Fabio goes to the garden to take lasagna over the top for the ultimate Italian family meal. Batch cook this one and make enough to feed yourselves all summer. Also, need to know tips & tricks to help you avoid the 5 most common mistakes made when cooking lasagna!

Culinary tips:

-Most common mistake people use with dry noodles is to use them! For perfect lasagna, use fresh noodles in large sheets. Fresh noodles are growing in availability in American markets and can be found in your grocer's refrigerator section.

-Simple tip for perfectly moist lasagna? Grill your veggies first for great texture, more flavor, and less water. This is also a great way to transform leftover veggies!

-Since vegetables hold so much water, use a thick sauce to avoid an overabundance of moisture.

Fabio's Ultimate Veggie Lasagna

VEGETABLE LASAGNA

Recipe by Fabio Viviani

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

1 batch Fabio's fresh pasta dough, rolled into large sheets

1 pound fresh portabella mushrooms, cleaned with stems removed

1 ea. green bell

Even the priciest chains offer deep discountsAhh, happy hour. That brief, shining window, generally during weekday afternoons, when bars roll back drink prices in an effort to lure in those who are able to take advantage of the free time and low prices. But while bars are still great sources of happy hours, plenty of restaurants are offering happy hours, too. And not just on drinks; they're knocking back prices on food as well. In fact, some of the country's best-known, and most expensive, chain restaurants offer little-known menus featuring incredibly inexpensive food and drink specials. You just need to know where to go and when to go. And that's what we're here for.

America's Best Cities for Happy Hour

Happy hour itself is nothing new, obviously. Bars have been offering cheap snacks and discounted drinks to lure in patrons during off-hours as far back as anyone can remember (or not remember, as the case may be). But restaurants, especially the large chains, offering a happy hour is a slightly newer development, and one that a

Let your kids get their hands dirty! Flip through these recipe ideas that will amp up family fun in the kitchen.


Maple Belgian Waffles

After you've made this sweet recipe, kids can add sprinkles, chocolate chips, fruit, or strawberry jelly to their breakfast.

Recipe: Maple Belgian Waffles
















Cranberry Turnovers

Use leftover cranberry sauce to create these special breakfast pastries. Kids can help with piping the icing after they're finished baking.

Recipe: Cranberry Turnovers













Plus: 68 easy brunch recipes »



Homemade Bagels

Morning pleasures this alluring make it easy for kids to throw back the bedcovers and race to the breakfast table, especially when they get to pitch in.

Recipe: Homemade Bagels















Salami & Cheese Panini

Reminiscent of a grilled cheese, a panini is filled with combos of meat, cheese, and vegetables, which means you and your kids can have fun combining several different ingredients.

Recipe: Salami & Cheese Panini














Pilgrim and Clubhouse Sandwiches

Let your kids make their

No need to hit up IHOP for your fix. You'll be flipping flawless flapjacks in no time if you follow these tips. Whip some up for Mother's Day brunch -- or anytime!

1. Before you ladle on the batter, wipe the excess butter from the hot griddle using a folded paper towel. This will ensure perfectly browned pancakes.

2. Use all-purpose flour in the batter. Bread flour yields tough, chewy pancakes; pancakes made with cake flour turn soggy when crowned with syrup. You can experiment with flours that don't affect the structure of the pancakes, such as cornmeal, buckwheat flour, or whole-wheat flour. Substitute half of the all-purpose flour for any one of these.

Related: Bacon, 46 Ways to Cook and Eat It

3. Never whisk the batter until smooth; leaving lumps of unmoistened dry ingredients will result in fluffier pancakes.

4. Flip the pancakes just as the surface bubbles begin to burst. Flipping them after all the bubbles are gone produces a flatter pancake.

5. If you are adding ingredients

The Great American Pie Festival
The Great American Pie Festival in Celebration, Florida is two days of fun, games, and a whole lot of pie. It is also home to the National Pie Championships, where people come from all over to submit pies for judging, hoping to win "Best in Show" and the title of "Best Pie in America". And the blue ribbon goes to…

Sittin' on a Sandbar Key Lime Pie by Amy Freeze

Sittin' on a Sandbar Key Lime Pie
2013 APC Crisco National Pie Championships
Amateur Division
Best of Show and 1st Place Citrus
Amy Freeze, Avon Park, FL

Crust
2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons melted butter

Filling
8 ounces Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1-15 ounce can Eagle Brand condensed milk
¾ cup Coco Lopez (Cream of Coconut)
¾ cup key lime juice

Whipped Cream Layer
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar

Garnish
Lime slices & white chocolate sea shells

Mommas across the universe are waiting for Mother's Day. Some are wanting fancy handbags and others are looking forward to the day at the spa. Some Moms want a day to squeeze their children tight and have a nice meal. If this is the case, a group of friends and I put together a free bi-lingual (English and Spanish) Mother's Day E-book with a collection of different recipes you can make for Momma. I decided to post one of my recipes I have in the book here. Every Mom loves scones…. This Mom just happens to like them savory and spicy.

Related: 10 surprising ways to eat bacon
Corn scones Ingredients for Corn Jalapeno Bacon Cheddar Scones:

1 1/2 - cups yellow corn meal
2 - cups flour
1/2 - teaspoon baking soda
1 - tablespoon baking powder
1/4 - cup sugar
1/2 - teaspoon kosher salt
2 - sticks butter (cold, and cut into tablespoons)
1 1/2 - cups cheddar cheese (grated)
9 - strips of bacon (cooked and crumbled)
1 - cup buttermilk
1 - jalapeno (cut into thin strips)
peach jam and butter

Weeknight Dinners

After a day of work, we all run into the dinner conundrum: We don't want the same quick standbys we always eat, but we really don't want to expend the mental energy to scheme up something fabulous. Soon, this back and forth turns us from hungry to famished, and we end up scarfing down whatever's in the fridge or reverting to takeout.

But it doesn't have to be this way! We're obsessed with quick dinners, and, with a little bit of creative thinking, we've come up with some surprisingly simple dinners that will transform the weeknight meal from a hassle to a pleasure.

Whip up these recipes, and you'll still have plenty of time to relax after work, preferably with a glass of wine in hand.

1. Rigatoni With Easy Pork Ragu
Rigatoni with Pork Ragu

If you've never had a real ragu before (no, we're not talking Chef Boyardee), you're missing out. A rich, slow-simmered, meat-based sauce is served with pasta for a decadent-feeling meal. In our simple take on the classic, the finishing touch of salty

by Sara Bonisteel


Throw a Great Gatsby party.Host a Roaring Twenties Champagne-fueled bacchanal inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, now a new movie directed by Baz Luhrmann

"He gives large parties. And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." -Socialite Jordan Baker, The Great Gatsby

Ingredients:
Fireworks. Methuselahs of Champagne. A band. Everyone you know and many more that you don't.

Preparation:
Put all your furniture in the bedroom. Pull out your New Year's Eve finery. Stock up on confetti. Learn the Charleston.

Yield:
A soiree so good it will leave revelers with no other recollections aside from that warm feeling of having attended the greatest party of their life. (No pressure on your part.)

The Menu:
A catered affair is ideal, but if you don't have the means of the great Jay Gatsby, then fully stock your bar with reserves in waiting, prepare a flotilla of hors d'oeuvres, whip up two suppers (one for early evening and another for after midnight)