Since it was Mother's Day today, I offered to make dinner and do the dishes. Of course, I pretty much always make dinner and do the dishes, but anyway...

A few weeks ago, Rose mentioned wanting to try lasagna, so I decided to make that. (Actually, I was planning to get help from Rose, but she was too busy when the time actually came.) So I cooked a bunch of rice lasagna noodles, which were a real pain to work with: they stuck together, and even though I undercooked them, they fell apart pretty easily. So I made a 9"x9" lasagna instead of a larger one, because I estimated that that was the right size for the amount of viable noodles I had. Even though it looked small, it was still substantial, because the tradition in my family is to have lots of layers of noodles. I used some tomato sauce that I had made a few months earlier that we keep in the freezer for use on pizza. Even though I didn't expect Rose to actually eat this (see below), I made this quite plain: just noodles, tomato sauce, and cheese (ricotta, romano, and mozzarella). No meat, no mushrooms or other vegetables.

I did have some noodles left over, mostly bits and pieces. At some point, Rose had voiced some concerns about the presence of tomato sauce in the lasagna, so I made a second mini lasagna (in a loaf pan, and just a few layers), with ricotta, mozzarella, and romano cheese.

I put a bit of water in the smaller pan, hoping that the noodles (some of which were quite undercooked) would absorb some of it while in the oven. I hoped the tomato sauce would play a similar role in the other lasagna. To encourage this, I covered both pans with foil to trap the steam. After about half an hour, I uncovered the pans, then baked for another half an hour.

Meanwhile, I cooked some Italian (chicken) sausage on the stove top. I served a salad. I also tried making gluten-free rolls, using the French Bread and Pizza Crust mix from the Gluten Free Pantry. Miriam, Ariana, Julia, Dan, and Grandma Ruth came over for dinner. The rolls were sort of boring, but Julia hit on the idea of making a little sandwich with the sausage, and that was pretty tasty.

Oh, and while Rose did not even try the tomato sauce lasagna, she liked the all-cheese one. She also liked the rolls.