Briar's Golden Vegetable Lasagne

Sounds yummy much? Well even though I invented it myself- I'm here to tell you it is really good : )

I thought I would just publish this and get it all out there since my son, who's a chef, is going to share it with his boss. For goodness sakes, credit where credit's due : )
It IS delicious, and I'll be eating it for a couple for days. Lucky me.

This dish has a lot of stages, and can take some time to prepare, especially if you have a normal small oven like mine- but I find if I am stuck at home I can cook this over the course of the day, and achieve many other things as well. At the end of the day is the reward of all the lovely smells in the house and the creamy golden lasagne. It is not a dish to be rushed, but if you have the vegetables and bechamel pre-prepared, it just takes a few minutes to assemble, then 30 mins baking.

Ingredients

Sweet potato, 1 large or 2 medium
2 medium eggplants
2 med red onions
3-4 large field mushrooms
4 -6 home-grown or vine tomatoes
2 small-med zucchini
Fresh thyme, a good bunch
3 lrge garlic cloves (if using small, cook less time in oven)
Olive oil
Macadamia oil (or other light oil)
balsamic vinegar
tomato paste
red wine
salt, pepper (Freshly cracked black, and white milled)
sugar
lasagne sheets- (I prefer fresh, only because you can use different shaped dishes then- but use dried if you want, only make sure your filling is quite moist.)
grated mozzarella
shaved parmesan
Bechamel sauce
milk (I use skim)
plain flour
butter (please use real butter!)
tasty cheese (I use a 25% less fat variety)
nutmeg
s & p

Method
Prepare vegetables- cut eggplant, sweet potato in rounds of approx 1 cm thickness. Brush the light oil on the sweet potato and the olive oil on the eggplant, place on trays lined with baking paper.
Bake in a moderate oven for about 15 mins. Test with a skewer, it needs to be tender, but not overcooked.
Slice red onions into rounds and sauté in olive oil, adding a good splash of balsamic and sprinkle of salt once they have begun to soften. Continue to cook slowly, for up to 20 mins, to caramelise.
Slice zucchini, (1 cm thick), peel mushrooms and cut into roughly 2 cm by cm chunks, oil and bake on baking trays in a slower oven for about 30 mins. Use a skewer to test for doneness, don't allow to become brown or tough.
Slice each tomato into 3-4 rounds, depending on size, de-core, place on trays and sprinkle with a good amount of the stripped thyme. Splash a little balsamic over, and salt. Place slit garlic cloves around the tomato pieces. Bake in a slow oven for a good 45 mins.
As the vegetables come out of the oven, keep the sweet potato and eggplant separate. Put the other vegetables in a bowl, cutting the tomatoes up smaller, peeling and chopping finely the garlic, add the onions, cut zucchini smaller if you need to. You want 1 cm sized chunks, with the exception of the slightly larger mushroom pieces.
Whilst the vegetables are cooking, you can make your bechamel, if you haven't made this before there are easy recipes everywhere. Make at least 3 cups worth.
Grate or add ¼ tspn nutmeg (don't go overboard on this!)
season well with salt and white pepper
add 1 cup of grated tasty cheese. It must taste cheesy.
In a small bowl, place a good tablespoon or two of tomato paste, a slurp of red wine, and some (a 1/2tsp at a time) sugar and salt to taste. Mix to dissolve sugar, and taste this mixture. It must be sweet enough to complement the other ingredients. As Nigella says, “trust your tastebuds!”! You need this mixture to moisten the vegetables as you assemble.
Now begin layering, firstly with a little of the mushroom /tomato mixture, 2-3 tablespoons of wine mixture then lay the pasta.
Now place the sweet potato rounds neatly over the pasta and cover with the eggplant rounds. Sprinkle mozzarella around, filling gaps and a thin covering on top. Now another layer of pasta.
Next add the remainder of the mixed vegetables, sprinkling some of the red wine mixture, and plenty of cracked black pepper. Distribute the vegetables out evenly making sure that there are chunks of mushroom, onion, tomato, zucchini in all quadrants, and plenty of moisture- try to fill gaps. Sprinkle more fresh thyme. Add a layer of pasta.
Now the topping, which is a good covering of about 2 cms of the Bechamel sauce. Finish with a good handful of mozzarella and parmesan, spread evenly across to the edges.
Bake for 30 mins in a low-moderate oven, till bubbling and light brown about the edges and golden on top.
Let sit for 20 mins at least before serving.
Serve with a green salad

I am a Pear therefore I am a Woman who can't wear certain things?

Ben Pobjie's Wonderful World Of Objects: One for the Ladies



I hope the author of this doesn't mind- but I had to share- it got me laughing so hard.
And do we do this name calling to men I wonder?
I know my mother (God Bless her), being from different generation, also living in an environment where bodies are SO very very important, as they are on show always, (ie the Gold Coast) is always going on about her son's and grandson's physiques- their broad shoulders, narrow hips etc. No-one gets to own their own body out in the public eye it would seem.
I like to call some men "pregnant" because of their beer bellies, and am impressed by an athlete's firm muscles etc, as I am confused and repelled by the over -done body-builder's. Some guys are built like a brick dunny, others are weeds.
I am immensely attracted to a man with a flat stomach, nicely developed arms and legs and body hair in certain places. And I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Can I call him a Michaelangelo? Why not?
I honestly still do believe that it is mostly women who want to perpetuate the names of body shapes, and that this links in with many different attitudes and ideas- some due to the Dr Cabot diets for different body shapes and hormonal conditions, some of it because of terrible fashionista reality TV shows and magazines and some of it because women want to be able to identify with someone or thing, to help them love their own particular shape more.
How do I KNOW this? because I am a Pear, and Pears need reassurance. A big botty is a lovely one, Mum always told me, and I do believe it now.
But I didn't when I was young, and they only made Levi's jeans for girls with no hips. Now they make them for Pears, and I'm so glad.
Ok Ok, OK,
I hear that I am again demonstrating behaviour that the feminists chant: that I have been socialised by male stereotyping, male desires for females to 'be' something, female desires to conform to these desires etc etc.
Then show me how, make me and let me be a woman in a vacuum, who doesn't need to see and like what she sees in the mirror and feels good in her own bones.
Meanwhile call me anything you want, or call me nothing at all, but I know who/what I am and ultimately, that is a "woman".