Dinner Guests

Hi, this is Faith and Timmie. I am really excited about having a blog with my mom,

Tonight we had some guests over and my mom made cupcakes and manicotti. It tasted awesome!

The cupcakes where just yellow cake mix and dark chocolate icing. Yum!

Here's the recipe for the manicotti:

Manicotti

1 jar of your favorite red sauce

Alfredo sauce (see recipe below)

1 box manicotti (prepared as directed) I leave them in the cold water so they won't stick, but not too long or they get mushy.

Mozarella, and or parmesan cheese for the top. (4 oz.s maybe)

Manicotti filling (see recipe below)

Hawaiian bread rolls (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spread 1/4 jar of red sauce in bottom of 9X13 pan. Save remaining. Fill plastic resealable bag with filling and cut off corner. Cut if off about 3/4 of an inch or big enough to make a hole somewhat smaller than the inside diameter of the noodles and large enough to let the pieces of sausage come through. Fill the manicotti noodles with the filling, using the bag. I wore gloves because I have a bit of a cold.

Place the filled manicotti in the pan on top of the red sauce. Continue filling and placing in the pan until you are out of filling.

When you have your pan full of yummy manicotti, pour the rest of the red sauce around the edges only of the manicotti, leaving about a 4"X 6" rectangle free in the center. This is where you will put your white sauce. Pour in the white sauce, just in the center and top with something green. I usually use parsley but I didn't have any so I used sweet basil. Yummy.

Bake in oven, covered with foil until hot and bubbly. About 20 minutes. If you want to bake it later, at this point put in refrigerator. If you refrigerate you will have to add extra time for baking when you do bake it. After it is hot an bubbly top with more mozarella, or mozarella and parmesan, whatever you have, and put back in oven uncovered until melted. Serve with salad and hawaiian bread rolls, and of course cupcakes for dessert.

Manicotti Filling

1 15 oz. tub of ricotta cheese

1 8 oz. bag of shredded mozarella

3/4 to 1 lb. of italian sausage

1 egg

salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Break egg into bowl, add ricotta cheese and mix together. Add salt, pepper and garlic to cheese mixture. (Oh, I added a little bit of sweet basil too, just for kicks). Add mozarella, and sausage and mix it up. Put it in a plastic baggie and pipe away into your noodles.

Alfredo sauce

1/4 c. butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese

This ain't no diet food. Melt the butter, then add the minced garlic and slightly cook. Don't burn it. Add the heavy cream and simmer for 3-5 min. When good and hot, turn the heat way down or off and add the parmesan cheese. Stir, stir, stir until all melted.

*** There is no reason to ever buy the nasty jarred white sauce. This sauce is so easy and so good. If you don't have heavy cream or just want to make it lighter, you can use milk or even canned milk which I keep on hand at all times just in case I need Alfredo sauce.

Cheesy Hawaiian rolls:

Hawaiian rolls

Cheddar cheese, shredded

margarine

garlic powder

Buy the hawaiian bread rolls that are pre sliced. They come 8 to a package. Take them apart and lay flat on cookie sheet. Top with margarine, garlic powder and cheddar cheese. Place in oven until tops melted and good. Enjoy.