This week, it’s been all about two new parents getting used to a cute new baby.

Their job is to feed him, burp him, wipe his bottom and dress him in cute little pajamas. My job is to keep the parents going.

I’m sure I bathed a baby once, or bounced an infant through a gassy night, or maybe even clipped a few tiny fingernails. But that was so long ago, so forgotten. I’m not exactly a fount of useful tips. But by golly, I can feed this new mom and dad.

We reached into the recipe box for our favorites, most of them featured here before. But let’s line them all up together and call them the Parade of Comfort Food:

We ate Skillet Mac ‘n Cheese, Stir-Fry Chicken Fajitas, Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza,

Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza

Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza

Grilled Sub Sandwich and Meatloaf.  Before it’s all over, we’ll chow down on Cheesy Chicken Subs and Creamy Chicken Rice Soup.

We stocked the freezer with Hunt’s Lasagna (see below) and Taco-Filled Pasta Shells. If the freezer doesn’t run out of room, we may yet fit in some Green Bean Chicken Casserole as well as the sauce for these Haystacks  and the ever-wonderful Tex-Mex Chicken Starter, which puts you a few steps ahead on fajitas, a salad or this rich pasta dish.

Between gazing at the new baby and watching his parents get their sea legs on this new voyage, we hurried to finish East of Eden by John Steinbeck, in which an easterner, Adam Trask, settles in the Salinas Valley of California and raises two sons, who vie for his love.

Adam’s sons play out a rivalry and “protective contempt” similar to that between Adam and his own brother. In Eden, the fathers are hard and blind to their son’s dreams. The wives are everything from stern Bible-shakers to cold plotters. The Salinas neighbors range from Chinese servants who hide their intelligence behind pidgin English to Irish farmers who hang on despite owning the worst farm in the valley. And there’s a big secret.

Eden moves a little slowly. I felt more drama between Adam and his jealous brother than between Adam’s sons. I’ll have to watch the movie again to make sure, but it seems that Hollywood liberally re-arranged Steinbeck’s story, pruning the nail-biting violence from the early chapters and grafting it into the story of Adam’s sons.

Hunt’s Lasagna

  • 2 lbs. ground beef, or half ground beef and half Italian sausage
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 (48-oz.) jar spaghetti sauce
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 lb. mozzarella cheese
  • 1 qt. small curd cottage cheese
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten
  • 2 tsp. parsley
  • 1 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper
  • 1 lb. lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook beef and onion in a large skillet until beef loses redness and onion begins to soften; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water and bring to a boil, stirring often; simmer 5 minutes.

Cut 12 thin slices mozzarella and set aside for topping. Shred remainder of mozzarella and combine in a bowl with cottage cheese, egg, parsley, salt and pepper.

Spread several spoons of meat sauce over bottom of each of 2 (2-qt.) baking dishes* Arrange 3 cooked noodles lengthwise in each. Next add a layer of about 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese mixture, then a layer of about 1 1/2 cups meat sauce. Repeat layers of noodles, cheese mixture and meat sauce until all used up. Sprinkle half the Parmesan over each and top with reserved sliced mozzarella.

For 8 servings, bake one pan at 350′ 30-35 minutes until bubbly.

*Prepare it in two baking dishes, each large enough to serve 8 people. Bake and serve one. Cover and freeze the other to bake and serve on a night you don’t have time to make lasagna from scratch. Remove from freezer at least 1 hour before baking. Bake, lightly covered with foil, at 375′ 1 hour and 15 minutes.