State Fair souvenir helps serve up healthy zucchini atop mac and cheese dish

My souvenir from the State Fair of Texas this year wasn't a giant stuffed teddy bear or a monkey on a stick. It was a dynamite recipe I picked up while I visited the Food and Fiber Pavillion, where you literally can make a meal out of the food samples that exhibitors prepare on the spot and dole out to boothgoers.

The Southwest Dairy Farmers, who have the museum in Sulphur Springs, TX, sponsored an exhibit bragging on the merits of dairy products. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw their freebie recipe handout for Zucchini with Cheese Macaroni. I'm a mac-and-cheese girl from the word "go", but adding zucchini to it? I had never tried it but was determined to do so.

The dairy farmers' recipe called for provolone and mozzarella, but I subbed Swiss for the provolone because Swiss was what I had on hand. The red peppers from our garden, along with the featured zucchini, gave it lots of color and added a delightful flavor. The whole-grain macaroni added health to the project. I loved serving this in the individual gratin dishes--the portions were just right.

Thank you, State Fair of Texas! Your gates are closed now for another year, but Zucchini with Cheese Macaroni was a big success and will cause us to sing the Rogers & Hammerstein tune, "Our State Fair is a Great State Fair", for a long time in the future.

(By the way, check out my new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, to read about the mega-souvenir I brought home from the fair several years back. It's in the chapter entitled "Peach Trees and the Wedding Plywood.")

Zucchini with Cheese Macaroni

2 tablespoons butter

4 cups thinly-sliced zucchini

1/2 cup chopped sweet red peppers

1/2 teaspoon each salt and oregano

dash of pepper

8 ounces whole-grain shell macaroni, uncooked

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons skim milk

1 cup shredded Provolone cheese

1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Melt butter. Saute zucchini and red pepper until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add salt, oregano, and pepper. Meanwhile, cook macaroni according to package directions; drain. Stir butter, cream, and Provolone cheese into macaroni. Divide macaroni mixture into six gratin dishes or individual shallow baking dishes. Divide zucchini mixture over macaroni; top with Mozzarella cheese. Broil 3 to 4 inches from source of heat until lightly browned. Makes 4 servings.

Sweet potato pancakes nourishing and fibrific way to start the morming

The question nagged: what could I do with the remaining sweet potato I had purchased to make the serendipitous Peanut Butter Pumpkin Soup of a few days past? Sure, I could always serve it to myself for lunch as a baked sweet potato with a little brown-sugar substitute dotted on it. But my question about its use coincided with my desire to find something special for a Saturday-morning breakfast for Hubby on the a.m. we departed for the State Fair of Texas. I wanted to be sure it was a special day through and through (I knew the state fair-part would be).

In my fall recipe collection was a clipping from a Kroger grocery-store flyer; it featured a recipe for Sweet Potato Pancakes. It called for 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes--exactly the amount I could expect to achieve from my remaining sweet potato once it was microwaved. Although the very thought of pancakes sounded sinfully extravagant, this meal wasn't at all. All the substitutions amped it down into a "dining-light" category.

The breakfast with Sweet Potato Pancakes topped with blueberries for garnish truly was memorable and paved the way for an even-more memorable day. As we indulged in state-fair food, our consciences could take comfort in the fact that at least we had started the day healthy with this fibrific and nourishing breakfast!

Sweet Potato Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

2 tablespoons sugar substitute

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup egg substitute

1 1/2 cups reduced-fat milk

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes

8 tablespoons light stick margarine melted

3 egg whites, whipped

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar substitute, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl mix the egg substitute, milk, sweet potatoes, and margarine. Add to flour mixture and stir until ingredients are moist. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed. Fold into pancake batter. Pour 1/4 cup onto a hot griddle and flip when pancakes bubble up. Top with your favorite fruit and low-calorie, sugar-free syrup, if desired. Serves 12 (serving size 2 pancakes).