Bacon wrapped asparagus

Who doesn't love bacon? This is just a nice new way to have asparagus and it looks super pretty on your plate. Great for having guests because it looks like you did a lot of work.

In a tiny little sauce pan, simmer about 1/4 cup (or more) of balsamic vinegar, pepper, 2-3 tablespoons brown sugar, and about 4 tablespoons butter. Now this all depends on how much sauce you want to make, and you can sweeten it to your liking.

Let that reduce for just a few minutes.

Take your asparagus and trim the ends to your liking. Now take make a small bundle of asparagus and wrap your bacon around it. Place your wraps in a small baking disk and pour sauce over.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until asparagus is soft and bacon is cooked.

Stuffed Magda

If you can't tell, I love madga. This recipe is literally the best way to use magda because it goes so well with sausage and tomatoes. This recipe was originally a stuffed pepper recipe, but I have found it to be amazing with Magda. Original recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bobs-stuffed-banana-peppers/
Since the original recipe is huge, I tweaked it down to size for what I was using.

Start by cutting the ends off your squash and cutting it in half lengthwise.

Scoop out the center. This doesn't have to be perfect, because you can scoop more out after it has softened in the oven.

Place in a baking pan facing down and drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 350 until the magda has softened some. You can pretty much bake the madga while you are making your mixture and cooking your sauce.

While the madga is baking, finely chop 1/2 cup onion and about 1/4 cup celery. Add to a skillet and saute with butter for about 5 minutes.

 Add in one 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes and one 8 ounce can tomato sauce. Now, I didn't have the tomato sauce so I chose to add some cherry tomatoes from the garden instead and adjusted my seasoning accordingly.
Season with basil (fresh if you have it), parsley, oregano, pepper and 2-3 cloves garlic. Let that all simmer for at least 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl mix 1 pound italian sausage, about 3/4 cup bread crumbs, 1 egg, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, black pepper, and 1 cup of the tomato sauce.

By now your magda should be soft and can be removed from the oven. If you want to scoop more out at this point you can.

Don't forget to salt and pepper your magda!

Fill the magda with your sausage mixture and top with your tomato sauce. Top with mozzarella cheese and bake for about 35 minutes until sausage is cooked through and sauce is boiling in the pan.