#It's somewhere shy of things like an Instant Pot and a good stand mixer

[msbarrows]

Since my dad died last summer, I’ve been having to adjust from cooking for three people down to cooking for just two, my youngest brother and I. As much as we love lasagna, baking an entire pan of it was usually waaaaay too much for even three people, much less two. So a few months back I started randomly googling to try and find a good solution to the problem, and immediately tripped over the Chicago Metallic Trio Pan, pictured above. They market it towards, among other things, being able to make three different lasagnas at once, useful if you have a vegetarian or picky eater or whatever to provide for.

One third of a lasagna is actually pretty much perfect for just two people; enough to get a meal and leftovers out of, unless you’re really big eaters. So I eventually decided to buy one; it arrived about a month ago.

My first few things to cook in it were actually big batches of quick breads, like banana bread and gingerbread. It worked out well for those; I’d freeze one loaf of it and leave the other two out in an extra large ziplock bag. We’d typically eat the first loaf within a day or two, so no real point in putting the second in the freezer.

This past weekend I finally had enough room free in the freezer to try making a pan of lasagna and freezing it uncooked. I didn’t bother with experimenting with making different lasagnas, just assembled it all and froze it. I was using those noodles you don’t need to cook before using, but because I’m forever paranoid about the top noodles drying out - and them being easier to work with, imho, when not hard and brittle - I half-cooked them before assembly. And I did make sure to make a very moist lasagna - it used up 4 cups of homemade meat sauce plus an entire jar of Classico tomato and basil sauce - both to make sure the layers would stick together well and that there’d be sufficient moisture for the noodles to absorb while cooking. Covered the pan with foil, stuck it in the freezer.

Turned the logs of lasagna out today; had to let the pan sit in a couple inches of warm water in the sink for 30-40 seconds, then place it upside-down on a cookie sheet and give it a couple hard thumps on the counter before they released. Wrapped two and returned them to the freezer, while the third went back into the centre channel. Put about 1/2″ of water in the two side channels - I don’t like heating empty pans, it’s rarely good for them - covered loosly with foil, and baked at 300F for 1.5 hours, then removed foil and upped the oven to 375F. Checked after half an hour and the top was nicely browned, while my instant read thermometre said the inside was far from frozen, so out it came.

The couple of cons of the pan I can think of? First, finding out where the heck to store something that large in the kitchen. It’s ended up living on top of the fridge in a clear plastic bag because it won’t really fit anywhere else. Second, having enough room free in the freezer; I’d meant to make that lasagna a week ago, and then my brother brought home groceries that included a bunch of frozen stuff, and I was right back to needing to use some stuff up before I could fit it in (and yes, I’m talking about a chest freezer, not a fridge freezer).

Overall I am very happy with this pan. I am patting myself on the back for buying it. Good decision, past-me.

#Cooking #Randomness #Lasagna #Chicago Metallic Trio Pan #I am ranking this fairly highly in terms of kitchen stuff I am glad to own #It's somewhere shy of things like an Instant Pot and a good stand mixer #But not too far down the list #I will probably be using it at least a couple of times most months #Due to how useful it is for making quick breads in #And 3-4 times a year to make lasagna #Which is about twice as often as before