I do the same as you with many vegetables. Olive oil, balsamic, but I often add a few drops of fish sauce. I also quick fry some garlic in the oil. dcarch

Here's a couple of my go-to, no-fail, everybody loves it recipes. With the pasta I would serve Woodie's fabulous garlic bread and a salad - I like Caesar, but maybe something with a simple vinaigrette would be good too. With the scampi I'd serve warm sourdough for sopping up the sauce along with a salad and either pasta or a baked potato. And naturally copious amounts of decent wine no matter what you're serving LOL. I also like to serve pot roast to dinner guests - either beef or pork along with gravy, mashed potatoes and some sort of vegie. But that may be a little heavy for this time of year. Personally, I like to stick with fairly simple dishes when I entertain. I don't think most people really expect elaborate meals, and as long as whatever you're serving is well-prepared I'm sure it will be enjoyed. Becky * Exported from MasterCook * PENNE IN CREAM SAUCE WITH SAUSAGE Recipe By : Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Pasta Tested and Approved Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium onion -- thinly sliced 3 garlic cloves -- minced 1 pound sweet Italian sausage -- casings removed 2/3 cup dry white wine 1 can diced peeled tomatoes with juices -- (14 1/2 ounce) 1 cup whipping cream 6 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley 1 pound penne pasta 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese Melt butter with oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and sautuntil golden brown and tender, about 7 minutes. Add sausage and sauté until golden brown and cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon, about 7 minutes. Drain any excess drippings from skillet. Add wine to skillet and boil until almost all liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes with juices and simmer 3 minutes. Add cream and simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Stir in 4 tablespoons parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. (Sauce can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.) Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta; transfer to large bowl. Bring sauce to simmer. Pour sauce over pasta. Add 3/4 cup cheese and toss to coat. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese and 2 tablespoons parsley. Serves 6. Source: "Bon Appétit February 1997 Landini Brothers Restaurant Alexandria, Virginia" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook * Shrimp Scampi Bake Recipe By : Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 cup butter 2 tablespoons prepared Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon chopped garlic 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 2 pounds medium raw shrimp -- shelled, deveined with tails attached 1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). 2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, and parsley. When the butter melts completely, remove from heat. 3. Arrange shrimp in a shallow baking dish. Pour the butter mixture over the shrimp. 4. Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and opaque. www.allrecipes.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook * GILROY GARLIC BREAD Recipe By : Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 3/4 cup butter -- (1 1/2 sticks) room temp 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces) 6 tablespoons mayonnaise 3 large garlic cloves -- minced 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano -- (generous) crumbled 1 1 pound loaf French bread -- halved lengthwise Thoroughly combine first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Refrigerate. Bring to room temp before continuing.) Preheat oven to 375*. Spread garlic butter on cut side of bread, wrap each half in foil. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate.) Place bread on baking sheet cut side up. Bake 20 minutes. Remove foil from bread. Preheat broiler. Broil cut side up until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Source: "Woodie - www.thathomesite.com" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NOTES : I think this spread is enough for two loaves of bread, and I prefer to bake uncovered at 400F for about 10 minutes, then broil for a couple more to get it crispy on top.

Merry Christmas Ginny- Not much time this busy morning for posting, and this is probably too late to be helpful. Recipes for soft dinner rolls are as common as flip-flops in the summer, every common post-WWII cookbook like Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping, Pillsbury, and the web sites for the yeast companies, will all have recipes for white dinner rolls made with active dry yeast. Prior to that, the homemaker used fresh yeast, and those are the soft white dinner rolls I remember my mother making. If I close my eyes I can still recall the wonderful smell you can only get by using fresh yeast, which is all but unavailable these days. Wal-Mart carried fresh yeast during November and December, and that was the last time I could find it in local stores. It's been at least 15-years since I last bought fresh yeast. The one thing those recipes have in common, and the one tip I can give when making them, is to use all-purpose flour like Gold Medal or Pillsbury, which are National Brands. That was the type of flour used. It wasn't until the advent of the automatic bread machine in the late 1980's that "bread flour" was available for household use. Nearly any recipe that has butter and milk in it will be the one to pick. Avoid using King Arthur All-Purpose or Robin Hood All-Purpose flour because they are higher in protein. If that is the type of flour you have to use, add a little more butter to the recipe (1/2 to 1 T.) to help cut the gluten-development. Hard rolls require flour milled from high-protein hard wheat flour (like bread flour), while soft rolls are best made with flour that is a mix of soft wheat and hard wheat - like National Brands of all-purpose flour. I have a rather interesting bread machine recipe for Soft White Bread that uses 1 cup of white cake mix, which is milled from low-gluten soft wheat, and that is the "secret" ingredient for soft bread. Before going gluten-free, when I wanted to make soft dinner rolls using whole wheat flour (I mill my own flour), I used a 3:2 mix of hard white wheat and soft white wheat (or used a low-gluten flour for the soft wheat like spelt or einkorn). I've been gluten-free for 4-years as of Jan. 1. I now find the smell of bread repulsive. For me, flour was a poison to my body, and for many people it's an addiction. The two isles of the store I try to avoid are the detergent isle due to the onslaught of all the toxic fragrances, and the bread isle. Best of luck on your gluten-free journey. My best advise is to stay clear of processed gluten-free foods due to the high-glycemic flours and starches they are made from. I use coconut flour and nut flour for baking, and have recently added banana flour to the mix, along with milling my own gluten-free flours from a variety of grains/seeds/beans, and I keep rice flour and starches, which are common to all-purpose g-f mixes, to a minimum. When I use rice flour, I soak, sprout, and dry brown rice myself, and mill it into flour to reduce the arsenic found in rice. Nearly all commercial g-f mixes and foods contain cheap, high-glycemic, rice flour. So you are trading one issue - gluten - for another potential issue - blood glucose (and diabetes). I've even been considering a 10-day grain detox to see if I should also eliminate corn from my diet. But I need to get through today, and get the visiting family on their way back to their homes (12-hours away) before the snow storm hits Saturday, before I can even contemplate a detox plan (lol)! -Grainlady

Pea soup or bean soup of any iteration is great for miserable weather. Comfort food. And where my people come from (Friesland) miserable weather is their specialty . . . I also make "Smokey Irish Bean Soup" with white beans, using bacon for the smoky flavor. I also have some hickory smoked salt, for vegetarian versions of these soups. Traditional snert has a ham hock or pig's foot but I don't normally have such things on hand. I had bits and bobs of meats and fake smoked meats and realized I had the makings of the snert flavor profile at least . . . I'm not sure I like potatoes in the soup either, makes it extra hearty but kind of gilding the lily. Another traditional ingredient would be celery root, which is not really a common cost-effective ingredient I would have on hand. I've gotten it, but it just doesn't add a flavor to the soup that is worth it, IMHO. It tastes a bit like water chestnut to me . . . I've used rutabaga or turnip, but they get too mustard-y tasting in soup, IMHO. Some spinach or kale or collards is not too bad, but not traditional. I might try kohlrabi some time, that might be similar to celery root, but kohlrabi is also a rare food for me to buy. We stick with the inexpensive stuff . . . maybe splurge on something like savoy cabbage, lol! Edited to add I was feeling under the weather so didn't bother with a photo, but I'll try to do one of the leftovers that I'm having for lunch. Darn sinuses!