Holiday Food Ideas When You're Short on Time or Money

A couple of weeks ago The Dallas Morning News moved their food section to Saturday. In the process they improved it considerably with more stories, book reviews and information. I really liked some of the ideas in this story about handling holiday food and homemade gifts with dwindling resources (free registration required).

We won't tell if you won't

They're going to know if you serve frozen lasagna. They might not care, though, especially if you put enough butter and garlic on the garlic bread. You can also borrow a trick from food stylist Karen Elizabeth Watts:

Pretend It's Homemade Lasagna: Buy your choice of frozen lasagna. Find a "real" pan that it will fit in. Spray the pan with nonstick spray and spread bottom with 1/2 cup or so of spaghetti sauce. You can use homemade, bottled or canned, or dress up store-bought with extra herbs, sauteed onions and garlic or crumbled cooked Italian sausage. Pop the frozen lasagna from its pan and place it on top of the sauce in the prepared pan. Top it with 2 cups of cheese, then top with an additional 1 ½ cups of sauce. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, then cover the plastic wrap tightly with foil. Bake according to original directions. Take credit for finished product.