I'm Gonna Make Him an Offer He Can't Refuse

When my lovely friend, Sara announced that Paige from Chef Girl was hosting WCC No. 19 and had chosen "Dinner and a DVD" as this month's theme, I knew I had to get in on it.

There is something about the Weekend Cookbook Challenge and me. We live on different parallel universes I think.. because for the life of me, I can never be on time. I either run out of time completely with no idea of what I could have made in the first place.. or I try to sneak in under the wire and beg Sara to include my lil recipe at the very last minute.

Which is what I thought I was going to do this month.. hahahahaaa! That Paige though.. she's a fast rounder-upper! But that's okay, I'm still going to share this with yous guys because A- the recipe is KICK ASS and B- the movie is SUPER KICK ASS. And C- I went through the whole day dating everything the 19th :D

First the movie - what every Italian daughter should own in her DVD collection - The Godfather. Of if you are like me, you would own The Godfather DVD Collection, which contains The Godfather Parts I, II and III as well as a BONUS materials DVD. And ya'll know me.. I'm always up for a bonus. :D This was a gift from my mom after my father passed.

Do you find that odd?

My father was The Number One fan of The Godfather Trilogy (although he'd never admit to liking Part III even though he watched it, easily, over 50 times). The man owned pretty much every gangster/Italian related movie ever made, but The Godfather was the movie he watched over and over again. Seriously, if I had a dime for every time I came home from school, woke up in the morning, came home from work at night, was helping prepare dinner, brushing my teeth, doing my homework or talking on the phone and heard the theme song to The Godfather start up on our TV, I'd be a fakking millionare. I do not joke nor exaggerate about this. His VHS copy is barely holding together, it's been played THAT MANY TIMES. It's too bad he passed before DVDs were the thing.. he probably would have thought he'd died and gone to heaven anyway had he known he could watch HIS MOVIE in high def. =)

Did I ever mention that at my father's calling hours, we had The Godfather Waltz piped through the funeral home speakers? Oh yes. Yes we did.

And so.. as you can imagine, I too have seen the Godfather movies a bazillion times and can pretty much recite Parts I and II from memory. Yes yes, I hold the same grudge as my father regarding Part III - so sue me. :P I knew this would have to be the movie I would chose for this month's challenge. And what goes better with a lil Marlon Brando, James Caan and Al Pacino? Why Mama Cream Puff's Lasagna! That's what!!

I know I've blogged about this phenomenal recipe before.. but it is THAT good and goes SO WELL with a bulletproof vest fulla dead fish that I just had to blog about it once again. This time though, it's not exactly Mama Creampuff's recipe for I have tweaked and twiddled with it a bit. Not by much - you really can't screw with perfection too much, yanno ;)

This being maybe the 5th or 6th time I've made it.. I've gradually added a lil somethin' somethin' to it - such as the rinds from parmigiano reggiano wedges and a handful or two of the grated good stuff. I also added a lil garlic.. my father would have shot me if I did not add garlic. And lastly, something I've done from day one, is use pork shoulder steaks instead of veal because I just can't do veal.

So there you have it, friends.. The Godfather and Mama Creampuff's Lasagna - a true match made in heaven. :D

xoxo