The nice thing about all theses recipes is that they can be combined by using what you have on hand...and what you like. I'm making one this morning for the weekend. I always have olives, pulled some pecans out of the freezer from the holidays that i will toast and lightly chop. Roast a red pepper on the gas burner. My basil bed is doing well but not enough for a pesto so i'll pinch off a dozen tops but the cilantro is bolting so i'll add that at the end with a squeeze of lime. Tomatoes are a month away but i have a dozen early sungolds (the size of marbles)...I'll cut in half and toss on top fresh. i have a bit of fetta left i need to use. A dozen sugar snap peas sliced in half. Not enough for a side dish. I made succotash wed and have an ear of corn left and half a zucchini and squash i'll use up. (my local Stop-n-Shop grocery has a local farm stand set up inside) A wooden cart with an umbrella, haha. I usually prefer simplicity and just a few ingredients but this time of year i have a little bit of everything...reminds me of my MIL's saturday soup my husband grew up on...all the bits of the weeks meals tossed in a soup pot with homemade stock from the freezer, maybe some rice or pasta. Not really left-overs using fresh, but certainly a 'garden party' pasta. Still a light sauce. I'm going to make a full lb so it will be a side dish tonight with cod cakes, a cold salad for tomorrows lunch, (DH will have some for breakfast, lol). Sunday night's return from the mountains i'll put the leftovers in a casarole, top with extra cheese, 'yogurt milk', panko and any grill leftovers, (lamb sausage!) and make an adult mac-n-cheese. (i have some rich stinky fancy munster i need to use up). A completely different meal when baked and toasted. sallyparis-love your blog. My husband caught me grating a few tomatoes last season, "now what are you doing!?", haha. Works great in a hurry but needs a big bowl. Love warm pasta tossed in all that yummy juice when tomatoes are so sweet and abundant. tricia-haha, the harried greek housewife. Now i know what to call it! Gwlolo- No need to 'cook' the sauce, but a few ingredients do 'brighten' flavors with a few minutes in a large wide saucepan, just a few minutes as the pasta is finishing. Add the warm pasta to the saucepan and toss. A caprese is nice just on top fresh when serving along with toasted nuts if using. If you have an abundance of fresh basil, some is nice tossed in the warm pasta but save most for the top garnish. Arugula is delightful as well.

The wraps are from Wizardnm and she posted these a while ago and they're very good! Cream cheese filling for wraps 8 oz pkg. cream cheese 2 green onions (white part and about 1 inch of the green part) 2 tbsp. dry ranch dressing mix 2 to 3 tbsp white wine (optional) Combine all in a food processor and process until smooth. Spread a couple tbsp of mixture on each tortilla. Fill using leaf lettuce, sliced deli meat of choice. A great cocktail pinwheel can also be made using the above mixture and the following. Olive and Green Chili Blend ¾ C chopped green olives ¾ C chopped black olives 1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chili's Combine the olives and green chili's. Spread a tortilla with the cream cheese mixture then spread with olive mixture. Roll up tightly and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2 hrs or longer. Unwrap and slice into pinwheels about 1 inch thick. During the holidays I like to combine cream cheese with a bit of cranberry relish, spread on a tortilla and place deli thin sliced smoked turkey on it. Roll up and refrigerate as above. Yummy! Nancy Here is a family favorite pasta salad. ORZO WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES 1 small eggplant, peeled, 3/4" dice 1 red pepper, 1" dice 1 yellow pepper, 1" dice 1 red onion, peeled, 1" dice 2 garlic cloves, minced 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 lb Orzo, cooked 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon salt 1-1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 3 scallions, minced 1/4 cup toasted Pignoli nuts 3/4 lb Feta cheese, 1/2" dice 15 basil leaves, chiffonade Mix first 7 ingredients together and place in one layer in large roasting pan. Roast @ 425 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once. Mix warm orzo with warm cooked vegetables and all of their juices. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper and toss together and let cool to room temperature. Add scallions, nuts, Feta and basil and serve. Serves 6

Kim, making fresh pasta doesn't need exact measurements. In fact, they can throw you off. It's kind of like bread in that the amounts of flour to egg will vary with moisture in flour and size of eggs and weather, etc. I make this kind of basic pasta dough too. It's the kind my Nonna taught us. Well, more like what we saw her making. Forget the well of flour, unless you really want to play with that method. To start your experiment I'd use 3 eggs. Beat them in a bowl and start adding flour until you get a nice stiff dough. Not too stiff, you want to be able to knead it a little bit and work it afterward. If you were using the well you'd just beat your eggs into the middle and pull in as much flour as needed to make the stiff dough. Turn the dough out on the table and knead a few times until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap or the bowl and let rest for about ten or twenty minutes then roll out. That's it. I don't usually let it rest at all, but then I have a pasta machine to make it easy to roll out. For torellini we use 1 egg yolk to one cup of ricotta and about a tablespoon of romano for the filling. If you were using larger quanitites you could use the whole eggs. One whole egg per pound of ricotta. This is also what we use for ravioli and for lasagna for that matter. You can get much more complicated and add other things, but this is the basic. Hope this helps. Have fun.

You can (sorta) "create" low-lactose several ways.... #1. Our adult son and now our granddaughter are both lactose intolerant and have used a low-lactose whey-based milk substitute called Morning Moo's (www.moosmilk.com) for many years. I make homemade pudding mixes with it, use it as a substitute for evaporated milk by making it "double" strength. I use the dry powder in mashed potatoes for really extra fluffy mashed potatoes. I add the powder to potatoes boiled in a small amount of water to make potato soup. I make flavored cocoa mixes using the dry powder and flavored non-dairy creamer powders, but it also comes in a chocolate flavor. This particular whey-based milk substitute has the best flavor of these types of whey-based products - nearly like milk. It's inexpensive per gallon when you purchase it in large bulk quantities (24.25# bucket - or larger). Our son (almost 31) has used a whey-based milk substitute "milk" since he was 4 years old on the advise of a pediatrition. Yes, there is some lactose, but most people who are lactose intolerant can consume low levels of lactose without any problems. #2. Another point to know... There is a percentage of lactose in dairy products (see link below). As a general rule of thumb, the higher the fat content the lower the lactose. The longer a cheese has aged, the lower the lactose. That's why most people who are lactose intolerant don't have any problems with consumption (in low to moderate amounts) of things like butter (0.8-1.0%) or cream. There's very little lactose in it. #3. Fermentation also alters the lactose. I make homemade kefir (using almost any kind of milk), and it reduces the lactose to a very low, very digestible, level. I use homemade kefir as a substitute for buttermilk and use it in our smoothies everyday (along with some kind of 100% fruit juice - 50/50 and other additions like flax meal, etc.). The longer you ferment the kefir, the thicker the curd gets. You can drain the thick curd like you would yogurt for yogurt cheese, and depending on how long it drains, I use it as a substitute for plain yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, and even a cottage cheese type product. Do a Google search for - Dom's Kefir Insite - for more information about kefir. #4. Keep Coffee-Mate Single-Serve Portions (the size used for individual use in coffee/tea) on hand (I can get a box of 50 at Wal-Mart). They are lactose FREE and don't require refrigeration. Perfect for adding to oatmeal - as I found out during a recent ice storm when we were without electricity for an extended period of time. I could make instant oatmeal with water heated on our camp stove, and added the liquid from 2-3 creamers to the oatmeal. You can also mix the powdered non-dairy creamers with water and make "milk" for topping your morning cereal. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Lactose Percentages of Foods