Alexis: "Those peppers look like decorations"

Tonight I prepared Joy's pasta salad (p. 172) with shrimp, a simple dish with roasted red peppers, Italian parsley, black olives and roasted pine nuts. Again, sometimes you have to improvise with what's on hand: I used fusilli pasta instead of penne and toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts. I also threw in a handful of feta cheese that needed to be used. Mine might look a little more shrimptastic than if you strictly followed the recipe since I used half the pasta.

If you have never roasted peppers, they're sweet, savory flavor is worth the effort. Line a baking sheet with foil, add the peppers, and brush on some olive oil. Roast under the broiler until the skins begin to turn black and bubbly. The challenge for me was getting the skins off. I don't find the texture of pepper skins particularly bothersome so I've never bothered. Maybe it would have been easier if I hadn't quatered the peppers first.

My girls loved the results. Alexis, 6, said the peppers looked "fancy." "Mom, those peppers look like decorations," she told me. And 5-year-old Megan cleaned her plate.