Lasagna, Chai and a Bright, Shiny New Year

I trust you are having a merry holiday season, friends.  Though mine has been a bit more hectic than I had planned, due to some welcome but unexpected work, Christmas Day itself was delightful.  My Mom, who is a fantastic Italian cook, made her lasagna with all the trimmings for 18 of us... antipasto, bread, salad, tiramisu plus several cookies her Mom used to make.  I definitely ate too much that day, but as I didn't have time to do any holiday baking this year, I've been eating pretty healthily otherwise.

I'd noticed recently that all our pumpkins and some of the spaghetti squash in the pantry were in need of attention.  I baked the spaghetti squash, and froze what we didn't eat last night. Today, I've been canning the last of the pumpkin.  I was blessed with so many wonderful presents over the holidays. One of my favorites has been a milk frother that my dear sister gave me.  That  latte above was my first use of the frother.  Since then, I've made chai, and have really been enjoying it with a lovely froth of milk. I made this recipe, which has been good, but I wouldn't mind a bit more robust taste.  Today, I added a few extra cardamom seeds, a bit of allspice, plus a little more of the other spices.  I bought the spices at Whole Foods, and could not find any loose tea. I've seen it at other Whole Foods, but none was to be found that day, so I improvised and opened up teabags of their organic black tea. I'll be trying a stronger tea as soon as I find some.  I used a rolling pin the first time I made the recipe, which was a bit messy, with some of the spices flying out of the baking sheet.  Today, I used my suribachi and pestle to crush the spices, and that worked better for me.  We've got a bright, shiny New Year before us. Let's make it a good one!