Lauren Bisset

For my passion project, I have decided to try to cook and bake things that I have never made before. I find myself often resorting to the easiest meals that I am used to making, and eating out or ordering in when I am craving something different. I want to try and change this habit, partially to save money, but also to bring joy and creativity back to my kitchen, a place that is currently inhabited by endless tupperwares of the same quinoa salad.

I am going to take on any recipes that catch my eye or mood, my first endeavour being lasagna made from scratch. I have never made any form of lasagna before, not knowing how to make it but knowing that it is time-consuming, so I chose this as an ambitious first mission.

I recalled my stepmom always having the best meat sauce, so I called her and found out that she actually adapts this recipe from The Best of Bridge’s website.

So I went to pick up my ingredients, and the bill came to $51!!! Which at first made me cry internally. But I realized I had to buy both of the spices, which I won’t have to buy again for a long time, and that lasagna is a bulk meal which will probably give me about 8 meals at about $6 each, a lot less than a meal I would typically order in.

I followed the very minimalist recipe the best I could, except I didn’t buy Worceister sauce because I couldn’t find it at the store and I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta because it’s cheaper. It took me about 3 hours in total from start to finish, because the meat sauce has to simmer for an hour and also I am really slow at prepping.

Sauce time:

Layers!

Before and after oven!

I gave some to my roommates to test out and they loved it! Not to pat myself too much on the back, but a real quote from my friend Emily: “Like, am I at Pagliacci’s?” Hopefully it’s safe to say they liked it.

I got 6 meals frozen out of the recipe in the end, so even though it takes a while to make I would say it’s worth it! If you’re looking for a relatively easy venture into lasagna, I would definitely recommend this recipe! Or even if you’re just looking for a simple but flavourful meat sauce, this one is super yummy.

In class on Friday, we discussed Greg Whiteley and Ted Dintersmith’s film, Most Likely to Succeed. I found it really interesting that some people said that they had the same feelings as the parents of students at High Tech High about how this new type of schooling might affect the students futures as they enter the world structured around traditional schooling. I had not thought of this perspective as I watched the film, being so enamoured with High Tech High’s near-revolutionary approach to learning. As we discussed in class, I would be very interested as well to see a “Part 2” that might provide us with some insight on the long term effects of the High Tech pedagogy.

In addition to the focus on High Tech High, I enjoyed the beginning of the documentary where it outlined the absolute urgent need for a change in our educational system. Things such as the subjects that we choose to study that we never really question were actually established more than a hundred years ago, in a completely different world than we live in now. In the possibly near future, every job that does not require human creativity or critical thinking will disappear. Of course, we have known this for a while, but I had not yet thought about this fact from the perspective of an educator. I will have to take this into account as I think about my approach to teaching, adhering to the curriculum but also having an eye on the future and how I can best set up my learners for success.

Ed. etc.

First taste of my passion project

Most Likely to Succeed