Cajun rice

This particular recipe is from August 29, 2005, but I make a variation on this at least once a week, seems like.  It's one of my "go-to" dishes.   Part of the beauty is that it's so adaptable.   I'll probably try and put together a base recipe once I get everything consolidated over here, and then go into variations, etc.
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1T olive oil
1T butter
1 med. onion
1 med. green pepper
2 stalks celery
1 large tomato
2 small jalepeno peppers
1 thai dragon pepper
1 clove garlic
1/2 lb. andouille sausage
1 cup dry brown rice
2 1/2 cups water
1T soy sauce
1T pepper sauce
1t paprika
1t chipotle powder
1/2t file powder
1T parsley
1T basil

diced the sausage and sauteed it in the butter and oil until it was starting to turn brown on the sides (i'm pretty sure that stuff is just "heat & eat"... at least what i got). added the chopped vegetables after about 3 minutes, i guess, and cooked them a little beyond the point where the the onions were translucent. i actually used a big handful of yellow, cherry-style tomatoes, but i think it was about the equivalent of a single medium-large tomato. once a bit of the water had cooked out of all that, i added the rice and stirred it around and once it started turning opaque, i added the water and the flavoring. brought it back to a boil and then turned it down to simmer for around an hour, i guess. the parsley and basil are approximate, as they were fresh, too.

Posole

This one is from April 22, 2005.    If you're a fan of southwestern food, you owe it to yourself to find some posole.  I found it most recently at Rancho Gordo (they also have some really tasty cinnamon sticks, mexican oregano, and chili powder).   It's basically corn treated with lye (think hominy), and it was served on special occasions (read more about it on the wikis).   You can pretty much treat it like the beans in a chilli and you'll achieve a good result, but it really needs to cook on the order of 2-3 hours to fully develop.   Essentially, the kernels "pop" in the pot, which gives them a very interesting texture, and the starch that comes out helps to thicken the stew.

One other interesting property to note...  I believe that the starch from the corn binds to capsaicin somehow, thus reducing the heat that you perceive from the peppers.   If you're looking for a painfully hot dish out of this, you'll have to increase the amount of hot pepper that you put into it more than you normally would.   This version is pretty spicy, but probably not "thai hot".
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3 cups dry posole (soaked overnight)
1/2 large bell pepper, diced (you could use a whole smaller one, but this is what i had)
2 poblano peppers, diced
3 anaheim peppers, diced
4 jalapeno peppers, diced
3 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 small onions, chopped (could do 2 medium or 1 really big one)
5 links hot italian sausage
1 - 7 oz can chipotles in adobo sauce
2 quarts of water
1-1/2 tsp thyme
1-1/2 tsp rosemary
1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1-1/2 tsp black pepper
1 small, dried thai pepper (cause that's all i had)
2 T olive oil

i cooked the sausage as whole links in the oil in the pot i intended to cook it all in, with a little bit of water, and the lid on, so it would steam and not burn and stick to the pan, etc. took it out, and put the veggies in the pot and let them saute/cook down while i cut the sausage into disks and then picked the chipotles out of the can and cut them up a little bit. once the veggies were fairly soft, i drained the posole and dumped it into the pot and mixed things up for a bit. then added the chipotles and sausage, and then the water. let that come to a boil and tasted it, then dumped all of those (dried) herbs and spices into the coffee grinder and ground them up to a pretty fine powder, and dumped them in. then i let it cook for 2 to 2-1/2 hours one night, and another hour the next. basically the posole had all popped open, and the peppers' flesh had seperated from their skin completely. served in a bowl with grated monterey jack cheese on top, and a tortilla to push against.

Meat Lasagna

 From January 31, 2004

This is from back when I still ate a good bit of meat.

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I think I started with the tomatoes...

1/2 cup dried tomatoes, 3/4 cup cabernet, & 1 teaspoon dry basil

I combined those in a small saucepan and let the wine cook down until it was thick, then let it cool while i was doing other things.

2 links of fresh hot italian sausage
1 small link of pepperoni

A piece of country ham that my parents brought me last weekend
1 Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

I cooked all of the meat (in total, right around 1/2 lb) over medium heat til it was brown, then added

1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced

I turned the heat up to medium high and sauteed all of that in with the meat. when the onions were translucent, i added

the tomato-wine mixture
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon marjoram (+ some fresh marjoram from my plant)
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon of crushed hot pepper
2 8oz cans of tomato sauce
~2 cups of water

I brought it all to a simmer and let it cook down for probably an hour and a half to two hours. I got lucky, and this wound up being almost exactly the amount of sauce I needed. I think it's gonna wind up being a little soupy, though.

meanwhile....

I mixed 1 egg into a 16 oz container of cottage cheese (ricotta also works well, but is a little drier)

I cooked 9 lasagna noodles, because I couldn't remember how much they expand. I probably could have used 6 quite effectively, but 8 would have been ideal.

I also had 2 8 oz bags of shredded mozerella and 1 5 oz bag of parmessean. This is the first time I've done this with shredded parm (I think).

Once the noodles have cooked for however long the directions say to cook them, drain them in a collander and then pour some cold water on them so you can handle them.

I put this all in a 9x15 or so casserole (i don't remember the exact dimesnsions... it's rectangular, not square)
I put a spoonful of sauce in the bottom, and spread it around, so the bottom noodles don't stick. then two super-layers of smaller layers of stuff in this order. try to spread it all evenly:

1/2 of the noodles
full bag of mozarella
1/2 container of cottage cheese
1/2 of the meat sauce
1/2 of the bag of parmessean.

On the top layer, i like to sprinkle some more italian seasoning on the top, just for fun or something.

Preheat oven to 350F. cover dish with foil. bake 20-30 minutes with the foil on, then another 20-30 minutes with the foil off. let it rest for 10 minutes or so (I like to heat up bread in that time). slice and eat.

Note: most of my measurements are underestimated, since I didn't actually measure anything but the things that come as an object (sausage links, egg...) and the wine.