Lasagne

Christmas Eve is Chinese food.

Mom started that tradition with her friends by going to a restaurant in Ames called The Mandarin.  There's an empty lot there now.

I carried the tradition to Florida with me.

Christmas dinner is lasagna.  Rather, it's lasagne.  Grampa always spelled it with an 'e', so it's a tradition!

I think I started this one because my mom wasn't a big turkey eater and once a year at Thanksgiving sated her for a year.

She didn't like shopping for, or cooking, a ham when there were so few mouths for dinner and leftovers.

So I suggested we just make a lasagne on year and it stuck.

My friends came out of the wood-work for that where they kinda avoided turkey or ham...

So I keep up the tradition because Harvey is not a big turkey eater and we JUST had ham for Thanksgiving...

Things to bear in mind...

Lasagna does not have egg in it.  I blame the Irish of New York for this abomination.  I don't care if they're actually guilty.  (wink)

We use cottage cheese instead of manicotti.  Great grandma was never satisfied with the manicotti she could get in Iowa and was happy with cottage cheese.  So we just kept using it in our own recipes.

I don't make my own noodles, great grandma did.  I don't make my own sausage, great grandma did.  I don't make my own sauce, great grandma did...

Mom and grandma taught me to make all of those and showed me that store-bought was the same if you picked the right brands.  Barilla, Winn-Dixie house brand hot, Hunt's garlic and herb.

The way I've remembered making it comes out VERY wet if you eat it right out of the oven.

The next day in the microwave it's awesome.

Last year I discovered that if I cooked it on Christmas Eve, put it in the fridge and then cooked it again on Christmas Day...  PERFECT!  350° until the cheese is all melty on day one.  375° until the cheese is browned on day two.  Everything else is already cooked before assembly so it really only needs to get melted and hot.