A recipe for your pasta sauce or jar sauce

Easy Baked Pasta

This Easy Baked Pasta is a changeable recipe. Use your favorite meat sauce or marinara, or try my gravy, or use a jar of marinara, and even make it vegetarian. It’s easy to change up.

The dish in this picture was made with my Italian gravy rich with meat and meat balls. The only ingredients I added to my gravy were the cheeses and pasta. Just layered in this oblong baking dish without much significance in what layer goes first.

Now I am going to give you ways to change this up, add meat or vegetables, add your sauce or jar.

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A Country School favorite, tommy’s cookies

No Butterscotch Chips Butterscotch Cookies

Butterscotch Cookies

 

Delta View Elementary School District was in the middle of Kings County agriculture. It was country school small but Ag wealthy. It wasn’t an unpleasant place to teach … My first real job after college. The children were extraordinary. I briefly had our future 1991-2005 congressman in a math class. I would guess many of these students went on to promising careers.

Today, as I look back, how unaffected I was by all the craziness. Not quite Peyton Place!

My position was to teach kindergarten in the morning; and 5th and 6th grades, or was it 4th and 5th, in the afternoon when the principal took over his principal duties.

In kindergarten birthdays were celebrated with homemade cookies and milk. This cookie recipe was introduced to me at one of these birthdays. I have made changes to the original recipe but I still like to call these Tommy’s cookies. They are still delicious in today’s competition.

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A Rich Meat Sauce

Italian sauce or Gravy the Old Fashioned Way

The cooking time is lengthy but a slow cooker works well if it is large enough. I like to cook this recipe on a weekend when the weather has me pretty much trapped at home. The warmth and smells from the kitchen are comforting. And my family loves it.

After cooking for some hours the gravy rests so any excess fat can be skimmed off the top. Sunday it is ready for either spaghetti and meatballs, rigatoni, or lasagna. If there is any gravy left over it is frozen to be used for that quick meal during the week … Or maybe this November when I cook my recipe of bracciole for Marc or Ed.

But what about those jarred sauces! Most are not meat sauces as this is but marinara. There are some very good ones out there … Some being sold on behalf of the TV chefs we know. Giada used a jarred sauce to prepare one of her grandfather’s favorite holiday recipes. I have used the brand she used many times. And it is very good. When I use these jarred sauces it is usually not alone … Adding wine, olive oil, finely chopped tomatoes or meatballs to not only extend it but to give it an extra oomph. I do watch for certain ingredients on the label and am cautious about the sodium level.

It’s just nice, if you have the time, to make this from scratch.

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Simply Italian

Including My pantry pasta recipes

Simply Italian

Just loving all things Italian! I was fortunate enough to be able to take a trip to Italy some years ago. And while there took a class in Italian cooking, specific to the region.

Marignolle was a farm house in Florence made over into a lovely hotel. The class held there was for a dinner meal, start to finish. The simplicity of this recipe, their recipe, doesn’t take away from the elegance of this dish … Beautiful presentation, light but not in taste … And pairing with a nice Chianti … It just doesn’t get any better.

I’ve included here some recipes of my own, too. My family, specifically Will, likes to call these Pantry Pasta Recipes because almost all ingredients are in the pantry. These recipes, too, are simple, quick and delicious. I hope you will try mine or branch out and invent some of your own.

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Grandma Rose’s Baked Beans

 

 

Grandmother’s Lowell Massachusetts Baked Beans were often served as a side with vinho d’ alhos. An amazingly rich Baked Bean recipe!

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almond cluster chocolate Chip cookie

These Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies are crisp around the edges with just enough shortening to give them a little lift in the middle … making for a chewy center. The almonds add the crunch. Milk chocolate chips as well as raw almonds get lost in this cookie. So, I’ve added salted roasted almonds, and half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate chips instead. This cookie is my creation. I’ve been a lover of chocolate chip cookies and chocolate covered almonds for years. This is my attempt to bring the two together.

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A No fail muffin A Perfect Vegan Muffin

Perfect Vegan Muffin

Although no longer a vegan my daughter continues with many recipes she created along the way. This muffin recipe is adapted from Tanya Bernard’s and Sarah Kramer’s Anything Goes recipe from their book How it all Vegan!

Missy like many young adults finds her time is very limited. These muffins can be whipped up and in the oven in less than ten minutes. We hope you will try this healthy rich tasting muffin recipe. The recipe follows.

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Sun Giant Cookies

Over 30 years ago I purchased these smiley face cookie cutters … different sizes with eight cookie recipes. All came attached to my Sun Giant box of raisins. Or, was it dates, or almonds? (Can’t remember exactly. Oops!) This recipe is my favorite of the eight. Be prepared, these Smiley Cookies will bring smiles to your family’s and friends’ faces.

This recipe was initially for my two oldest sons, 10 and 8 at the time. But this cookie became my favorite instead. The texture is similar to a biscuit or shortbread. It is mildly sweet, and packed with dates, raisins and almonds. It is great with coffee! So, anytime I need to bake myself happy I reach for this recipe. The Sun Giant can’t help but make me smile.

I hope you enjoy this cookie too.

 

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A Friendly recipe for the young chef

Four Layer dinner

 

This recipe holds up after all these years. It’s tasty, healthy, economical, and fast & easy. What is the origin of this Four Layer Dinner? See Reddy Kilowatt at the end of this recipe.

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Happy Birthday Julia CHILD! You are 101!

Celebrating Julia Child

Last night was Julia Child’s birthday celebration at Jack & Charlie’s in Visalia. The fourth of the now annual event. This was one of the five courses. Rich and buttery. All courses had a very nice presentation. I don’t need an excuse to eat here. Food is always good. Love the service! Last night was just about fun.

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