16FEB26 – What Started It All – Lasagna

Lasagna. The gooey, meaty, tart sauce, cheese ladened squares of heaven. This is what turned me in to a above average home cook. I grew up with a single Dad that made my sister and I a soup or a stew on Sunday and that would last us all week. I had to learn how to cook if I wanted to eat anything different. I learned how to make rice many ways and I still land on white rice with loads of butter and tons of pepper. But that didn’t get me hooked. We would eat at my Grandmother’s on special occasions and she loved to make this Lasagna. I loved it. I looked forward to it. I liked it warm, I liked it cold, I like it so much that I would down a pan of it. Then I cooked it. She shared the recipe when I was around 10. I feel she thought it was cute that I wanted the recipe, like I was really gonna go make it. Well I did. I made it and I served it to me Dad and my Sister and their response to how it tasted got me hooked on the feeling of food making people happy. There is a Shaolin Monk practice called Mudita. It’s the act of getting joy from seeing others feelin joy. That was me. I loved the food, but I loved making other people love it to. I then got the chance to make it for my Grandmother. I could see her pride in my product and she proclaimed “Jake, you know if you make this for any woman then you will have a wife that first bite”. I was just a kid and laughed off the comment. However, you can ask all my exes, the only thing they may agree that they liked about me is my Lasagna. Stay cooked! #ChefCasa #HomeCooked PS: The secret is in the cream cheese 🙂