Last night was fairly uneventful, but I did do something productive (other than watching four episodes of Mad Men).  I planted my first tomato plant ever and put together a lasagna for my friends Rachel and Richie that just had a precious baby boy!

First the tomato plant...  I've never had much success growing anything other than poison ivy and milkweeds (thanks to my neighbor, who lets them grow all over his yard and spread into mine).  This endeavor into vegetable gardening should be interesting.  I stink at watering plants and weeding, so my yard has been a mess since I moved in almost four years ago.  A few months ago my mom and aunt came down and put a nice bed in the front of my house, so at least I'm not that horrible neighbor bringing down property values anymore.  I need to weed it, and then maybe I'll put up some pictures to show off their hard work!  But I digress....  So when I got to work yesterday morning, an employee had brought in his extra tomato seedlings for anyone to take home.  Since I had a new set of cute gardening tools (a free gift for spending entirely too much money at the Lilly Pullitzer store) and an empty pot sitting on my back deck, I decided why not!

I might have only succeeded in making a mess on my back deck, but hopefully I'll see some tomatoes sometime soon!

After my attempting at gardening, I set out to make one of my favorite dishes, a five cheese vegetarian lasagna. It's super easy, just a little time consuming.

Five Cheese Lasagna Recipe:

16 oz. shredded Mozzarella
8 oz. Fontina cheese, grated
12 slices Provolone cheese
20 oz. Ricotta cheese
Parmesan cheese
1 egg
12 Lasagna noodles
2 jars store bought pasta sauce (don't judge me, I've never mastered a homemade spaghetti sauce.  I like Barilla's Tomato Basil Sauce.)

To make the cheese filling, combine  8 oz. of the the Mozzarella, all of the Fontina and Ricotta, about a handful of Parmesan and egg.  Mix together well.  Boil noodles till al dente in a large pot with salt and olive oil added to the water.   Th olive oil helps keep the noodles from sticking together.  Once finished cooking, let cool before layering lasagna.  I start with a layer of sauce, then four noodles (side by side, obviously), followed by the cheese mixture and then six slices of Provolone and finally sprinkled with Parmesan.

I do two layers like this followed by one more layer of noodles and sauce only.  To top it off, sprinkle the other 8 oz. of Mozzarella and as much as Parmesan as desired.  Bake at 375 degrees until bubbly and browned around the edges, usually 45-60 minutes.  Remove from oven and let rest for at least ten minutes before cutting and serving.

Hopefully this will fill the bellies of two new and, most likely, sleep deprived parents for a few days!  I can't wait to see that sweet baby again, too!

That was pretty much the end of me doing anything useful for the rest of evening.  On that note, I leave you with a picture of my baby excitedly cleaning the floor of fallen cheese.  Have a great Tuesday!