Recipe Edition: Grandma's Classic Lasagna

Hey guys! I'm baaack!

It's Sunday and today is the perfect day for some fresh lasagna! 
Story time: today is my dog's (Lester) birthday!!  He's 3ish, and I say ish because I rescued him so I don't know his reeeal birthday. Technically today is the day his last owners surrendered him, awww :'( So my mom and I made sure he had the best day ever! We added tasty wet dog food to his everyday food to make it a little more special, got him a new toy, and I even made him a birthday cookie in the shape of a bone! He was so excited he couldn't wait for us to put it on the ground that he jumped and the food flew everywhere! He ate everything off the floor of course LOL 

He was trying so hard to wait...

Food everywhere!

His funny smile when I gave him more food!

ANYWAYS back to food! On todays recipe edition blog post, I'm going to walk you through what you need and how to do every little step.

I made this recently for my boyfriend's birthday because it's his favorite! I originally got this recipe from my mom who got it from my grandma when my mom claimed (and proved!) that she makes the BEST lasagna from scratch! I had been bugging her for it because the only lasagna I've ever had was the microwave Stoffers and Buca de Beppo's (which is pretty good, actually). I've always wondered how everyones mom and grandma got these amazing unique recipes that they pass down generations. So I asked my grandma how did she come up with this lasagna recipe. Her answer? "Oh I got from this Italian lady at church." ... LOL I guess recipes are just something that get passed around among everyone where they can eventually become delicacy dishes at put into the family vault. 

Well today I will open that vault to share with you! WARNING: This will be the best lasagna you've ever tasted and you'll get requests to make it again, so BE PREPARED. Let's get started!

First, you probably need to go to the grocery store and look for these items if you don't already have them:

Ingredients:

• 1 box of lasagna noodles - about 16 noodles in a box
• 1 lb of Italian sausage - I pick the mild spicy, but choose to your liking
• 1/2 tsp garlic
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1- 12 oz can of tomato paste
• 1- 12 oz can of tomato pureé
• 1- 28 oz can of stewed tomatoes - you'll later need to pureé them
• salt
• pepper
• 24 oz ricotta cheese
• 1 cup fresh parmesan cheese, shredded
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1/3 cup spinach, finely chopped - I use a machine chopper
• 32 oz mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Cooking Tools and Supplies you may want to use:

• 9x12 inch pan
• foil - to line pan if you don't like doing the dishes (like me)
• Immersion blender
• tongs - to pick up noodles
• other basic cooking utensils 

Okay, now that you have all these items let's start putting things together! We're going to make this in different parts. But first, I suggest putting a pot of water on back burner of your stovetop for the noodles while you prepare everything else. Don't cook them completely, leaving them al dente, since they'll have time to cook some more in the oven. Oh yeah, and don't forget to preheat the oven at 375!

Part One: The Meat Sauce

1. In a frying pan over medium heat, squeeze the meat out of the sausage lining into the pan. I know it's kinda icky, but trust me, it'll be worth it. 
2. With a wooden spoon, or a fancy meat separator, break up the meat as much as you can. Add in the garlic and basil. Continuously move the meat around until all is cooked, then turn off the heat.
3. In a medium sized bowl, combine the stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, and tomato pureé. Take a little taste and decide if you need some salt and pepper. It's your dish after all! Also fill up the tomato paste can ( so 12oz), and add that in too to make it a little more saucy. Using a hand blender, or immersion blender, pulse throughout the combination to breakup the big tomatoes. Then mix to combine everything evenly. 
4. Lastly for part one, add the cooked meat into the sauce and mix. Sauce - DONE!

Part Two: Ricotta Cheese Layer

1. In a new medium sized bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, eggs, spinach, parsley, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. 
2. This step is pretty simple, just mix everything together! Ricotta - DONE!

Hopefully by this time, your noodle have been cooked. Gently and carefully, take then out of the hot water and lay them somewhere where they could be mostly flat. I usually use a very wide bowl. Noodles - DONE!

Now prepare your pan. You can either line it with foil to make cleaning easier, or coat with olive oil. I always use foil because who wants to scrub a pan later? Not me!

With all your parts around you, sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, and noodles, now we can build up the layers!

Start with a layer of the sauce on the bottom so the noodle doesn't burn and stick. Also, try to avoid including any meat chunks in this layer. Now lay a layer of noodles overlapping about half an inch. This is the first real layer. 

Next layer sauce, then layer ricotta, then layer mozzarella. I was able to do one more noodle, sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella. For the last top part, add a layer of noodles, the rest of the sauce, and the top layer of mozzarella cheese. Lastly, sprinkle some grated cheese on top. 

Bake, foil covered, for 40 minutes, then another 15 minutes uncovered. 

VOILA! You've got yourself a homemade lasagna! Yummaaay! Enjoy!

--Victoria

Blog 11- The Last Blog

Aw, the last blog. Wow that means the semester is almost over!! I feel like we just started…

Well throughout this course, we learned about and wrote in different genres that, at least for me, I don't think we would ever have written in otherwise. For example, I would probably have never written in a blog, or op-ed, or ethnography genre. The only genres I would probably ever write in are programming languages, emails and text messages.

My favorite genre would probably be the blogs because I was able to be as casual as I wanted and not think about how correct I am. I was able to just let the thoughts flow out of my head as they came. I guess it was sort of a diary/ journal, but with a topic to follow (or not if we didn’t feel like it).

My least favorite genre… hmm… well even though I haven’t even written it yet would probably be the ethnography. But only because it’s basically like a typical college research paper that has formalities we need to follow, and it has to be long and yeah I don’t know I just don't like formal writing…

I am glad that we’re going to do a resume genre though because that is definitely something that can be useful to everyone in the future.

I honestly don’t remember what I was apply for when I wrote my first resume… But I remember the hardest thing was making it look somewhat full when you don't have much experience because you’re trying to get a job to gain experience!! I’m sure everyone has had this annoying problem… But the things I was able to put were the volunteer experiences I had such as being a camp counselor, assistant dance teacher and youth group leader for my church to show some leadership skills. Since this was some time in high school, I also put the different classes I had taken, since they were all the advanced courses, to try to show my somewhat higher-level knowledge.

I don't remember the first time I had to use a resume and if I got the job or not, but recently I have gotten jobs with my current resume, but sadly wasn’t always able to accept all of them because of time conflicts and other commitments :(

Well I guess I’m done here! I wish all written assignments could be in blog form! Haha.

--Victoria

What Should I Do?!?!?

Picking a topic for this research project has been really difficult for me. I’m trying to think of a discourse community or a community of practice that I actually care about or am interested in knowing more about, but that’s pretty hard in that I just have no interest in the observation of people and more interest in coding languages. I’m just going to type out all my thoughts as they come and they may or may not make sense to everyone else but they will to me.

Brainstorming barf:

I have been thinking about this and I have a few ideas but I’m still not sure. I was thinking that a Girl Scout troop is a discourse community, and I used to be in one. Since I’m not a part of a troop anymore, I was thinking I could observe and interview my cousins troop. Two of my younger cousins are members, but at different levels, AND their mother, my aunt and godmother, is the den mother/ leader of their whole troop. I think this might be a good prospect in that I can get essentially three different perspectives: the one in charge, one of the older members, and a younger member.

I just read in the blog prompt that this is about their communicative practices… so now I’m not so sure… I mean they obviously have means of communication such as weekly meetings, probably an email list. And they also have ways to communicate with the public, like when in the situation of selling cookies or nuts and volunteering.

Values that are reinforced by this community? Helping others, giving back by earning certain patches that say you accomplished a specific goal for the benefit of others??

What literacies do the members need to acquire? Not many since a girl can join at the age of 5. She basically just needs to know how to listen and participate, much learned and done in school.

What does it take for a member to enculture themselves? Showing up to the meetings, participating in the activities, not being scared to meet new people and make new friends, something that can be hard for a kid or very easy.

The cost to take on this community? It is a time commitment to make sure to attend the meetings and the schedules activities that may be on the weekends or after school. Also a cost commitment for the parents.

Well another idea I had was PECG, or Professional Engineers of the California Government, a union that my dad is apart of since he’s an engineer. I know they have these intense meeting every once in awhile because I used to go to them as a kid, however I have no idea what they talk about. People I can interview are my dad and his friends that I’ve basically known since I was born that are also members. I’m honestly not sure what the objectives of the union are, but I’m sure they are posted somewhere on a website. I think they work towards getting the engineers benefits for doing what they do, or something like that.

How are communicative practices acquired? I would think you just do it. You need to go to the meetings, give opinions, etc

How does a member enculture themselves? By participating…?

****okay now that I’m trying to answer these questions about PECG, I’m realizing I have no idea what they do. I need to ask my dad all these questions to get a better understand of this community. However, I do think they are a good discourse community idea. ****

I would say I could observe one of their meetings, but I know they just had one because I went to it and I’m not sure they’re going to have another one soon. But I shall find out! These bigger meetings usually take place at a restaurant for dinner and then the meeting. The members are encouraged to bring their families to eat and enjoy before the serious stuff starts, which is the time I usually leave haha. I’m sure they have many genres since they are engineers and talk about different things in different ways, such as bridge plans, the safety approvals, and blah blah blah.

These are basically my top two ideas because my others were even worse than this.. Hopefully I figure this out soon with some help from the teacher to tell me if my ideas suck or not! Trust me, this is what I’ve been thinking about lately because it’s starting to stress me out and we haven’t even started it yet….

--Victoria

Blog 8: Are Some Jobs "Mindless"?

I feel like I haven’t written a blog in foreverrrrr. But let’s talk about service jobs and if they’re “mindless” work or legitimate work.

I understand how some people can think that being a server or some other type of job that requires serving others could be mindless work or something you don't need to be smart to do. Although these jobs may not require the same brain power as a surgeon, I still think they’re pretty difficult jobs 1) because they require a lot of memorization (something some people may not be good at), 2) they’re mostly physically demanding (with constantly standing, walking and lifting), and most importantly (well to me) 3) is that they require SO much PATIENCE!

I say the third point is important because I am someone who suffers from the lack of patience. I really try, and maybe I succeed in keeping my mouth shut most of the time and not rolling my eyes or laughing out loud at someone who is being ridiculous, but man is it hard!!

I’ve never had a service type job such as a server or retail employee, but I have had a few jobs where I’ve worked with kids, which everybody knows requires much patience. Actually I’m not really sure if that counts as a service jobs or not… but the way I’m thinking about a service job is an occupation where one has to somewhat cater to what other people want and need, and mainly adults too.

Anyway! For a couple summers I was a camp counselor and was in the group of 6 and 7 year olds, and another summer I was a teacher assistant at a summer school and was with a class of 5 and 6 year olds. All youngins I know. I really had to work on my patience during both jobs because kids at the age looove to test their limits and be annoying. One little girl kept asking me if I had a boyfriend and was super nosy in my life. Another little girl cried every morning at drop off and her mom would tell me to hold on to her daughter while she screamed her head off because she was going to make a run for it.

Although this was difficult, I think patience for kids is different than patience for adults. Maintaining patience for adults seems waaaay harder because you know their brains are more mature than a 5 year olds so you could assume they won’t act like a 5 year old. Well I’m sure this isn’t always the case. Plus adults can cop an attitude and an employee shouldn’t give into it, whereas if kids give attitude, you can kind of give them that I’m-taller-than-you-plus-evil-eye look and they’ll get the message that they need to start behaving. For the most part. You can’t really do that to another adult..

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Okay, I had a brain fart and can't think of anything else to say. Yesterday, Saturday, was pretty boring for me. I feel like I really had nothing to do, even though I could’ve done homework, but I mean I wasn’t thaaaaat bored, you know what I mean? I watched the Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix and it was pretty interesting and a little creepy. If you know anything about the story, I can say that I don’t think Amanda and her boyfriend killed the girl so it’s good they got exonerated. But what’s weird is that this other guy, who had admitted to being at the apartment when the murder happened but says he didn’t do it, had been charged with her murder and got 30 years in prison but was then reduced to 16 years because of appeals saying he didn’t kill the girl. He basically just took the sentencing and is doing his time. Well now he only has 5 years left, and he still maintains his innocence… So if he didn't do it, then who did? That’s kind of creepy, what if the kill is still roaming the streets somewhere…

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This makes me think of prison jobs and the topic of mindless work. Like the guards and stuff, I mean I guess they don’t really need a degree in what they’re doing or problem solve much, but their jobs seem HARD. And scary. But they are occupations that are someone needs to do, just like any other job really. I don’t think it’s fair to judge a position of work based on how difficult it is relative to your profession. Of course you're going to think serving is a piece of cake compared to statistical analysis for example. However, if people switched jobs for a week with others, I bet they would find there is difficultly in even the slightest task because we all have unique strengths and weaknesses.

Hopefully this all made sense!

--Victoria

Blog 6: Discourse Community Immersion

My immersion into a college academic discourse community might be similar to some peoples. Since I’m from San Diego, a lot of people from my high school, ones I actually knew and ones I just knew their face, also attended San Diego State. I remember the first couple days of freshmen year was just saying hi to every familiar face I saw. At one point there were a couple of us talking and someone joked, “What is this a Mira Mesa High School reunion?!”

I knew this was an academic discourse community I had no choice but to join because of the way I was raised. My dad was born into a low class family in Mexico and came to the United States at the age of five knowing no English. He knew in high school that he haaad to go to college so he wouldn't end up like the people he grew up around, either in prison, dead, or working hard labor for the rest of his life like his father had to. 

My dad was the first in his family to graduate from college, from SDSU of course, with a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering. Knowing what a struggle life could be from an early age, my parents engrained, and I mean engraaaaained in me that college wasn’t an option, it was MANDATORY.

When I was younger, I guess I never questioned it, like yeah yeah I’ll go to college. It seemed like the most logical thing to do. I remember when it was time to fill out applications junior year of high school and I thought, “what if I don't even want to go?” YEAH RIGHT, I could never say that out loud, especially in front of my dad unless I wanted a lecture on how important a college education was and the “what are you going to do with your life then” talk. I had already had enough of those through the process of the engraining I mentioned to where I would just sit there and zone out, so I didn't need anymore.

I just did what I was told as far as making the decision to go to college. Even picking a major, I had no idea what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Some of my friends loved reading and writing so they knew they wanted to do journalism. One is an artist, so she picked graphic design. Me, I don't knowwwww. I hate English and like Math, so nothing with a lot of words, preferably more numbers. My dad, again, would always mention computer science was the next up and coming major. Something you’ll never have a hard time finding a job with! Okay sure, I mean I’m pretty good with computers and technology, I have a technical thinking mind, why not.

Thank god I actually ended up like computer science because if I didn't I don't know what I would be studying! An added bonus is that my boyfriend is also a computer science major. (It’s so embarrassing when people learn that and they’re like AW THAT’S SO CUTE! Lol awk.)

I definitely set my priorities when it comes to school. I’m somewhat of an overachiever, like I have this thing where I just can’t half-ass things. It makes me so uneasy knowing I didn't fully complete or finish something. Although I procrastinate like it's nobody’s business! I actually think I’m getting better because I learned my lesson quite a few times freshmen year. I’m sure you all know what I mean…

Now a story on how I had to balance school and family:

I remember this past Mother’s Day. It was the week of finals and I had my computer science final the next day on Monday. Every year, we go to LA and have brunch with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, everyone. Well I could not just not study for my huge final the next day!!! So I studied on the 2-hour drive up of course. My brother didn't even come with us because he too had tests that week. I would feel bad for both of us not to be with our mom on Mother’s Day so I made sure I made an effort to go. When we got to the restaurant everyone was late despite that they all LIVE in LA and we drove from San Diego! -_-  All I could think was I could be studying right now…… I awkwardly ended up eating before everyone else and then sat in the car for the rest of time to study. Of course I would have loved to sit with my family and just talk and relax, but I just couldn't because of the demand of what it means to be in college and get good grades. My parents didn’t even mind that I was absent the whole day because they get that’s just what needs to be done.

I ended up getting an A in that class plus an internship opportunity with my professor so it was all worth it in the end!

Okay I think I’ll be done now,

--Victoria