Lasagna at Home

For dinner, I had vegetarian lasagna with fire-roasted veggies.

I'm only now starting to get over my childhood-induced fear of frozen foods. I've always been ok with frozen pizza, and I rediscovered frozen fruits and veggies a year or two ago. But meals? Even with the best of intentions, they're never very good. Tonight was no exception.

I happened across Safeway's O organics line in the freezer section of the grocery store, and promptly stocked up on their delicious frozen pizzas. Their lasagna sounded intriguing, and I was completely sick of meat (and calories) after a week of dinners out with the in-laws. I briefly thought of eating whole-wheat couscous and veggies for dinner instead (such is the horror of frozen entrees), but I wanted something a little more substantial and caved.

It wasn't awful, but it had that weird frozen taste all frozen meals seem to have- sort of a dried-out cardboard flavor underpinning everything. The lasagna noodles were not overcooked, and the zucchini chunks were nice. But there were also undercooked (ie, not cooked) chunks of bell pepper that prevented all the flavors from coming together into the cohesive goodness of something I would label "lasagna". The relatively low calorie content, and the skimpy cheese coverage probably contributed to my dislike as well. I've never made real lasagna (my mother used to let me help her make something called "crafty lasagna" that involved pressing cans of refrigerated pre-made dough and sesame seeds on top of lasagna prior to cooking, and which made me think I hated Italian food until I was about fifteen), but I've heard it's not very difficult. Next time, I'll try to make my own.

Olive Garden by the Medical Center

Today, I had lunch at the much-maligned Olive Garden. Not my choice, but it was interesting after so many years away. Even their menu seems to have changed significantly from what I remembered; to me, it looked less classically Italian (if you could ever have labeled anything on the menu 'classic Italian') than ever before.

Not too much has changed otherwise. I tried to order a glass of their rose wine, but the waitress misunderstood me. I can't help but wonder how many people order wine by requesting "rosso", "bianco", or "rosato", as they are listed on the menu. Apparently the linguistics were sufficiently misleading so that I ended up with a glass of RED wine. Maybe I shouldn't expect someone who works at Olive Garden to know what rose is. It was very sweet and otherwise undistinguished, kind of like cheap wine from California. I was, however, encouraged to see that there is a Nero d'Avola on the menu, as this is not a very commonly imported Sicilian grape that I adore.

I could not decide on food. Their menu is kind of pricey (even at lunch) for my perception of the quality of what's served...$15 for grilled fish and pasta? I settled on the $9.95 cheese ravioli, which came with salad and breadsticks. No objection to the salad. The breadsticks were fine, even if I find the concept of spongy, greasy, wheat-germless "bread" kind of scary in general. The ravioli was decidedly not good. Olive Garden gets kudos for not overcooking them, but the filling needed help. It was particularly gross, as one lunch companion had just told me a story about 'The Simpsons' that involved Ralphie eating paste. Very chalky paste. They were covered with a very generic and salty marinara sauce and a little grated mozzarella. Not an awful meal, but nothing to change my mind about the chain. At those prices, I can cook pre-made ravioli at home with better sauce and wine.