This recipe is adapted from Sweet Dinner Rolls on AllRecipes.

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1t salt
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4t from a jar)

In a glass measuring cup, combine the water and milk. Put in microwave until just warm - 1-2 minutes depending on your microwave. Remove from microwave and add sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add yeast and stir gently. Cover and place in a warm place to let proof for 10-20 minutes.

Move your mixture to a large bow and add salt, butter and egg. Mix in the flour one cup at a time. Cover and return to warm place to rise for 45 minutes.

Punch down and make 16 balls or crescents. Tip, at this point, you could also roll out some of the dough to make cinnamon rolls with some butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon!) Place your rolls on a cookie sheet and rise for 1 hour.

Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes, until the tops start to look golden.

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My husband is a vegetarian, and I eat meat, so sometimes it means I'll make two main dishes. If I do that, I try to make them similar, or do something that I can add meat to later. In this case, I've taken a pasta dish and made it the same method, but with two different pans.

Tip: You could adjust this to make only the meat version or only the vegetarian version, too.

Common Ingredients

These items will all be divided in half, part for the vegetarian and part for the meat versions

• Pasta - A mixture of dry noodles to total 2 1/2 cups: we use a combo of macaroni noodles, spirals (rotini), and medium or small shells
• Spaghetti sauce - we use 1 jar of Prego's Traditional style
• Cottage cheese - 16 oz container, we use 1%
• Mozzarella cheese - 8oz shredded
• Parmesan cheese - about 1 cup shredded
• White Sauce
• 2T butter or margerine
• 2T flour
• 1 cup milk (we use 1%)
• 1/4t nutmeg
• freshly ground pepper, to taste (for us, that's about 10 grinds of the pepper mill)

Meat sauce

• 1/2lb ground beef
• freshly ground pepper, to taste
• dried basil, to taste

Vegetarian sauce

• 1/2 can of vegetarian burger - we use Worthington Vegetarian Burger
• 1/2T olive oil
• freshly ground pepper, to taste
• dried basil, to taste

Boil water and cook pasta as directed on the package. If the times for cooking vary between the different pasta you are mixing, add the one with the shortest cooking time slightly after the others.

To make the meat sauce: brown hamburger in a large frying pan or skillet over medium heat. Season with pepper and basil. Cook until there is no pink, and drain off the fat if needed. Combine with 1/2 a can of spaghetti sauce and cook together for several minutes.

To make the vegetarian sauce: brown vegeburger in a separate frying pan or skillet over medium heat with the oil. Season with pepper and basil. Add 1/2 a can of spaghetti sauce and cook together for several minutes.

To make the white sauce: melt butter in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Add flour and cook for several minutes till bubbly. Slowly add the milk, stirring throughout. Season with nutmeg and pepper, and then stir constantly until thick. Remove from heat.

Preheat your oven to 350°. You'll need two pans - I use a glass pie pan and a glass bread pan and just build the pile on one side of the dish because I don't have anything that's just slightly smaller. A small square pan would probably be perfect.

Building the pasta bake

This dish is built similar to lasagna, with layers.

• Put 1/3-1/2 cup of sauce in the pan to help keep the dish loose and easy to serve.
• Now divide up your noodles and white sauce into 6 equal portions, and divide your meat/vegetarian sauces into 3 equal portions each.
• Start to layer the dish as follows:
• noodles - spread out
• white sauce - small dollops scooped on
• meat or vegetarian sauce - gently spread over the white sauce
• cottage cheese - small dollops
• parmesan cheese - just a sprinkling
• mozzerella cheese - a heavy sprinkling
• Repeat this layer sequence twice. For the third and final layer, move the meat/vegetarian sauce above the cottage cheese, and parmesan. Add extra mozzerella on the top.

Cover the dishes with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Take the foil off and cook 10 minutes more to brown the cheesy top.

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This recipe was adapted from one at AllRecipes.

• 4 red potatoes, medium sized
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese - grocery stores tend to carry this pre-shredded in the refrigerated section if you don't have a hard cheese grater
• 2 T grated parmesan cheese - from the can for a smaller texture of cheese
• Fresh Basil by the stalk, about 10 large leaves cut finely
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425°.

Wash and chop the potatoes into long sticks, about a 1/2 x 1/2 x the length of the potato, or smaller if you desire.

Prepare the basil by rolling several leaves into small tubes and then cutting it with a sharp knife. This makes long skinny pieces. Prepare the garlic by peeling each clove and then either cutting into very small pieces with a knife or using a chopper that makes faster work of cutting garlic. Note: you could also use minced garlic in a jar, or garlic powder, but the fresh is a very nice touch

Put all ingredients into a large bowl and toss with your hands to get it nicely mixed and everything on the potatoes.

Spray non-stick cooking spray on a baking sheet with sides (15x10x1) or a large casserole dish. The baking sheet will allow for more individual browning of the fries. Place the contents of the bowl in the pan, and try to keep the potatoes to one layer if possible. Bake for 15 minutes and then turn and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until crispy but tender.

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There are a variety of ways online to make this, but my favorite is where there's chocolate on the bottom and white on the top.

• 1 bag of Chocolate chips, semi-sweet, about 20 oz.
• 1 bag of Candy melts, white (vanilla flavored), 14 oz - you can get these at craft stores near the cake decorating area.
• at least 50 small candy canes (not full size, just the little ones)

Finely Crush the candy canes. You could use plastic bags and a rolling pin, but that does get messy. Your food processor or blender may be an easier way to go. Seperate the powder from the pieces, and continue to recrush any pieces that are big, and seperate again.

Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. It takes about 2 minutes or less, checking and stirring every 20-30 seconds.

Line a large pan or cookie sheet with foil. This will make it easier to get it off later. Pour on your melted chocolate chips onto the pan and smooth to get it the same height all the way around. Let this chill in the refrigerator until hard (I did it overnight).

Now melt the candy melts in another microwave safe bowl. This took less than 2 minutes, they melted easily.

Once melted, stir in the powder from your candy canes. This will slightly tint it pink.

Pour your candy melt/candy cane powder mixture on top of the hardened chocolate from the fridge. Smooth until it is the same height all the way around, but do it carefully as to not disturb the chocolate from below!

Sprinkle the remaining pieces from the candy cane spashing operation on the top.

Now chill again until hard.

When ready to give out, smash into small pieces. I found that a rolling pin with no handle works well for whacking it into pieces.

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It's fun to eat something from the Deli at your local store and then finding a recipe on AllRecipes and adapting it so it's even better than what you got from the deli!

Some people call this pistachio fluff. Brandy reminded me that her family called it Watergate salad, which reminded me that my grandma called it the same thing when I was really young.

• 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 (3 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix - I used jello brand
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed - I used Cool Whip lite
• 1/2 (10.5 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
• 1/4 cup long sweetened shredded coconut

Put your pinapple in a large bowl, and the package of unprepared pudding on top. Stir until combined and let set for a few minutes to be sure the pudding dissolves. Put in the coconut and stir. Now add the whipped topping and marshmellows and fold them in. Refrigerate for at least a half hour to set before eating (longer is better because the marshmellows will absorb the other flavors). Serve and enjoy!

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Some beautiful pics and yummy looking recipes are at Tarting It Up. I am *so* craving crepes now!

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