Ingredients

• 2 red peppers, cored and cut into 1-inch wide strips
• 2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 summer squash, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 cremini mushrooms, halved
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced into 1-inch strips
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herb mix or herbs de Provence
• 1 pound penne pasta
• 3 cups marinara sauce (store bought or homemade)
• 1 cup grated fontina cheese
• 1/2 cup grated smoked mozzarella
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/3 cup for topping
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

On a baking sheet, toss the peppers, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, and onions with olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and dried herbs. Roast until tender, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook for about 6 minutes. Since you will be cooking the pasta a second time in the oven, you want to make sure the inside is still hard. Drain in a colander.

In a large bowl, toss the drained pasta with the roasted vegetables, marinara sauce, cheeses, peas, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix, until all the pasta is coated with the sauce and the ingredients are combined.

Pour the pasta into a greased 9 by 13-inch pan. Top with the remaining 1/3 cup Parmesan and butter pieces. Bake until top is golden and cheese melts, about 25 minutes.

Home Made Manicotti

This is how my mother taught me to make Manicotti, she never used store bought noodles she made a crepe like batter and cooked them in a frying pan and then filled them and baked them smothered with mozzarella cheese on top.
Cooking them this way makes for a light and delicate noodle, with a very distinctive taste. I promise you this is a very easy recipe to follow, once you make manicotti this way you won't use a store bought noodle again.

Manicotti Shells:
1-1/4 cups water
5 large eggs
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon melted butter or margarine, cooled
Additional melted butter, margarine, or vegetable spray, as needed to make crepes


Sauce:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 to 2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes, with liquid
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
2-1/4 teaspoons sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper


Filling:
2 pounds ricotta cheese, regular or low fat
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, diced
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

To Make the shells:
Place the water, eggs, flour, salt, and melted butter in a blender or processor and process until smooth.

tip: You should use a teflon coated fry pan 7" or 8" n diameter, I use a ladle full of batter place it into the frying pan swirl to coat and using the tip/corner of a spatula ease up the edge of the shell and flip, They pretty much cook as soon as they're swirled around, so don't wait to flip. Once you do get it flipped just give it 2 seconds and it will be done, take it out and stack them with wax paper in between each shell.

Heat a 7" or 8" crepe pan over medium heat for a few minutes, then brush with a little melted butter or vegetable spray. Pour in just enough crepe batter to cover the bottom of the pan.


Cook the shell until it is "dry" on top and barely light brown on the bottom.

Turn the shell over and cook about 10 to 20 seconds.

Remove shell to a large plate and repeat the process until all the batter is used.


Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make Sauce:
Prepare sauce by heating the olive oil in a large skillet and sautéing the onions and garlic.

Add all the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered for an hour.

Make Filling and Assembly:
In a large bowl combine the ricotta, mozzarella, and 1/3 cup parmesan cheeses (The rest is for topping). Add the parsley, salt and pepper, and mix well.

Pour some of the sauce into the bottom of a large shallow baking dish. Place about 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling in the center of each shell. Fold shell in thirds and place it seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat until all shells and filling is used. Cover the shells with the remaining sauce, and sprinkle on the remaining parmesan cheese.



The dish can be assembled in advance to this point and frozen or refrigerated until needed.

Bake the manicotti, uncovered, at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Remove the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

If baking manicotti directly from the freezer, bake at 350°F for an hour or until thoroughly heated.

Poster's Notes:
This sauce can be used in any recipe calling for a marinara sauce, and it freezes well.

Crepes/Shells can be frozen in a stack, but a sheet of waxed paper must be placed in between each shell.

The shell transform this into a light, delicate main course. Can be made ahead and frozen. The tomato sauce can be made, frozen and used on any pasta, fish, or chicken.



Nutritional Info Per Serving: N/A

Rugelach Recipe

From Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:

For the dough
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces (See Note below)
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces (See Note below)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling
2/3 cup raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade ((I used peach jam)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds)
1/4 cup plump, moist dried currants ((I used raisins)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

For the glaze
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons sugar, preferably coarse sugar

Method:

For the dough
1) Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be slightly softened but cool.
2) Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine for 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long that it forms a ball on the blade.
(Note: I used a stand mixer and I find that it's easier to process by cutting the cream cheese and butter into cubes of 1-cm)
3) Remove the dough from the food processor, divide into half, shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (Wrap airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

To make the filling
1) Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or microwave until it liquefies. Mix sugar and cinnamon together.
2) Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach.)

To shape the cookies
1) Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it is too firm to roll easily, leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin.
2) On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle. Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar.
3) Scatter over half of the nuts, half of the chopped chocolate and half of the currants. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch.
4) Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or trigangles. (The easiest way to do this is to cut into quarters, then cut each quarters into 4 pieces.)
5) Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent.
6) Arrange the roll-ups on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (The cookies can be refrigerate overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don't defrost before baking, just add a couple of minutes to the baking time.)

Getting ready to bake
1) Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

To glaze
1) Stir the egg and water together. Brush a bit of the glaze over each rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.
2) Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden.
3) Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

Baba's Cream Cheese Kolacky Submitted by LIN

This recipe won #1 Cookie for 2008 in the Chicago Tribune Contest...it's wonderful!!

This recipe, submitted by Emily Dressel of River Forest, was handed down by her grandmother, Baba. During a kolacky-baking lesson, Baba offered this advice for making these tender cookies: "You have to just sense it, Emily. The dough will tell you what it needs."

1bag (10 ounces) dried apricots

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups flour (I added 1/2 tsp. of sugar to the flour)

Confectioners' sugar

1 Place apricots in medium saucepan; cover with water. Soak overnight. Heat the apricots and water to a boil in medium saucepan over high heat; reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring often with fork to mash and adding water if needed, until smooth and thick, about 10 minutes. (If necessary, you can chop finely with a knife or process about 1 minute in a food processor or chopper.) Add the granulated sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Cool completely.

2 Blend together the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl; gradually blend in flour, using hands once the dough has begun to form, until it can be shaped into a ball (this may be more or less than 2 cups). Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

3 Heat oven to 350 degrees. Divide dough into thirds. Roll out each third on a floured board into a 12-by-8-inch rectangle, 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into 2-inch squares with a pizza cutter. Place 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of the apricot filling in the middle of each square. Fold each corner into middle; pinch together. (Moisten fingers with cold water if dough does not stick.)

4 Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheets; bake until golden, about 17 minutes per batch. Cool on wire rack; sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Makes: About 6 dozen

Italian Creme Cookies

This cookie recipe is a versatile one, it can be anisette, vanilla, or lemon by simply adding the extract you desire into the icing. Be bold and use food coloring to make your cookies festive and sprinkle with decorations like sprinkles or colored nonpareils.

Ingredients

1/2 lb margarine
2 c sugar
1 lb ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 tbs vanilla
4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt


Icing
1/2 box confectioners sugar
2 tbs milk
1 tsp anisette extract, or ..one of your desire

Cream together margarine and sugar. Add cheese, eggs and vanilla and mix well. Sift 4cups of flour and add the baking soda and salt and combine well. Slowly add flour mix to the butter and cheese mixture. Mix until it is mixed well, the batter should be soft.

Place on ungreased cookie sheets by teaspoonfuls. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 -15 minutes.
Cool completely, Meanwhile make up your icings when the cookies are cooled ice them and sprinkle them, place them on a rack to drip of excess icing and let them dry before storing them in an airtight container. This recipe should yeild about 4 dozen cookies.

Punch Bowl Cake, Submitted by PsSweeney Pat

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil's food cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs as called for on cake mix box
4 cups milk
4 teaspoons grated orange peel
2 boxes (4-serving size each) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
1 cup chocolate-flavor syrup
2 cans (15 oz each) mandarin orange segments, drained
1 container (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed


1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with shortening or cooking spray.
2. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs. Run knife around side of pan to loosen cake. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, in large bowl, mix milk and orange peel. With wire whisk, beat pudding mix into milk mixture about 2 minutes or until blended.
4. Cut or tear cooled cake into 1-inch pieces. Arrange half of pieces in 3 1/2-quart glass serving bowl, cutting pieces to fit shape of bowl. Drizzle 1/2 cup of the chocolate syrup over cake; spread with 2 cups of the pudding. Reserve 1/2 cup orange segments for garnish; arrange remaining orange segments over pudding. Add remaining cake pieces. Top with remaining chocolate syrup, remaining pudding and the whipped topping. Cover; refrigerate at least 2 hours until chilled.
5. Garnish dessert with reserved orange segments. Store covered in refrigerator up to 8 hours.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Make cake mix following high altitude directions on box for 13x9-inch pan.


Substitution
Do you like the flavor of white chocolate? Use white chocolate instant pudding and pie filling mix instead of vanilla.
Success
If you don't have a bowl big enough to hold this crowd-size dessert, two smaller bowls will work just as well.
Special Touch
For an extra-special treat, decorate with chocolate-dipped orange segments. Dip half of each orange segment into melted chocolate and place on a waxed paper-covered cookie sheet. Refrigerate 15 to 20 minutes or until chocolate is set. Just before serving, arrange dipped oranges on top of dessert.

Nutrition Information:
1 Serving: Calories 400 (Calories from Fat 130); Total Fat 14g (Saturated Fat 6g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 45mg; Sodium 490mg; Total Carbohydrate 62g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 44g); Protein 6g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 15%; Vitamin C 15%; Calcium 10%; Iron 10% Exchanges: 2 Starch; 2 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat Carbohydrate Choices: 4
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Dancing dessert: Berry-filled Pavlova Submitted by Wata

As my own idea... my thought to make the nest easier -pipe the meringue using the star tip, You could get them taller making for a better presentation. Just make sure you patch any holes before you cook the nests. ~ Gia

Recipe & Photo by Sue Doeden

The meringue crust in this dessert, with its contrasting textures, melts on the tongue. It is filled with rich, fluffy whipped cream and fresh berries, bursting with flavor.

On her blog, Sue makes individual Pavlovas and fills them with Mascarpone Cream and Italian Peppered Strawberries
Perfect Pavlovas
For six years the Pavlova recipe was tucked into my “Summer Recipes” file. A cooking school classmate sent it to me with her penned comment beside the recipe, “This is a great one.” And I knew she was right. She made the delicate meringue shells and filled them with fruit when we were at Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco.

Pavlova is said to be invented by an Australian chef as a culinary expression of the light-as-a-feather dancing of Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. Many New Zealanders would dispute this, though, and the delightful dessert has become a treasure for both countries to boast about, each claiming it as their own.

The list of ingredients for Pavlova is short and straightforward. Egg whites, which are pure protein, are whipped with sugar to create a voluminous white cloud. Tiny amounts of vinegar and cornstarch are added right at the end.

The first step in preparing Pavlova is to separate the egg yolks from the whites, being very careful that not even one little speck of yolk gets into the egg whites. (Egg yolks contain fat, and fat interferes with the formation of firm and light whipped egg whites.) Separating eggs is easiest to do when the eggs are chilled, right out of the refrigerator. Store the yolks in a covered container in the refrigerator for another use. Hollandaise sauce, maybe? Allow the bowl of egg whites to sit at room temperature so that the protein strands in the egg whites will be able to easily stretch as they are beaten, resulting in a shiny, firm meringue.

The meringue is baked at a very low temperature, allowing a thin, crisp shell to form on the outside, leaving the inside just slightly chewy. Don’t be bothered by any cracks that may appear around the edges of the Pavlova or even in the middle as it cools. It just happens. The inside cracks will be hidden by whipped cream and berries. Those on the outside add endearing character.

You’ll have so much fun impressing everyone with this lovely light dessert that takes little effort to make. The meringue crust, with its contrasting textures, melts on the tongue. Rich, fluffy whipped cream with just a slight hint of sweetness and fresh berries, bursting with flavor. Working together, they make a perfect team.

The meringue crust of Pavlova is very versatile. Top it with any of your favorite seasonal fruit. Fill the meringue with lemon curd or ice cream. Add a touch of decadence with a drizzle of hot fudge sauce over each serving.


Ingredients

Pavlova with Berries and Whipped Cream

4 egg whites, room temperature
1 cup superfine sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch, sifted
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pints fresh berries of your choice
Extra powdered sugar for garnish
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet with no sides. Draw a 9- or 10-inch circle on the parchment, using a plate as your guide. Turn the paper over so the drawing is on the bottom. It will show through the parchment.

Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. If you are using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. Beat the egg whites at low speed until they are very foamy. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add superfine sugar, beating until the sugar is dissolved after each addition. Beat the mixture 5 to 10 minutes, until it is very shiny and thick. Fold in cornstarch and vinegar.

Spread meringue mixture into the marked circle on parchment paper. Use the back of a spoon to shape evenly, spreading meringue to the sides and leaving a slight depression in the middle, similar to a nest. Run the flat side of a knife up the edge of meringue mixture, all the way around, making furrows. This strengthens the Pavlova and gives it a nice decorative finish.

Bake the meringue in preheated 250-degree oven for 1 hour. Turn off the oven. Leave Pavlova to cool in the oven with door slightly ajar. It will take at least 2 hours for the Pavlova to cool completely.

Use a wide metal spatula to carefully loosen the baked meringue shell from the parchment paper. Slide the meringue onto a cake platter.

An hour before serving, beat heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until firm.

Spoon sweetened whipped cream into the meringue shell and spread evenly. Spoon berries carefully over the whipped cream, leaving a border of cream and meringue. Sprinkle the Pavlova with powdered sugar just before serving. Serves 6 to 8.

Tips from the cook

--Avoid making Pavlova on a humid day. The meringues will become sticky and soft.

--The meringue shell can be made the day before serving. I bake the meringue the evening before I plan to serve it and just keep it in the turned-off oven overnight. An hour before serving time, I fill it with the whipped cream and berries and just let it sit until time to eat. You can also fill it at the last minute. The meringue will get soggy if it is filled long before eating.

--Be sure to use a glass or stainless steel bowl for whipping the eggs. Avoid a plastic bowl. Fat clings to plastic, and even though the bowl seems clean, there is a good chance that a bit of grease remains. Fat interferes with the formation of a fluffy meringue.

--Superfine sugar, sometimes called caster sugar, dissolves more quickly than regular granulated sugar. Granulated sugar can be used in this recipe, just be sure to beat the egg whites and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved.