Extreme Comfort Food

I live in Chicago and Fall is definitely here. The leaves are falling, there is a crisp, cool breeze in the air. While I don't like the season that comes after Autumn (icy, arctic winter) I LOVE Fall. I love bundling up in a sweater or light jacket and heading to the apple orchard or a biergarten, but most of all... I love the yummy hearty food that comes along with this lovely season.

For me, there is nothing more comforting than a steaming hot bowl of pasta or a huge helping of lasagna. Some people like fried chicken, or meatloaf, but for some reason, hearty Italian food feels like a warm blanket on a rainy day. To clarify, I am not Italian, but have adopted their food traditions, because when was the last time you happened upon a Dutch restaurant? Or heard someone say.... "ooooo, you know what I could go for today? Some Dutch food." I honestly couldn't tell you what the people of my "home country" eat... I'll look into that and get back to you.

Anyway, the other day, I felt the first chilly breeze of fall and was inspired to make lasagna. Normally I follow a recipe by my favorite chef: Giada DeLaurentiis, but I decided to branch out and try a new recipe. I found a great one by Ina Garten and while I changed the ingredients slightly, the results were amazing. The recipe I used was for Ina's Turkey Lasagna. I chose it because it called for some things that I hadn't used in making this dish before... like goat cheese. I LOVE goat cheese.
The most drastic thing that I changed in the recipe was that I used 1 lb of ground buffalo in addition to spicy turkey sausage. I had the buffalo and needed to use it.... honestly I think that it definitely added to the dish, it made it very meaty and the combination of flavors was really good! I know, the turkey & buffalo combo sounds weird, but for some reason, it worked!

I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and really loved it! The cheese mixture was so delicious! The goat cheese added a really great tangy component!! I will never make lasagna without goat cheese again, it was fantastic. It also freezes really well! I made a full recipe of lasagna and ended up freezing half of it. After defrosting and heating it up again, it tasted just as good!

Honestly, make this lasagna, curl up in a blanket with some wine (of course) and enjoy this wonderful season!