today's dinner.....and some old memories

I've been thinking about my past for a LONG time now - mostly about one person who really influenced my life, my Nonna.  Nonna was one of the most influential people in my life.  She passed away when I was 20, so 13 years ago --- WOW, crazy how time flies.  I spent so much time with this woman and Grandpa growing up.  I was closer to them then my own family I think at times.  They weren't even blood relatives, but I guess sometimes blood doesn't matter to make someone your family.  Espresso at all times of the day - summer, winter, spring and fall - sometimes with milk but my favorite with anisette (liquor) in it -- YUM!  And her cooking.....I miss it SO much!  She did teach me a few of her recipes and I do have a couple of the recipes still written down....but I wish I learned MANY more.  One of my Summer favorites was when she had her HUGE garden in full bloom.  She would make a layered Potato, Zucchini, Green Pepper dish.  This is one of the ones that I miss the most.  Recently on Allrecipes.com I found a similar recipe come to me in my inbox of my email.  I've been dying to try it and today was the day.

Here's the Allrecipes recipe:

Zucchini & Potato Bake



Ingredients


2 medium zucchini, quartered and cut into large pieces
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil
paprika to taste
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste


Directions


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a medium baking pan, toss together the zucchini, potatoes, red bell pepper, garlic, bread crumbs, and olive oil. Season with paprika, salt, and pepper.
Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and lightly brown.


And this is what I did:
 
I bought some already cut up rounds of zucchini and put about 3 packages in my HUGE roaster, added a whole bag of quartered baby red potatoes then largely chunked up green, red, yellow and orange peppers and an onion to the mix.  I forgot to add the garlic but did the remainder of the recipe the same as Allrecipes.  DELISH is what I have to say!!!  Next time I will just toss the zucchini in the bread crumbs AND remember the garlic, LOL.  I also remember my Nonnas recipe having cheese in it, SO i'm going to have to research that a little more. 
 
I will have PLENTY of leftovers for the entire week and thats great for me because i LOVE it!  I've been thinking ALOT about home and the past lately and this is just a little taste of it.  Maybe I'll bring some of my ponderings about home and my base family to the blog in the future.
 
Happy Eating!  Ciao.