What you’ll need:

•  16-oz. box of pasta (I like Barilla Plus)
• One large jar of pasta sauce (the 2-lb. size) or two smaller jars (Yes, that’s a lot of sauce. But this makes a lot of pasta)
• 3-4 zucchini and/or squash
• Frozen pepper blend
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1-lb turkey sausage

What you do:

1. Bring a big pot of salted water to boil. Meanwhile, chop the zucchini and squash into evenly-sized chunks. Slice the turkey sausage into chunks and saute the frozen peppers and the garlic in some olive oil until tender.
2. When the water is boiling, add the whole box of pasta. Cook according to package directions, adding the vegetables to the water when the pasta is 3-4 minutes from being done. Drain.
3. Heat the sauce, sausage and pepper and garlic blend in a medium pot until warm. Carefully fold into the pasta and vegetables.
4. Serve with some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

This tart berry sauce complements vanilla ice cream.

A couple weeks ago I decided to make some French toast for Sunday breakfast, but I wanted to top it with something more special than pancake syrup. I decided a berry sauce would be perfect. One problem: fresh berries are stinkin’ expensive. So I used frozen, and the sauce came out great. Here’s the extremely easy recipe for my frozen berry sauce. Serve it with French toast, pancakes, waffles or (my favorite) good quality vanilla ice cream.

Easy berry sauce

Add granulated sugar to the berry mix for some sweetness.

• Frozen berry mix (I used raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)
• Granulated sugar
• Splash water

Put the berries in a small saucepan, then splash with water. Add a few tablespoons of sugar, to taste, depending on how sweet you want the finished sauce to be. Bring to a simmer and reduce, about 7-10 minutes, to thicken. If you have fresh strawberries, you can throw some slices into the finished sauce to add a different texture. Cool slightly before serving. (Seriously, that’s it)

However, I’d never made Snickerdoodles. I was extremely lucky to find the recipe for “Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles” on AllRecipes.com. The cookies came out perfect for freezing: slightly crispy on the outside, but soft and chewy inside. Because they’re so soft, you can eat them straight out of the freezer without breaking your teeth. And of course, there’s nothing like ice cream when it’s 100 degrees outside.

I changed the recipe slightly to use all butter, and I will mention I think it’s important to use real vanilla extract. The Snickerdoodle is a simple cookie and every flavor is on display.

Snickerdoodle Ice Cream Sandwiches

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream together butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 minutes (exactly). Allow to cool for a few minutes on the sheet before moving to a cooling rack.

After the cookies are completely cool, match them by size into pairs. Line a dish with wax paper and put it in your freezer. Put a scant scoop of ice cream on the bottom cookie, and gently flatten with the top cookie. Put the sandwich into the lined dish immediately (don’t try to work in batches – I made that mistake first and it was a melty mess). Use wax paper between layers of completed sandwiches.

I bake a lot, especially cookies. My specialty is butterscotch chip. So how did I make it 30 years into my life without knowing about cake mix cookies?

For anyone else who may not know, the cookies use cake mix as a base, then you mix in whatever you want – nuts, chips, candies, etc. My sister Rebecca recently told me about them so I decided to try them out for myself.

Holy moly were they easy!

I’ve been craving a chocolate cookie, so I chose a chocolate fudge cake mix and peanut butter chips. It took less than five minutes to mix up the batter and get the first dozen in the oven.

The cake mix cookies came out with a great texture: crispy on the edges but soft and chewy in the middle. And they tasted like Reese’s peanut butter cups, always a win. I’m thinking next time I’ll do a red velvet cake mix with white chocolate chips.

The recipe I used came from Cooks.com and is super simple. It yields 48 cookies, but I made mine gigantic so only ended up with about 25. I also used slightly more chips than the recipe calls for, but not quite the whole bag.

Cake Mix Cookies

• 1 package of cake mix (any flavor)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup of oil
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 cup of chopped nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, etc.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat together the cake mix, egg, oil and water, then stir in your “goodies.” Drop by teaspoons about 1 inch apart onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.

Mom's fried zucchini cakes

I live in the South, land of the fried okra, and apparently even my Chicago-born mother isn’t immune to the siren song of sizzling oil. She recently gave me some zucchini grown by her friend Dina, and suggested I prepare them with her recipe for Fried Zucchini Cakes.

Normally, I like my vegetables pretty plain, with some salt and pepper and maybe some butter — simple and fast. But I was feeling especially Betty Crocker-y, so I thought I’d give them a shot.

I hadn’t eaten them since I was a kid, and back then I didn’t like them that much. But I’ve learned it’s worth it to give foods another chance now that I’ve grown up.

These cakes are definitely best right after you make them. They’re crunchy on the outside, warm and gooey on the inside. Honestly, you wouldn’t even know they started out healthy.

Below is my mom’s recipe. You may want to try them with a little more seasoning, or possibly some spices to add some heat.

FRIED ZUCCHINI CAKES

• 3 cups shredded zucchini (for me this was about 3 large)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 tsp. parsley
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. salt
• dash pepper
• 1 cup flour
• 1 Tbs. minced onion

Mix the ingredients together. Drop by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown. For me, this recipe made about a dozen portions.

I wanted to do something a little different, so I piped on the icing and swirled two colors together by spooning two shades of icing into the piping bag. As long as you keep them separated as much as possible, it comes out with a nice swirl.

The icing is made from two sticks of butter, four cups of confectioners sugar, a couple tablespoons of milk, some vanilla extract and a couple tablespoons of rum.

I also put rum in the cake, which I lazily made from a butter pecan mix recipe. I decreased the amount of water by 1/4 cup, then added 1/4 cup rum.

In hindsight, I wish I had used more rum in both the cake and icing. You can just barely taste it.

They came out beautifully, though, and were very very tasty.

The photo shoot looks great too.