Excerpt

My daughter is always saying I can make a tasty meal out of anything in the fridge, even if there is nothing in there. I seem to have a gift for this, something I get from Grandma, who could do the same.

The thing about food is sometimes when you eat certain things, the taste sparks a memory. All the recipes in this book were created with some great memories and hopefully when cooking these, new memories will be created and maybe my family and yours can look back on some old memories too and smile.

About baking times: No oven is created equal, and some parts of the country may have air qualities that differ. Most of the baking recipes in this book were created in Florida, low altitude in an electric oven with fresh spring water. Please realize that baking times listed are a guide to cooking. Some may need a little more or less time. Always do a fork or taste test. I noticed when I moved to Georgia, that I needed to adjust my baking time on some of these.

A matter of taste: I love garlic, oregano and mushrooms. I am not a big fan of onions and raisins, so many of my recipes do not include them. You can adjust all of the recipes with what you like. If you like more onions, add them. If you do not like garlic so much, add less. I like to grow my own basil and oregano, so I use dry, powdered and fresh seasonings. Please feel free to add some more of this or change some of that. Your cooking experience should be fun and stress free.

My grandmother did not usually use a measuring cup or spoon and I usually do not use them either, but for this book, I have taken measurement notes for you. The recipes in this book were tested, prepared and approved by my family and friends.

Happy cooking and hopefully this book will help dispel some of the mystery and anxiety you may have had about cooking Italian food.

Vickie’s ABZD
Baked Ziti

This is my signature Baked Ziti dish. We were at one of my son-in-laws family gathering in Waycross, GA, and I brought Baked Ziti. Since they are not Italian and quite English and very country, my food was foreign to some of them. One of his Grandfathers asked me several times to repeat the name of the dish throughout the day. Finally, he said to me, “I am going to call this ABZD so I can remember it.” Since that day, we call it ABZD, and he still asks me if I am bringing it. This is our typical Italian holiday dish.

Preheat oven 350
2 lbs ground beef
1 tbsp garlic powder.
1 tsp basil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp salt
½ cup grated Romano cheese
½ cup Italian bread crumbs
½ cup sliced mushrooms
1 small diced onion
2 eggs
1 tsp salt and pepper

1 lb ziti or rigatoni noodles
1 small package feta cheese diced or crumbled
1 lb mozzarella cheese brick cubed
½ cup shredded mozzarella for top
2 32oz jar marinara or spaghetti sauce
1 tsp sugar

In a large bowl, mix ground beef, 1 tbsp garlic, salt, basil and oregano, ¼ cup Romano, bread crumbs, mushrooms, onions, and eggs. This is your meatball mix. Fry this meat mixture in a large frying pan like a giant flat meatloaf, turn after 10 minutes, also start to chop up as it cooks. Make sure all the pink is gone from the meat. This makes rough meat chunks. Drain excess oil and add all marinara sauce and mix.

Meanwhile, preboil the pasta in salted boiling water, for about 5 minutes. Al dente (with a bite to it). Drain water, and then mix in crumbled Feta, ¼ cup Romano and cubed Mozzarella cheese into pasta.

Take a large baking pan and from your meat sauce, skim 1 cup mostly sauce to coat pan bottom. Add 1 cup of meat sauce into pasta and mix up before you pour the pasta into baking pan. Top with 2 cups of the meatball sauce, cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Take out and top with shredded mozzarella cheese, then bake uncovered for 15 minutes.

Heat the remaining meat sauce. I like to add 1 tsp more garlic and 1 tsp sugar to the sauce. This is the extra sauce needed when serving your Ziti.

TIP: Pasta has very little flavor. You add salt in the water before cooking to flavor the pasta. After it is cooked, the flavor will not get inside the pasta. It absorbs the salt better before cooking. Also, for those who don’t know, never add pasta to cold or warm water, it will get very mushy and not very good tasting. I learned this the hard way when I was really young and I never forgot how it felt to mess up spaghetti. Always have water at a rolling boil before adding any pasta.

Amaretto Cheesecake

This is my favorite cheesecake and so easy to make.

Preheat oven to 350

1 lb cream cheese
½ cup sugar
2 tbsp Amaretto or Almond Extract
2 eggs
1 graham cracker pie shell

Blend cheese, sugar, and Amaretto together, mix in beaten eggs. Pour into a graham cracker pie shell, put on water bath pan. Bake 50 minutes. It will rise high, and then settle back into itself after it starts to cool. Let cool overnight or at least 3 hours.