Do you have the facilities to reheat food? I'm assuming you'll be making the meal at home. This would be good with a salad plus if you search this forum you'll find more macaroni & cheese recipes:

TRIPLE CHEESE MACARONI (serves 8 )
2 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
Salt to taste
6 oz sharp Cheddar, shredded
6 oz Monterey Jack, shredded
5 TBL + 1 tsp butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
2 TBL + 2 tsp butter
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 TBL melted butter
1/2 tsp paprika
Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water per pkg directions; drain.
Combine the macaroni, 1/2 of the Cheddar, 1/2 of the Monterey Jack & 5 TBL + 1 tsp butter & mix well. Spoon into a buttered shallow 3 qt baking dish.
Beat the cream cheese in a mixer bowl while gradually adding the evaporated milk. Beat until blended. Spoon over the macaroni mixture. Sprinkle w/the remaining Cheddar & Monterey Jack. Dot with 2 TBL + 2 tsp butter.
Bake in a preheated 425 oven for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.
Combine the crumbs, 1 TBL butter & paprika in a bowl & mix well. Sprinkle over the baked layer. Bake 10 minutes longer. NOTE: If prepared in advance, do not add the cream cheese mixture until just before baking.~~

How many are you cooking for?

If you'd like a good quiche recipe, I like this one. You can use Roma tomatoes at this time of year & just use more (enough to cover the bottom of the pie shell.)
SAVANNAH QUICHE (serves 6 as an entree)
9" pie shell
2 ripe tomatoes (more if using Romas)
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup flour
2 TBL vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 slices Provolone cheese, torn in bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 cups light cream
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup grated Swiss cheese

Bake the crust in a preheated 425° oven for 5-7 minutes. Peel & slice the tomatoes 3/4" thick. Sprinkle w/salt & pepper & dip in flour. Heat the oil in a skillet & saute the tomatoes 3-4 minutes on each side (less if the tomatoes are really ripe.) Remove with a spatula & drain.
Place the tomatoes & onion on the bottom of the pie crust. Scatter the Provolone on top. Mix the cream & eggs together. Pour into the pie shell. Sprinkle the Swiss cheese on top. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 35-40 minutes. Cool on a rack 10 minutes before cutting into wedges.~~300 Years of Carolina Cooking

This is an excellent meatless dish!

Canneloni Stuffed With Spinach And Ricotta (Lori)

NOTES: Lori's recipe. Originally called for 2 pounds fresh spinach, cooked and drained, I used frozen.

The crepes, which are very easy to make, make this an outstanding dish but you could also use boiled and cooled fresh flat lasagna noodles from the deli section.

I have served with the cream sauce or a tomato sauce both ways is delicious.

6 eggs
1/2 Cup flour
1/4 Tsp salt
1 1/2 Cup water
1 Package frozen spinach thawed and drained
1 1/2 Cup ricotta
3/4 Cup parmesan
2 egg yolks
Pinch nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 butter Unsalted
1 Cup heavy cream

Combine first 4 ingredients in bowl with electric mixer. Let stand at least 1/2 hour. Cook individual crepes over med heat.

Combine spinach , ricotta, egg yolks. 1/4 cup parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Blend well with a fork. Prehaet oven to 350. Grease a casserole dish with the butter. Spread mixture onto to crepes and roll up. Lay seam side down in the dish. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup parmesan. and por the cream over top. Bake until they turn golden, about 20 minutes.

Make a nice lasagne using Yves Ground Round veggie crumbles instead of ground beef. It makes a nice light textured sauce, and the bits have a good flavour and the right "chewiness" just like bits of hamburger. I don't think I would like a 'meat layer' made from it, but a meat sauce made with it is very nice.

I have been known to make it on good friday, and people have even gotten upset thinking I fed them meat! I find that lasagne travels well and doesn't suffer overly from being made ahead and baked later.

How about Emeril's Etouffee?
SHRIMP ETOUFFEE version 2
from Real and Rustic Cookbook

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Ingredients needed:

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped bell peppers
2 cups chopped celery
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups water
6 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped green onions

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and celery and sauté until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp, salt, and cayenne and cook for about 4 minutes, or until the shrimp turn pink.
Dissolve the flour in the water and add to the shrimp mixture. Stir until the mixture thickens slightly. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the parsley and green onions. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes more.
Serve right away.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

I've had this meatless lasagna in my "want to try" file for a while - it gets excellent reviews at epicurious.com.

Becky
Lompoc, CA

* Exported from MasterCook *

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND HAZELNUT LASAGNE

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
For squash filling
1 large onion -- chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 lb butternut squash -- peeled, seeded, and
cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
4 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
1 cup hazelnuts (4 oz) -- toasted, loose
skins rubbed off with a kitchen towel,
and coarsely chopped
For sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups milk
1 bay leaf (not California)
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
For assembling lasagne
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella -- coarsely grated (2
cups)
1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3 oz)
12 sheets no-boil lasagne (1/2 lb -- (7- by 3 1/2-inch)

Make filling:
Cook onion in butter in a deep 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 10 minutes. Add squash, garlic, salt, and white pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until squash is just tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley, sage, and nuts. Cool filling.

Make sauce while squash cooks:
Cook garlic in butter in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring, 1 minute. Whisk in flour and cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Add milk in a stream, whisking. Add bay leaf and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, then reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, 10 minutes. Whisk in salt and white pepper and remove from heat. Discard bay leaf. (Cover surface of sauce with wax paper if not using immediately.)

Assemble lasagne:
Preheat oven to 425°F.

Toss cheeses together. Spread 1/2 cup sauce in a buttered 13- by 9- by 2-inch glass baking dish (or other shallow 3-quart baking dish) and cover with 3 pasta sheets, leaving spaces between sheets. Spread with 2/3 cup sauce and one third of filling, then sprinkle with a heaping 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layering 2 more times, beginning with pasta sheets and ending with cheese. Top with remaining 3 pasta sheets, remaining sauce, and remaining cheese.

Tightly cover baking dish with buttered foil and bake lasagne in middle of oven 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until golden and bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes more. Let lasagne stand 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Cooks' note:
Filling and sauce can be made 1 day ahead and kept separately, covered and chilled. Bring to room temperature before assembling.

Makes 6 servings.

Gourmet
December 2001

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These are ALL wonderful suggestions...THANK YOU. I will have to see what the ladies would prefer and go with that, but at least I have some choices. Thanks again!

Welcome back Ginger!

You can make the rice-spinach mixture ahead of time.

TUNA - SPINACH FRITTATA
2 Tbs. butter or margarine
1/ 2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry *
3 cups cooked rice (1 cup uncooked)
1/ 2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 (6 oz.) can tuna, drained and flaked
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/ 2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1/ 4 tsp. pepper
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until soft but not browned. Remove pan from heat and add spinach, rice and Parmesan cheese and mix well. ##At this point, mixture can be refrigerated for a day or two and finished up on another day.

Mix tuna into rice mixture. Mix together eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over rice mixture and gently stir to blend. Turn into a greased 9 inch square or shallow 2 quart baking dish. Top with Mozzarella cheese. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then slice into squares or wedges to serve.

* Note: 1 lb. fresh spinach, cooked, chopped and well-drained (about 1 1/ 2 cups) can be substituted for the frozen spinach.

Becky_ca,
I made the butternut lasagne recipe this weekend and it was wonderful. Although I'll qualify this by saying that I made some changes to the recipe which I'll describe. But the main parts of the recipe stayed the same so I'll vouch for it being a very good dish.

I don't like messing with lasagne and layering so instead of skipping some wonderful lasagne recipes I've started just using a regular noodle and mixing up all the ingredients. In this case I used 1 lb of corkscrew noodles. Also 5 cups of milk seemed like a huge amount to me, and all I had on hand was about 1 cup so I used that milk and 1 cup of sour cream and it turned out great. Even if I'd had the milk, I'd have only used 2 cups anyway, but I like how the sour cream thickened things up a bit. I also subbed pine nuts for the hazelnuts because that's what I had on hand.

I know it sounds like I completely changed the recipe, but the essential part of this recipe is the melding of flavors of the sautéed onions and simmered squash. It makes a wonderful unique flavor and I think that too much of the milk sauce would have overwhelmed that.

I mixed up all the ingredients, topped with some reserved cheese, and baked. It's among the best veg recipes I've ever made and I plan to make it for our annual progressive dinner in May where it's my turn to do the main dish. Thanks for posting!

Lowspark,

Thanks for posting that you'd tried and liked it - as I said, I've had this particular recipe in my files for a long time. Glad the changes you made worked - I also have a hard time not tinkering with a recipe, and in fact have already determined I'll use pecans instead of hazelnuts, just because it's easier. I think one of the reviewers at Epicurious also said she used frozen squash with good results. As far as the pasta goes - somebody on the Food channel not too long ago said that she didn't boil the lasagna noodles, just soaked them in hot tap water for 20 minutes to soften, so that sounds like a good tip, too.

I am curious - did you use fresh mozarella?

Becky

Becky,
well.... since you asked... No. Actually I don't normally have fresh mozz on hand unless I specifically go out and get it, normally for something like a fresh tomato/basil/mozz dish to serve as an appetizer or salad. It's VERY mild and I'm not sure how it would stand up in a recipe with lots of rich flavors.

And I didn't want to admit it in my post above but in fact, I didn't have any mozz on hand at all!! I used monterrey jack. And instead of parmesan, I used asiago which is a little bit softer and a little bit sharper than parmesan.

LOL, I almost never follow recipes exactly! I read this recipe at work on Friday and decided to make it that night since I had a butternut squash at home waiting to be eaten. I figured I'd come close enough on the other ingredients and, well, I did I think. Like I said, the main beauty of this recipe is the butternut & onion flavors, enhanced by the mild cheeses & sauce.

Oh, and I think pecans will do beautifully in this recipe because they'll compliment the butternut well.

i haven't made this in a few years but it is a wonderful recipe! choose whatever veggies and herbs appeal to you and serve it your way.

Julias Vegetable Crepe Casserole

I was watching her show a number of years ago when she prepared this recipe. She really threw me when she said, "a batch of our old friends, mushroom duxelles, are also used in this dish but Ive made them so many times, I wont bother here" I may have missed a thing or 2 at that point but what follows makes a very good (and rich) casserole.

Make basic crepes using:
1 C flour
2/3 C milk
2/3 C water
3 eggs
a dash or two of salt

Make a custard by beating together:
6 eggs
8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 C milk
a dash of salt and pepper
a sprinkle of nutmeg

Finely grate 2 C of Swiss cheese

Lightly steam 8 or 10 baby carrots and then stir them into some melted butter flavored with a little brown sugar and orange juice.

In a small pan, slowly sauté finely chopped onions and mushrooms with a bit of tarragon, until just about all of the mushroom liquid has evaporated.

Steam a head of broccoli and separate into flowerettes and drizzle with a little lemon juice.

Butter a 9", high-sided casserole dish. Place a crepe in the bottom and use several more to line the inside of the dish. Sprinkle on about ¼ C of the Swiss cheese.

Spoon the carrots into the casserole dish and add a little more cheese. Pour on some custard and then add a crepe. Spoon on the mushrooms, a thin covering of the custard, and add a crepe. Sprinkle with cheese and then spoon on the broccoli. Add the rest of the cheese and the custard and the final crepe. Bake at 350 for 1 ¾ hours (with a cookie sheet under the casserole dish as it may well bubble over).

Below is her recipe for duxelles, which she recommends as a quick flavoring for sauces and stews and for stuffings and braises. It makes about ½ cup.

4 C of finely diced fresh mushrooms
2 T butter
2 T minced shallots or scallions or onions (I really prefer shallots, if possible)
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 T port or Madeira (optional, but we really like the addition)

By handfuls, twist the mushrooms in the corner of a towel to extract their juices. Heat the butter to bubbling, and sauté the mushrooms in hot butter over moderately high heat, stirring and tossing, until the pieces begin to separate from each other3 to 4 minutes. Add the shallots and sauté a moment more; season to taste. Add the optional wine, letting it boil down rapidly to nothing. For storage, pack into a covered jar; refrigerate or freeze.

A good, easy marinara sauce with penne, salad, garlic bread. . . recipe is called Best Marinara Sauce Yet found at allrecipes.com