Bacon and Brussels Sprouts Rotini

OK, not everyone appreciates Brussels sprouts, but my lady likes them and they are interesting to use. This is a nice pasta dish that cooks up pretty easily.

1/2 lb of bacon
Brussels sprouts (enough to fill skillet once cut)
box of rotini
almonds
hard cheese, like Romano, grated
olive oil

In a good skillet, start frying the bacon. While this is going on, start the water for the pasta. Also rinse the sprouts, trim, cut in half. I didn't toast the almonds, but that would be good. Chop the almonds roughly.

Once the bacon is fried, put it aside to cool. Add the sprouts, cut-side down, to the skillet. Cover and cook on low heat for around 15 minutes until done. Drop the pasta and cook as directed. Read a book for 10 minutes. Set the table. Crumble the bacon.

Once the pasta is done, drain it and return it to the pot. Dump the sprouts over top and drizzle with oil. Mix. Add bacon and cheese. Mix a little more, but keep it mostly on top. Serve.

Thanksgiving Lasagna Rollups

Came up with this to use up leftover turkey. Worked from basic lasagna recipes, but added in celery, onion, and sage to reflect stuffing. Added some cranberries. If you really wanted to push the idea, you could replace the bechamel sauce with turkey gravy. My lady really liked these!

butter
flour
milk
salt, pepper, nutmeg, sage
lasagna noodles
onion, chopped
celery, chopped
turkey, chopped
ricotta cheese
Parmesan cheese
egg
cranberry relish

Prep:
This has several parts, all of which needs to be done, but they all could use some cooling, so the order and timing is not important.

Create a bechamel sauce. I used a couple of tablespoons of butter, 1/4 cup of flour, and about two cups of milk. For the final spices, I used a bit of the usual salt, pepper, and nutmeg, but added sage.

Cook lasagna noodles. Drain and place noodles spread out on wax paper.

Cook some onion and celery in butter and oil. Once cooked, add in turkey and sprinkle with a bit of salt, pepper, and sage.

Mix together ricotta, cranberry relish, an egg, and some Parmesan cheese. I went kind of easy with the relish, but more would have been fine.

Finish:
Once all of the above is ready and cooled enough to work with, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter or spray a baking dish. Put a small amount of the bechamel sauce in the bottom to coat. Put a thin layer of the ricotta mixture and the turkey mixture along each noodle. Roll up each noodle and place seam side down in the dish. Divide the rest of the sauce over the rolls. Sprinkle with some more Parmesan. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 more.

Notes:

• I ended up using 11 noodles in a 13x9 dish. Probably could have got a twelfth one in, but I ran out of filling.
• The cranberry relish was another leftover that my lady made for the holidays. Basically just whole cranberries and a bit of sugar, maybe some orange. Put all in a food processor.
• I didn't mix the turkey and ricotta before putting them on the noodles, since they were not quite cool and I wasn't sure of my proportions, but that would make the task a little easier.