strawberries in paris

Lemon, Sausage, & Chard Lasgana for Friday’s with Friends

Ahh Friday’s with friends. Friday’s with Friends are the best!!!!! Last Friday I was with Bethany, Kelly, and Sister Laurita and we feasted on this dish and then went boogeying at Lith Hall. Tonight, this Purple Friday night, I will be with Gina in Chicago to celebrate her 30th birthday at Schwa. Next Friday night I will be with Jana and Howie in Long Island! Presumably the weekend after that I will be back with B, K and L. The Friday after that I will be in Pottstown, PA with Megan (and will have a visit to Steph and Rich)! And the weekend after that will be in Alexandria, VA with Erica to celebrate her 30th birthday!! SO MANY FRIDAYS WITH FRIENDS I COULD SQUEAL!!!  I was remarking today that the girlfriends in my life bring me so much joy it really is staggering. Thank you my girlfriends, you are the loves of my life.

And what other women are the lights of my life? Or at least the amusements of each day? Four bloggers, two of which I would have never have brought up on here, lest people think I was cray-cray. (You already know I am cray-cray and thats why you love me. ) Well since I know a wedding in my life is way far out, I don’t regret boasting my love for these blogs: A Practical Wedding, East Side Bride, YoungHouseLove, and A Cup of Jo.  APW has provided alot of advice for me and women I love, East Side Bride is hilarious and very informative for all womanly things (case in point: #boobsweek), YHL is a 50% woman team with Sherry who is very amusing to read and is a wonderwoman when it comes to DIY, and a Cup of Jo just has fun, funny and lovely things to read about. All of these women are witty, they are smart, they are beautiful people that I would love to have as friends. Lucky for me, all of my girlfriends are definitely all of those adjectives, but because most of my BFFs don’t write me daily amusements, I go to those four blogs, every day. Check them out if you are bored one day. So how does this tie into lasagna?? Well I was browsing the archives of A Cup of Jo and saw this recipe. I figured I could incorporate some Tofurky to make it vegetarian and that I could also prepare it before arriving to Bethany’s house so we could eat in 30 minutes or less! Go check it out!!!

Fancy Miss Martha Stewart crafted up this recipe. The recipe starts off with boiling lemons. Boiling lemons whatttttt?? Yes, I tried to use the mandoline to slice them very thin, but a sharp knife ended up working just fine.

Then I took the Tofurky Italian sausage and browned the heck out of it.

Then I ripped up lots of rinsed swiss chard. I got the red and green varieties.

Then I made a bechamel with milk, flour, butter, parmesan cheese and then the swiss chard. I think I let it thicken too long… I was worried it wasn’t going to thicken, but then the no boil pasta sheets didn’t cook as well as they should because of the lack of wetness in the sauce.

And here is the beaut straight out of the oven and from under the broiler. Is there anything more beautiful than boiling slightly crusty cheese?? I think not.

Bethany, the good follower of directions that she is, listened to my advice to make this awesome salad from Smitten Kitchen. And thanks to Laurita for doing lots of chopping prior to mine and Kelly’s arrival! It had fresh cauliflower, green olives, hard cooked egg, scallions, green peppers, capers, celery and parsley.

So much fiberous healthiness!!! I love fresh vegetables.

A lovely vinaigrette with miniature whisk. Oh many whisks of many sizes and how you delight me.

Here it is again. So yeah, we liked this dish alot. I could have probably undercooked the sausage a bit, and undercooked the sauce so it would have felt a little more lasagna-ey. But the Italian sausage flavor was great and I really couldn’t even tell that the swiss chard was there! The parmesan cheese gave it good balance and the lemon on top was an interesting addition to the mix… I ate mine, but the girls decided to not travel down that path. I’ll be making this again. How can you not love a dish that can sit for 8 hours in the fridge and then heat up to beautifulness?