Burn, baby, burn

Over the weekend we had some friends over to celebrate a birthday. My husband requested that I make his family's lasagna, which I have done before and it is quite tasty. I decided to get creative, though, and make a recipe I've seen floating around on Pinterest for "Olive Garden Breadsticks".

Just look at that picture! How could I NOT attempt to make them?

..."attempt" being the operative word. They burned. Blacker than hockey pucks on the bottom. I THINK the problem was partly because (silly me) I followed the instructions and sprayed the baking sheets--if I try these again I think I will try cooking them on parchment paper instead. Also, one of my baking sheets was too long to share a rack with the other sheet, so I had to put one on the bottom oven rack--that's the one that burned worst. They were smoking before the oven even got up to the 400 degrees you're supposed to cook the breadsticks at for 12 minutes, so something seriously went awry.

Fortunately, my husband apparently has no faith in my bread making skills suggested that we get a "backup" loaf of garlic bread from the grocery store, "just in case." So--lasagna with garlic bread!

The lasagna was a big hit--the 5 of us ate an entire 9x13" pan (approx. 3 pieces each.)

No photos, but here's the recipe.

Steven's Family Lasagna
Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger
2 cans (6 oz.) tomato paste
4 cans (6 oz.) water
1 package spaghetti sauce mix (the recipe says American Beauty brand, but our store doesn't have that brand--I get the "thick and zesty" sauce mix instead of the "italian style" mix which looks too runny.)
Lasagna noodles (1 box, plus a few extra noodles to be safe)
24 oz. container small curd cottage cheese
1 lb grated mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 Tbsp chopped parsley (I never remember to add this)
and we always need:
1 jar spaghetti sauce (Prego prego prego prego prego is the best!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brown hamburger meat in a large skillet; drain. Return to pan and mix in tomato paste, water, and sauce mix. Cover and simmer on med-low heat for 15 minutes.
2. Boil lasagna noodles 12-15 minutes. (If you add a little vegetable oil to the water it's supposed to help the noodles not stick together as bad.)
3. Drain cottage cheese (if there's liquid TO drain--mine never seems to need it). Mix in mozzarella cheese, egg, and parsley. 
5. Lightly grease a large (9 x 13") baking dish.
6. Layer ingredients in pan in this order: Meat, noodles, cheese, meat, noodles, cheese, ending with meat. Except we always run out of the meat sauce before the last layer of noodles/cheese, so instead of putting meat sauce on top we put the jarred spaghetti sauce on top. Make sure all the noodles are fully covered (or you'll have tough noodles!)
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
 8. While it's baking, munch on any leftover lasagna noodles. Mmm, noodles! (Ok, this isn't really a step. But we always do it!)

Pretty easy, as far as lasagna goes, and obviously tasty enough that our friends devoured it! I'm pretty sure I'll be making this for my husband's birthday every single year for at least several years to come.