Brown ground beef in large skillet or medium saucepan having seasoned it with salt and pepper. Drain any excess grease. Add jar of Ragu. If faking it to make it and pretending to be chefy, add garlic, oregano and pepper flakes so your jar of Ragu might taste some modicum of homemade. Simmer this for a bit just so the flavors can coalesce, but not so long that it reduces.
Assemble your lasagna by starting with a layer of the meaty Ragu sauce at the bottom, then noodles (overlap the edges a hint as you lay them out), then spread some cottage cheese, sprinkle the chopped eggs, scatter some mozzarella, coat with meat sauce and repeat, until you run out of stuff, ending on meat sauce and a dusting of mozzarella.
Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes until bubbling and yummy-looking with the cheese browned. Let it sit for a bit before you dig in.
KA Note: Needless to say, the first recipe is Suzanne’s, the second is mine.
You see, Suzanne created this lasagna recipe and I’m all for lasagna in any form. Bonus, I knew Ryn made lasagna in Dream Chaser. Then I read the proof pages for Dream Chaser and was reminded that Ryn is no culinary dynamo, and she made the only recipe she knew, one her mother taught her. I also saw that I gave her the lasagna my mother gave me, except I bastardized it because I didn’t have Mom’s recipe, and I lived in England, and calling her cost a fortune, we were poor as dirt, and she did not do email. So I had to make it up from memory. My ex-husband is a lasagna connoisseur and he adored this lasagna. Shh, don’t tell him it’s totally a cheat!
Therefore, obviously, I had to give both versions to you.
Now…both Ryn and Boone suggest you eat their lasagnas with Ryn’s mother’s homemade Caesar salad. And just to say, if you haven’t tried homemade, you…are…missing…OUT!
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Ryn’s Momma’s Homemade Caesar Salad
2 stalks romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup Butter Croutons (Click here for recipe.)
Caesar Dressing (Click here for recipe.)
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and top with Caesar Dressing. Toss to coat.
*This recipe calls for the entire serving of dressing. If you prefer less dressing, add and toss to coat until your desired coverage.
Caesar Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Juice of 1 lemon (at least 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend for 2 minutes. Store in a Mason jar for up to 2 weeks.
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Smoked Boston Butt
1 5-6 pound Boston butt
1/2 cup Auggie’s BBQ Seasoning (Click here for recipe.)
Coat the pork butt with the BBQ seasoning. Place the pork, fat side up, in a preheated 250 degree smoker for 10 hours, or until internal temperature reaches 190-200 degrees. During the smoking process, leave the smoker closed for the first 2 hours, then spray the butt each hour thereafter with apple cider vinegar. After the 10 hours, double wrap the butt in tin foil and place on smoker for an additional 2 hours. Remove from smoker, unwrap from foil and place on a large cutting board. Remove the pork bone and shred pork with 2 large forks.
Note: If you don’t have a smoker, here’s a crockpot version.
Boston Butt (for Pulled Pork)
1/4 cup apple juice
1 5-6 pound Boston butt
1/2 cup Auggie’s BBQ Seasoning (Click here for recipe.)
In a crockpot, place 1/4 cup apple juice in the bottom of the pot. Rub the Boston butt with BBQ seasoning and place in crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 9 hours. Remove the Boston butt from the crockpot and discard all excess liquid. Remove the bone and shred meat while discarding any excess fat.
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Filet with Blue Cheese Sauce
4 (1 1/2-inch thick) filet mignons
Mag’s Steak Seasoning (Click here for recipe.)
4 tablespoons butter, softened
Blue Cheese Sauce (Click here for recipe.)
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Rub the 4 filets generously with Mag’s Steak Seasoning. Spread 1/2 tablespoon of softened butter on each side of the four filets. Allow to sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. In a large iron skillet over high heat, sear the 4 filets for 2 minutes on each side. Place in the oven for 8-10 minutes for medium rare. Remove from oven and top with 1 tablespoon of Blue Cheese Sauce.
Blue Cheese Sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Remove from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before topping on filet.
KA Note: Okay, this is another recipe I checked out in the RCL, and the steak seasoning is fab. But it’s all about that blue cheese sauce. I think my eyes rolled back in my head the instant it hit my tongue. It’s utterly superb.
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Boone’s Desserts
Bacon Cinnamon Rolls
1 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 package pizza dough
14 slices cooked bacon
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
In a small bowl, mix together butter, brown sugar and cinnamon for filling. Roll out dough to 1/2-inch thickness to be about 9x13 in size. Spread filling evenly across dough. Cut into 7 even strips. Place 2 pieces of bacon on each strip and roll. Place all seven rolls in a greased 9-inch round pan. Bake on 350 for 35 minutes and remove from oven. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then top with glaze. To make glaze, combine maple syrup, powdered sugar and milk until smooth.
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Boone
Two weeks and six days before…
Boone moved into Ryn’s living room with two loaded plates.
He did this announcing, “I get battle pay for cooking in that shitty-ass kitchen.”
She burst out laughing.
Though, she wasn’t so hysterical she couldn’t take the food he offered.
Once he sat opposite her on her couch, he juggled his plate while extending napkin-wrapped utensils her way.
She reached across and took them, murmuring, “Thank you, baby.” She then sat back saying, “You have no outdoor area at your pad, Boone. You can’t smoke a pork butt for ten hours at your place.”
“Your deck is only a half step up from your shitty-ass kitchen,” he told her something she already knew. And he didn’t quit bitching. “It’s the size of a postage stamp and I gotta move that fucking cart you put in front of the back door out of the way just to access it.”
“Poor pookie,” she teased, shoveling shredded pork mixed with peach salsa in her mouth.
He tipped his head to her plate. “And the rest of that I made in your shitty-ass kitchen.”
She caught his eyes, chewed, swallowed, and replied quietly, “I best get on designing your dream kitchen and making it a reality then.”
Suddenly, he didn’t give that first shit about cooking in her crappy kitchen.
“Yeah, sweetheart. You best get on that,” he replied.
Her phone on the coffee table chimed and her eyes went to it.
“Speaking of,” she said, leaning forward from where she was tucked up in the corner of the sofa with her food.
She grabbed her phone and sat back.
Using her thumb and face recognition
, she read the text.
Then her gaze came back to him.
“Our counter to their counter was accepted,” she announced. “They’re going to send the paperwork. We have until tomorrow at five to sign.”
Goddamn…
Brilliant.
Boone said nothing.
Ryn said nothing more.
They just looked at each other.
Eventually, she tossed her phone on the cushion between them and shared, “Axl’s salsa is everything, but nothing beats your pulled pork, and as always, your Cobb is da bomb.”
“Thanks, baby,” he replied.
She went back to her plate, declaring, “Kitchen notwithstanding, I’m gonna miss this pad.”
“You’re not going to miss paying rent on it when you’re at my place most of the time,” he noted.
“True,” she mumbled. Then louder, she said, “Totes gonna miss your pad too, though.” She shot him a sassy smile. “We’ve had some fun there, baby.”
“And we haven’t had fun here?”
“There’s more room there, and you have better equipment,” she returned.
That was when he burst out laughing.
When he was done, the thought hit him.
They’d bought a house together.
No.
They’d already done that on her second flip.
They’d just bought their house.
“Rynnie,” he whispered.
Her attention came right to him.
“I’ll break my back to make you happy, honey,” he vowed.
“I’ll break mine so you won’t have to,” she returned.
Yeah.
That was his woman.
Her expression softened, her eyes hooded and her lips tipped up.
She then turned back to her plate.
Boone located the remote and hit go on their program.
And he settled in and watched something he wouldn’t pick to watch, a Netflix documentary series about unsolved mysteries.
Ryn was addicted to that kind of stuff.
He wasn’t a TV guy so he didn’t care much either way.
The only thing he cared about was that, in the minimal downtime she allowed herself to have, she got to do something that chilled her out.
And for some reason, true crime chilled her out.
So he was good.
Though, regardless, he’d get to do what chilled him out later.
And he’d do it to Ryn.
His woman was addicted to that too.
KA
Jump ahead two weeks and six days…
“What’s your favorite recipe?”
This time, I ask this question of Boone.
“Pulled pork,” he answers.
“What’s Ryn’s?” I ask.
“The pulled pork. Always will be, no matter what I make.”
That was definitive.
“Food and memories, hunh?” I note.
“Food and memories,” he agrees.
I smile at him.
And Boone smiles back at me.
Chapter Three
Comes from the Heart
KA
After Fortnum’s…
We’d gotten sidetracked, repeatedly, mostly the guys handing each other shit, so the meeting went long before we could finish going over the recipes.
This meant they had to take off.
Though it was clear they liked me, considering they asked me to go to Auggie’s house the next day to finish up.
Letting me into their space.
I was looking forward to it.
Aug was going to make pork rind nachos.
I was looking forward to that more.
This gave me time to do something there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to do when I got to Denver.
I hit the castle up in the Highlands where High and Millie lived.
High, Millie, Poet…
And Chief.
The door to the huge silver boom mansion was opened before I even hit the steps up to the veranda.
High stood there.
It was incongruous, this handsome but very rough biker, standing in the doorway of a rather palatial, elegant Victorian home.
Still, I knew Millie.
So it totally worked.
When my foot fell on the veranda, I greeted, “Hey, High.”
“Hey, babe,” he greeted in return. But he waited until I stood in front of him before he said, “When I heard you were in town, knew you’d show.”
Yeah.
Nothing could keep me away.
He stepped aside and I entered his house.
Even though I was scanning the floor as I did it, my attention was taken by movement as a man entered the room from a doorway to the left.
I looked into sapphire blue eyes I knew very well and said, “Hey, Tack.”
His gravelly voice came softly.
He knew what this visit meant.
Tack always knew everything.
“Hey, darlin’.”
That’s when he bopped in, moving not with feline grace, but like a badger.
He’d never been graceful.
His sister wasn’t either.
It was hilarious.
But now, as I took him in, my heart lurched.
Smooshed grumpy face.
Creamy thick fur with gray at his ears, on his tail and around his eyes, nose and mouth.
Ice-blue eyes.
My first Axl.
But in this world, he was known as Chief.
It’s arguable, but that last might be a better moniker.
“Hey, Mr. Man,” I said, bending as he made it to me.
I picked him up, cuddled him to my chest, bent my head to him, and he stared at my face with his intelligent eyes, putting his fluffy kitty paw to my mouth.
God, I’d forgotten how silky soft his fur was.
“Yeah,” I whispered against his paw, “I miss you too.”
Axl/Chief started purring.
A hand came to rest on the back of my neck, fingers curling around.
“Did good with his namesake, Kit,” High said from beside me. “Man’s solid. Treats his woman like gold.”
“It’s weird,” I replied, still staring down at my kitten, “considering the inspiration.”
Tack was now standing in front of me.
“Nothing’s weird, babe,” he stated. “Especially when it comes from the heart.”
I looked up and again into his eyes.
“Red wants you for breakfast tomorrow,” Tack declared. “I’m making pancakes. Can you hit the foothills in the morning?”
Tack, his wife Tyra (or as he called her, “Red”) and Tack’s pancakes?
There was only one answer to that.
“Absolutely.”
Chapter Four
Take Care of You
Axl
Two weeks earlier…
Axl parked his Jeep next to the burgundy Murano that sat outside the converted storage units.
It was late.
It was dark.
And she wasn’t responding to texts.
He was mildly relieved when he saw Hattie’s Murano outside her unit.
But his woman replied to texts, that night he’d sent five, got nothing, so he wasn’t totally relieved.
He exited his vehicle, went to the door to her unit, which was her studio, and as usual, didn’t knock before he went in.
The space was as it always was: an organized mess that was only organized in a way Hattie understood.
And Hattie was in the middle of it, dust in her hair, streaks of it on her face, and her jeans-overall shorts and the tight tank she wore under were also covered.
Her gaze came right to him.
“I’m trying a new medium and it isn’t working,” she said irately, rather than saying something like, “Hey,” or better than that, smiling at him, coming to him and offering her mouth.
He looked to the huge lump that sat on a thick wooden plank set over two sawh
orses.
It, too, was covered in dust with added nuggets scattered around and overall coating of grit.
“It’s a stone that’s too porous. Everything I try, it crumbles.”
She was still talking irritably.
“So move on,” Axl suggested.
“But,” her gaze strayed to the stone, “it’s so pretty.”
She was right.
Still.
“Babe,” he said.
She was staring at the lump.
“Hattie,” he called again.
She looked at him.
“I’ve texted you five times. No reply,” he told her.
She looked shocked. “You have?”
Since she wasn’t coming to him, he went to her.
And when he did, he caught her jaw gently in his hand and dipped his face to hers.
“Shit’s been real in our crew, baby. I know you get into your thing when you’re at your studio. But when I text, I need you to reply.”
“Sorry, I got kinda involved,” she muttered.
“Understandable,” he said. “Just asking you to be mindful.”
“I kinda don’t even know where my phone is at this juncture,” she admitted, and he grinned at her.
Yeah.
She could get involved when she created.
And her focus was sexy as fuck.
He still needed her to check in.
Especially now.
“I thought you were testing a recipe for that cookbook,” she remarked.
“I was, and you were supposed to be there to taste it,” he reminded her.
He dropped his hand from her jaw when she glanced around, saying, “I’ll clean up a bit, we can go home, you can cook, and I can eat.”
Dream Bites Cookbook: Cooking with the Commandos Page 5