Linguini with Roasted Pepper Sauce and Pine Nuts

This kind of pasta sauce is one of my favorites, because it requires no cooking on top of the stove.  I roast the peppers sometime during the day and when it's time to boil the pasta for dinner, I just whirl all the sauce ingredients up together in the Cuisinart.  It just couldn't be faster.  The heat from the pasta and a little of the hot pasta water combine to help make a no-cook sauce.  Consider this sauce a sort of "master recipe" for your imagination.  You can make all kinds of great no-cook sauces in your Cuisinart.

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Daring Bakers - French Macarons - Lemon with White Chocolate Filling and Chocolate with Nutella Filling

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Being part of a group like The Daring Bakers certainly makes you stretch. The monthly challenges make you bake things you never would have otherwise.  That's certainly true of this month's challenge.  Although French macarons are wildly popular right now and are so pretty, I probably never would have put them on my "to do" list.  Beside, they are famous for being difficult to master and unpredictable.  And they sure did not disappoint.   

Macarons are little almond cookies that are made with egg whites and have a filling that you sandwich between two of the cookies.  If you want to see what the perfect macaron looks like, the famous Beverly Hills bake shop, Paulette's Macarons, is the place to go.  They make perfect macarons in a rainbow of colors, incredible flavors and snazzy packaging.  And they ship.  

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Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto with Sage

What a beautiful fall weekend it's been.  My oldest son came home from college to watch Northwestern play Michigan State here. Of course, I've been cooking all of his favorites - ribs, stuffed potatoes, chocolate molten cakes with meringue - and got the fun last minute job this morning of cooking breakfast for him and four of his buddies.  I miss all those boys.  It's a little sad having two of my three boys away at school. . .  

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