DINNER CLUB REVIEW: New Year's Eve lasagna

I went out on an experimental limb with my roasted vegetable lasagna. The reviews on Epicurious.com encouraged deviation from the original recipe, so I came up with a lasagna layered with roasted portabello, eggplant, red peppers and zucchini. I sparingly used the bechamel sauce which the recipe called for and substituted some pesto and red sauce to make up for it. I also threw in some traditional ricotta and mozzarella cheeses in addition to the fontina that the recipe advocated. During the prep, I was worried about concocting a big mess of too many flavors, but it turned out to be a hit. For starters, I made a cranberry-apple-yogurt salad that I served spooned into individual endive leaves -- that recipe is also on Epicurious and is already a part of my repeat repertoire (I even liked it better than the lasagna). What a crazy night that was for me since John (who was supposed to come home at 3pm to help prep) got caught at work and didn't make it home until a few minutes before midnight! He missed our annual re-giftathon, but we ended up with the best loot so it all worked out.