We had friends over for dinner Friday night. I asked my husband what he would like for me to fix. He said "Remember that meat and cheese casserole you used to make, let's have that." There was a reason that I "USED TO make" that casserole. It has three ingredients: noodles, queso, and ground beef. The noodles and cheese are avoids for me; the tomatoes and beef are avoids for my Type A husband and daughter.

I asked my daughter what she thought about the proposed casserole. She wrinkled her nose, because she likes each of the individual ingredients but she does not like her food mixed together. Then her eyes brightened, and she said, "Mom, why don't you set it up like a taco bar. Let everyone go by and pick what they want to eat."

That is exactly what we did. I had a bowl of ground beef and a bowl of ground turkey; a bowl of queso and a bowl of noodles. I had a big bowl of greens and a large platter of other salad vegetables. I baked kamut rolls. I explained to our friends that they could mix up the ingredients any way they wanted. When we sat down at the table no two plates were alike.

For dessert I fixed the walnut torte in the RECIbase on this website and served it with diced nectarine. I was a little suspicious because the ingredients were very unusual, but it was delicious.

On a different subject, how is this for a greeting. "Good health to you and your household, and good health to all that is yours." You'll never believe where I found it…in the Bible. It's 1 Samuel 25:6.