The kids are back at school. I can feel a chill in the air, and Halloween decorations and treats line store shelves. Fall is here, and though I am not going back to school, I get the urge to learn some new skills.

For several years now, I have wanted to take a cooking class. The only formal cooking class I’ve participated in was one on making homemade butter offered at a children’s museum class when I was 8 years old.

While vacationing on Mount Desert Island this summer, I had the good fortune of finding a fictional cooking class. I wandered into the Southwest Harbor library a few days before my birthday and caught sight of a new book, “The Way Life Should Be,” by Bangor native Christina Baker Kline. The book sat on a table along with a sign-up sheet for a food writing workshop Kline was teaching on my birthday.

With her new book among my birthday presents and the joy of having attended Kline’s workshop, I settled into some vacation reading. From the moment I began “The Way Life Should Be,” I could not put it down.

Set in Mount Desert Island, the book’s protagonist, Angela Russo, is 33 years old and single. She leaves New York City to start a new life in what she believes to be an idyllic place – Maine. She contemplates the sign that welcomes all of us as we cross the New Hampshire/Maine border: “Welcome to Maine, The Way Life Should Be.”

When her expectations for love and the so-called perfect life in Maine are not met, Russo realizes she must rebuild her life. As fall and winter set in to the island, she decides to offer a cooking class for the community. Relying on her Nonna’s recipes from southern Italy and the skills she learned from her, Russo discovers much about herself and her true calling.

As I read the vivid descriptions in Kline’s book, I felt as though I was a participant in Russo’s class. I intently “listened” as my instructor described the marinara sauce she would make with her class is an “everyday marinara … a staple of many Italian dishes.”

Before I knew it, I was home from vacation and ready to make the basil marinara. My first attempt failed. Perhaps, I can blame my misfortune on the very early morning hot-air balloon launch I attended that day.

Proof of my sleepiness came as I began to sauté garlic cloves in olive oil, I enjoyed the fragrance of the garlic and anticipated the yummy sauce I had read about. Then, much to my dismay, I noticed I was sautéing something other than garlic. I had reached for a plastic spoon – not a good match for hot oil. I was now sautéing garlic and plastic, and my spoon was disfigured.

Thank goodness for my calm husband who helped me deal with the disaster in the pot and ran to the grocery store to replenish my fresh garlic. When it was all said and done, the basil marinara exceeded my expectations. And once my son, Matthew, got past his worries about the little green things (strips of basil) in his sauce, he proclaimed it was “yummy.”

We took the sauce and used it in another recipe from the book, simple baked ziti. The baked ziti was just as good the next day, leading me to put this on my list of “make-ahead dinners,” perfect for our busy fall schedules.

Basil marinara

Ingredients:

6 to 8 garlic cloves, peeled

½ cup olive oil (half extra virgin, half regular)

3 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes, crushed by hand

½ cup fresh basil leaves, cut into strips

Salt and pepper

Sprinkle of sugar

Method:

Sauté whole garlic cloves slowly in olive oil over medium heat until golden brown or even caramelized (the longer the better). Add tomatoes, mashing them as they cook into sauce before adding fresh basil in strips, a stream of oil, salt and pepper to taste and perhaps a sprinkling of sugar to blunt the acidity of the tomatoes. Place the pot on low, on a back burner, and simmer as long as time allows.

Simple baked ziti

Ingredients:

16 ounces ricotta cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced

½ cup grated pecorino Romano cheese

1 pound ziti, cooked al dente

2 to 3 cups basil marinara (see recipe above)

2 to 3 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Combine the ricotta, eggs, parsley and Pecorino Romano. Add ziti and mix well. Fold in marinara. Pour half of ziti mixture into baking dish; sprinkle with mozzarella. Add rest of ziti. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining mozzarella on top. Return to oven until cheese is melted, 10 minutes or so.