Tribute to Our Mamas!

In honor of Mother's Day this week (reminder – it’s Sunday!!), Kate and I are going to post a couple of our favorite recipes that our moms make. We got our love for food from them, after all, so we thought we should pay tribute.

My mom is a great cook, so there were a lot of options for recipes to write about. I ultimately decided on her butternut squash lasagna, which is one of my absolute favorites. For years, my mom has been experimenting with and combining different butternut squash lasagna recipes she has found online.  

When I asked my mom to send me her recipe, I knew this was not going to be an easy task for her. She cooks with “a pinch of this” and “a little of that” and the ingredients in many of her recipes vary depending on what she has on hand. I’m sure many of you can relate to this, but it sure does make it difficult to recreate any of her dishes! It was a little like pulling teeth to get this recipe out of her, but here it is!! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

¼ c. butter

¼ c. flour

1 ½ c. butternut squash, cubed and cooked until fork tender (boiled or steamed)

3 amaretti cookies crumbled (these can be tricky to find, but I usually get them at TJ Maxx)

3 c. milk

¼ c. fresh sage, minced

1 - 8 oz. container mascarpone cheese

Pinch of nutmeg

½ c. chopped walnuts

Salt and pepper

12 no boil lasagna noodles

8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ c. grated parmesan 

In a skillet, melt the butter then add flour and stir to make a roux. Next add milk and stir until it’s slightly thickened. Add all the ingredients (except last 3 on the list - lasagna noodles, mozzarella and parmesan cheese) along with flour mixture into blender or food processer. Blend until thick and smooth. 

Spray a 13x9 pan and preheat oven to 375. Spread ¼ of the mixture on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Place 4 lasagna noodles on top of the mixture. Repeat – layering 3 times. Top with mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes covered, then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Feel free to play around with this recipe a little - I know my mom does all the time! One thing I’ve seen her try (and I really like) is frying the sage in butter before adding it to the blender.  You can crumble some of the fried sage on top of the lasagna before you bake it as well. It adds a great texture to the dish! I also wanted to point out that you can find cubed butternut squash at Trader Joe's. This is great because it takes a lot of work out of preparing the butternut squash. I'm all about simplifying!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!

Review: Gabby's Cafe

I recently read a review in Metromix about Gabby's Cafe in Wyoming.  I have only been to Wyoming once or twice before, and it’s really pretty close (10 minutes or so) to where I live, so I thought it sounded like a good place to check out on a Saturday night.  Gabby’s is located on Wyoming Avenue in the little business district of Wyoming, which was a really cute area. 

We walked in to Gabby’s and put our name in at the hostess stand. It looked busy, but she said it wouldn’t be a long wait.  The waiting area was kind of tight, but we only had to wait about five minutes.  The hostess led us to the back of the restaurant toward the bar area which had a live band playing.  They were pretty good! They played some classic rock favorites and weren’t too loud to which you couldn’t hear people talking at your table.  Gabby’s clientele had a variety of older couples, families, teens, and twenty-somethings, so very welcoming.

We went hungry, so as we sat down, my husband immediately noticed the Saratoga chips as an appetizer and decided to order those with our beers.  The Saratoga chips were pretty average.  Nothing that special.  We all thought the barbecue sauce was a little sweet.  As we looked over the menu, we noticed that Gabby’s has a majority of Italian menu items, along with some bar & grill classics, like burgers, sandwiches and salads.  They have a pretty wide selection of beers and cocktails to choose from as well. 

It took us awhile to decide.  We were really enjoying our drinks and listening to the music!  There were a lot of items to choose from.  There are lots of original pizzas you can try that sounded interesting, classic Italian dishes, and their meatloaf sounded really good too.  I typically ask the server what their favorites are, and ours said the lasagna, pizza, and burgers are all good…..didn’t really narrow my choices down!  After long consideration, I decided to go with the lasagna and a side salad.  My friend ordered the spaghetti and meatballs and my husband went with a bacon and cheese burger. 

The salad came out first with Italian dressing. It was a nice fresh salad and good-sized for a side. 

When the dishes came out, my first reaction to the lasagna was, “oh my gosh, that is huge!”  It was a pretty big portion of pasta and was served with garlic bread.  I thought the lasagna was really good!  The noodles weren’t overcooked, there was just the right amount of cheeses and meat, and the sauce was great as well! 

My friend who ordered the spaghetti and meatballs loved hers as well.  She really liked the meatballs and couldn’t put her fork down.

My husband liked his burger too.  He said the more he ate it, the more he liked it.  He wasn’t a big fan of the fries, but I tried the fries and liked them a lot.  They weren’t too greasy and had just enough crunch to them. 

We stayed for another round of drinks because a new singer slash guitar player came on who we thought was great! 

We all really enjoyed Gabby’s.  We thought the environment, service, and menu was great.  The items are reasonably priced $8-$16.  It’s a nice place to check out, especially on a Saturday when they have live music.  They also have Barbeque & Blues on Tuesday and Italian Night on Monday. I know we will visit again to check out some of the items we didn’t get to taste!

~Katy