirring until your cheese melts.  Mix in 5 ounces of ricotta.

Break some lasagna noodles in half and cook them according to the directions on the package.  Rinse them in cold water.

Break about a quarter-pound of angel hair pasta into pieces about 1 inch long.  Cook them according to package directions and rinse them in cold water.

What you need to make this thing:

cheese sauce, above

lasagna noodles, above

angel hair pasta, as above

1 pint pesto

2 ounces Muenster cheese

Mix together your pesto and angel hair.

Line your lasagna pan with parchment paper and spread a thin layer of cheese sauce across the bottom.

Cover this with lasagna noodles.

Add a layer of the angel hair/pesto mix.

Next, a layer of cheese sauce.  Cover this with more noodles, then some more angel hair/pesto.

On top of that, sprinkle your Muenster.

Another layer of noodles, then angel hair/pesto, then the last of the noodles.  Top this with the last of the cheese sauce.

Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.

Top with fresh mozzarella and let cool.

Sorry, we have no photos of portions this time around.

Verdict: a success!  Completely delicious.

[theahole]

Lasagna Project #7: Pizza Lasagna

To start with, you are going to need two large pizzas, one plain regular and one plain white. Put these in your fridge for a couple days so they get nice and stale.

On the day of lasagna making, you'll need to make some cheese sauce.

What you need to make the cheese sauce:

1/2 box (8 oz) of orzo pasta

1 pint half and half

4 ounces muenster cheese

4 ounces colby jack cheese (I was supposed to just get colby, but I couldn't find it)

4 ounces mozzarella cheese

Cook the orzo according to the directions on the package.  Strain and rinse it.

Pour the half and half into a sauce pan.  Shred your cheeses:

Mix the shredded cheese into the half and half and cook over low heat, stirring often, until the cheeses are melted and you have a sticky sauce.  Take your pan off the heat, mix in about seven ounces of ricotta cheese into the sauce.

You should now have a little more than a quart of sauce and about a quart of orzo.

Reserve about half a cup of the sauce and mix the orzo into the rest of it.

Prepare your pizzas: cut off the crust (bone it) and then cut off the first layer of crust on the bottom (skin it).

What you need to make this thing:

cheese sauce

cheese sauce with orzo

pizzas, skinned and boned

pepperoni

Line your lasagna pan with kitchen parchment and put down a layer of orzo sauce.

 On top of the sauce, put a layer of regular pizza.

Top the pizza with more orzo sauce:

 and then add your white pizza.

 Top the white pizza layer with the last of the orzo sauce.

Add another layer of plain pizza and cover that with the reserved cheese sauce.

Add some decorative pepperonis.

Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for about an hour.

Notes: You may want to trim the crust a little deeper into the cheesy part of the pizza.  The thickest bits were hard to cut through.

Verdict: Even though this was the iffiest one yet, we all dug it.  A success!

[aether-earth-and-sun]

And we’re back with Chapter 7!

https://tapas.io/episode/1017865 http://aether.webcomic.ws/comics/555

[aether-earth-and-sun]

New page!  We have fun here.

https://tapas.io/episode/1094214 http://aether.webcomic.ws/comics/568