Assessment of the great lasagna experiment

The lasagna is decent. Better than store bought but there is one issue which evolved from a poor choice I made and had nothing to do with the added vegetables. The spaghetti sauce I used was old and it had that semi-acrid taste of something that's been overcooked. The meat is also rather sharp tasting. It's not spoiled but it's not at it's prime either. Fortunately, there was enough cheese to mostly cover that flavor. So it's edible and reasonably decent but not the spectacular success for which I was hoping. The puree was so interesting- it had the color and consistency of pesto before it was added to the sauce and I was afraid I was going to have a green lasagna but as it cooked it darkened and melded into the tomato sauce. The vegetables do not distract from the fact that it is lasagna, in fact they are barely noticeable, and I'm happy to be getting the extra veggies in my diet when I eat it. I'm not sure I got the balance of herbs quite right but I'm not sure how to correct it either. Maybe next time I'll add more basil. One recipe I had suggested mint, which sounds odd, but might be a good accent. I was afraid the lasagna would be too juicy because when I took it out of the oven it seemed to be swimming but after it set it was the perfect consistency.

I think next time I will not puree the mushrooms and maybe the zucchini. I think they would add a nice texture and more noticeable flavor that way. I will use a fresh(er) tomato sauce instead of the old spaghetti sauce. I will not add meat; it doesn't need it with all the cheese and I wouldn't miss it amongst the other flavors. I know that eggplant is good in lasagna but I have never been successful in cooking it in any way so, although it would be a nice thing to play with, I'm rather uncertain of successful results if I do.

So, all in all it was a successful experiment that will lead to better results in the future.

We've been making soap....

The Castile kind with lye and olive oil.

We had some successes and one spectacular failure that we believe was a result of human error.

( Lots of pictures under the cut )