This week I made eight lasagnas. Correction: in two days I made eight lasagnas. True, I made five on Thursday and three on Sunday - needed the time in between to get back to my innate non-domestic nature (”I’m at home with the me. I am rooted in the me who is on this adventure” - name that flick. You win no prizes other than my admiration, cause man, that’s a great flick). But still: eight. That’s a lot. No, it’s not a lot if you run a food business or are an Italian grandmother or work the lines at a grade school cafeteria or are part of a church “hey! Great idea: let’s have an Italian dinner night and recruit all of our hardest church volunteers who are already too busy to come slave away in the kitchen so that they’ll be too tired to enjoy this feast that really they need the most” dinner night.

It’s that time of the month again: Meal Coop Time. These past 30 days I’ve spent pondering what my next Kitchen Attempt would be. Initially I thought quiche: eggs are always on sale at Safeway, it’s easy to make if you use the Bisquick blender recipe, but then the doubts started to creep in: it’s not healthy (but man does it slide down easy), and does quiche freeze and reheat well? So in typical Dren fashion, I freaked out, scrapped the idea, and turned to an official make-ahead and freeze cookbook. But not just any make-ahead and freeze cookbook (I’m picky, can you tell?), but the make-ahead and freeze cookbook from the experts: Cooks Illustrated. I mean, they made 35 batches of mac’n'cheese to get the best one you can make ahead. I’m trusting them.

A recipe for Mushroom and Spinach lasagna jumped out to me. It could be that it didn’t have meat and would be a little easier to make. It could be that they only used mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses instead of ricotta, and those cheeses just *happened* to be on sale. It could be that the last dish we had in the freezer from the coop was a lasagna (but totally different - meat and ricotta - traditional - yummy), and I was mentally trying to figure out when it would be consumed before the onslaught of food happened on Monday morning.

It’s so weird to shop and think, “Nope: can’t buy it. Need more room in the freezer.” Or to contemplate, “What should I make for JJ’s meals? Let’s first look in the freezer.” Yes, we could purchase another freezer, and I’m working on that: one thing at a time, people. Simply learning to cook in mass quantity is enough: rearranging JJ’s room to put gear into Half Pint’s room that we’re also rearranging is enough: pulling stuff out of storage in the garage to put in Half Pint’s room so that the garage now looks like a burglar came in and ransacked it but with very discerning tastes against clothes bigger than 0-3 months and baby gear advised for use only by older babies is enough: rearranging the rooms so that I can rearrange the garage so that I can find room to put in a freezer will come in time.

So on Thursday I embarked on making the lasagna. Now, this is why I am dumb.

• I haven’t made this recipe before.
• I haven’t ever made a lasagna before.
• I have bought enough ingredients that I’ve committed to the recipe.
• I’m hormonal and have a contorting belly the size of a small moon.

But this is why I am smart.

• I didn’t make the sauce from scratch. They said I didn’t have to, so I didn’t.
• I bought pre-grated cheese.
• I did not embark on a meal that required a lot of vegetable cutting (see aforementioned hormonal/bulbous belly and add in loose joints that drop everything and can’t unscrew the lid of the jelly jar (or any jar) after Hubby uses it).
• I only made two lasagnas at first.
• I did it during the morning when I’m at my most optimist/rational/Miss Congeniality self.

But this is why I am dumb.

• Because the first venture went so well, I decided to make three more lasagnas that day.
• In the evening.
• I ran out of pre-grated cheese and decided using the two pound blocks I had would be a good idea.
• I hand-grated them.
• Because of the grating, I could no longer open up jars of sauce (I barely could anyway), but because I’m German/Irish/Scottish, aka stubborn as hell, I tried. And I hurt my hands.
• I grated my thumb knuckles. Yes, that would be on both hands.
• I spent so much time on my feet that my knees swelled to the size of my thighs: I was like a life-size Lego figure, but with a small moon under my shirt.
• My husband was downstairs the whole time and could’ve helped. But I didn’t ask (again, see aforementioned German/Scottish/Irish comment).

So, after a wonderful massage from my Hubby and a rest from my kitchen, I returned to the stove/assembling station on Sunday. Preshredded cheese had been purchased, Hubby opened my spaghetti sauce jars, and I managed to whip those suckers out in about an hour. It almost took that long to rearrange my freezer to fit seven lasagnas in the small space. Yes, seven - not eight: there are eight families in the meal coop including us, so I made a lasagna for our family. Because if I was doing all that cooking, why not do more? Because if I was making meals for others, why not for my family? Because there was no more room in the freezer. Because if it was horrible, I could always bring gift certificates to Papa Murphy’s to the exchange on Monday morning.

Last week we finished Beth’s yummy lasagna. On Saturday we had a meal with friends: manicotti, chicken and pesto pasta, and salad. Sunday we ate some of the lasagna. That brings us to today: a freezer full of glorious, wonderful, ready-to-go meals. . . . except that my gut has had it’s fill of real food and just wants eggs and toast for dinner. Sad, isn’t it?

So, no more cheese: no more sauce: it’s time to come off of the flavor train for a little bit and re-engage in my college/single/first three years of my married life lifestyle - nothin’ but snackin. But feel free to come over if you’re hungry: I have lots of yummies that all fit into my freezer (barely).

Daily Drivel, Foodie Facts