It ain't heavy...it's just the pierogi lasagna.....

Lift with your legs, not with your back...okay hotpads in hand, open oven door, slide the oven rack out, remember lift with your legs and not your back.....okay got the casserole dish...lifting with legs-why is the dining room table soooooooo far away-okay she's down, whew! I think I heard the tabel groan abit when I set the dish down. Which dish you may ask... why the mighty pierogi lasagna. Don't get me wrong, it was really good, but quite filling and now no reps needed on the weight machine at the gym! My lunchbucket could have been used as a lethal weapon with just one small container of pierogi lasagna inside.

Moving on to Cookbook #113 "New York Cookbook", this is a great book. I've made several really good dishes from it, plus it has info on Culinary landmarks in NYC. So, I confidently picked the recipe for Pasta Fagioli. Now, in all fairness it did say that this particular recipe was more of an "old-world" version of the dish and not what we were used to today....that is an understatement. It turned out to be the color of grayish brown-not my favorite color combo(I don't think there's even a paint chip with a color like that on it). Don loved it, he said he just closed his eyes and it was fine..I couldn't do it and I made a REALLY big pot of it. Lesson learned here, don't make a REALLY big pot, dish, pan of anything unless you're SURE you can eat it.

Cookbook #112 is "Cover & Bake", it's from the editors of Cook's Illustrated. Don got this for me for Christmas about 2 years ago and it is a very cool book. It's all about casseroles and pot pies, true comfort foods! In the Cook's Illustrated tradition, it has chapters on all equipment needed to successfully make the dishes, even discussions on variations of ingredients. I made, as the photo below shows, the Creamy Chicken & Rice Casserole with peas, carrots, and cheddar. This I loved, and it wasn't a grayish-brown color. It looked much like a dish that you could find on the back of a Campbell's Creamy Chicken soup can, with a couple of really big differences. This dish has very little sodium (have you read the sodium content on the back of any soup can!!!!), and I used Smart Balance instead of butter-'cause I'm trying not to kill my husband or mother-in-law with this challenge! It was light and creamy and perfect for a winter's eve.  I will definitely be making this again. I am tempted to try another dish from this book, but I will move on!

So, it's on to book #111!!! I don't know which one that is yet, so I better get reading!