And now, Four Foods on Friday #12

Once again, we pause. Thanks again to Val at Fun, Crafts and Recipes, for Four Foods on Friday, her meme that weekly gives me an excuse to ruminate about comestibles... Like I need an excuse to think about food! Here are this week’s four questions.
#1. What’s your favorite kind of crepe?
Don't get a lot of crepe action, but do have a time-honored and only used for the most important and beloved family recipe for homemade manicotti, delicate crepes (not quite pasta) stuffed with ricotta and baked in tomato sauce. Takes a day of effort, but so good! My Nani taught my mom, and Mom taught me.

#2. How do you make ziti?
Funny you should ask, ziti was also on Nani's short list of good stuff -- First, you make the sauce, brown and drain ground meat, then saute garlic, onion, bell pepper until soft, maybe add a few slices pepperoni for flavor, and about a 1/4 cup red wine. Fry your tomato paste around for a few minutes for depth of flavor, then add tomatoes (squished by hand over the pot -- too much fun) and some good tomato sauce, oregano basil and bay leaf, about half a tomato can of water and simmer for a while. Meanwhile, boil your ziti to just al dente. Drain and color them (add a bit of sauce to them so they won't become a giant ziti ball.) In a pyrex dish, one layer of pasta, then sauce, then mozzarella then pasta, sauce, cheese until pasta is out and you end with cheese plus dust with romano cheese. Into a 350 oven until all is bubbly and melted and you can't stand it.

#3. What is your favorite thing to put on toast, and which flavor if more than one?
I like the all-fruit goo, the current jar is seedless raspberry, which I bought to fill thumbprint cookies with at Christmas. Ooh, I like apple butter as well, or butter and honey.

#4. When wok cooking, which oil burns the slowest? Peanut, vegetable or safflower?
Eh, don't do much wokking, when I do stir fry, it is mostly with the tiniest bit of olive oil or *gasp* cooking spray. I do like the flavor peanut oil gives stir fries and love love a good curry with pineapple and raisins and big ol chunks of barely cooked carrots.

Okay, that's my story this Friday. Click over to Val's at Fun, Crafts and Recipes and check out recipes like Golden Chicken Nuggets -- that's one I may impose on Mr. I Eat Nothing But Cheeseburgers Fries and Fish-Sticks.