Alfredo Sauce or Kitchen Glue

I'm not saying that Alfredo sauce tastes like glue or has other unwanted glue properties, rather that Alfredo sauce can hold a dish together and you can stick anything in it. We LOVE Alfredo sauce, so I make it regularly. Right about now you are imagining either a jar of white sauce or a sauce pan full of scratch sauce. If you are thinking of jar sauce, stop it! That stuff is terrible! Read on and learn how to make the most basic sauce that you can easily customize. Wow your friends with this easiest of all recipes. Or if chicken noodle soup isn't working, this is a great comfort food when served with pasta.

Of course, like with many popular recipes, there are hundreds of variations. I have tried MANY of them, and I'm going to share the one that is successful every time. Some recipes are just not that good. This is a quick recipe, and with it you should be able to serve dinner in 30 minutes or less. (Provided you know how to cook more than one thing at a time. If you can't boil pasta, grill chicken and steam broccoli all at the same time you made need help with the sauce whisking.)

So to start, gather your ingredients! For a simple sauce (that will turn out and be tasty) you need only flour, butter, milk and Parmesan cheese. We can add many things to this, but that's for later. You will also need a medium sauce pan (I use a non-stick sauce pan), a silicone coated whisk (or regular for pans without coating) and a couple measuring cups and measuring spoons.

In your medium sauce pan melt butter over medium heat (med-low is better than med-high). When the butter foams, whisk in an equal amount of flour (2T butter and 2T flour works quite well). I use a non-stick medium sauce pan so I use a silicone coated whisk. I strongly recommend whisking, though it will turn out using spoon stirring, whisking is just easier, and shouldn't cooking be easy? Heat the butter and flour for at least 3 minutes, with an occasional whisk to prevent sticking or burning, or a continual whisk if you're nervous about scorching. The butter and flour (which is now a "roux") may darken a little in color, and this is fine. We cook the roux to prevent a starchy flavor from dominating the sauce.

To the roux you will add 2 cups of milk, in increments, whisking to combine completely. Again, you can use a spoon to stir, but it will take a little longer. Add 1/4-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (depending on taste and desired thickness of the sauce) and whisk to combine. Simmer (not boil) for 4-6 minutes, and it will start to thicken (the longer it cooks the thicker it will be).

Serve with pasta, chicken, broccoli, bruschetta, pico de gallo, mushrooms, green onions, asparagus... the options are vast, because this is yummy! If you have leftover veggies or meat in your refrigerator, this is a good recipe to put them in. This may be technically a cream sauce more than an Alfredo sauce, but I always just call it creamy Alfredo sauce.

Now for variations! When you originally melt the butter you can add a clove or two of pressed garlic, chives and other herbs to taste or even diced onions.

Instead of 2 cups of milk you can add 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of chicken broth or 1 cup of white wine or even 1 cup of tomato juice (sauce is a little too thick). You can even skip the milk altogether and add any combination of those things! (I have never tried it with just tomato juice though, I've always used milk and tomato juice together.)

And in addition to the Parmesan cheese you can add whatever kind of cheese you like - mozzarella, provolone and cream cheese work very well. I have heard of blending cottage cheese in a food processor and adding it!

The Invention of my Famous Quick Chicken Goulash

I say famous in the title, because I know that I'm going to be asked to make this one again and again! I was looking at the cupboard and I wasn't sure what I felt like making for dinner so I started setting things on the counter, to visualize the possibilities.

I started with tri-color rotini, because pasta is quick and Shane (husband creature) had to go to work in less than an hour. Also, they are pretty. Next to that box I placed a can of dark red kidney beans and a can of chicken. Ideas began to form in my head so I added a can of diced tomatoes and started the water to boil. I measured my pasta and went to the refrigerator to forage for produce. I found onions, garlic, green bell pepper and tomatoes, but decided it was quicker to use the canned diced tomatoes, so the fresh tomatoes had to stay behind.

The pasta water came to a boil so in the pot with the pasta. Set the timer and give it a stir and it can take care of itself in my non-stick pot, an invention handed straight from the gods to mankind. Nothing sticks to non-stick, not even ignored pasta!

On to my veggies! The onions and peppers I treated the same, almost. Of course, they are different creatures, you don't peel your pepper and you don't de-seed an onion, but I did mince them both with my food chopper. I had decided this dish would be soup-ish so I wanted them really little, I don't like big chunks of pepper or onion in my soup (unless it's French onion, and then peppers aren't invited at all). The onion went into the frying pan with a little sea salt and butter - to start them caramelizing faster. The pepper needed to wait a minute, as it wouldn't be added to the pan until the end. After peeling the garlic I pressed it right into the frying pan with the onions, which were about half way done at that time (I was going for a more light burn than a true caramelization). I added a little more butter and gave it a healthy stir before remembering I hadn't stirred the pasta since I had started it to boil.

So I stirred the pasta and then drained it, reserving 2 cups of my boiling water. To the same non-stick pot I emptied the can of diced tomatoes. I put the kidney beans back in the cupboard because I decided I didn't need competing proteins and I had already decided chicken sounded better. To the diced tomatoes I added the two cups boiling water and I hate to admit it, but 2 chicken bullion cubes (I'm out of canned low sodium stock!) I also added paprika, black pepper, basil and cilantro (I love cilantro, it goes all sorts of places it was probably never meant to go).

Back at the frying pan the onions were starting to get a nice crispy sort of brown, so I added the peppers and stirred them. Then stirred the soup, and then I opened the canned chicken, because yes it is edible, and rinsed it REALLY well. The onions were added to the soup and the chicken went into the pan to cook off the extra water. At this point I felt my soup was too thin, so I added about 1/2 can of tomato paste. I then decided it didn't have enough vegetables and it wasn't yet colorful enough so I added a can of corn, I normally use frozen, I really don't care for canned vegetables, BUT canned corn that is going to become part of soup is my one exception. I didn't even drain it, as I had added a bit much tomato paste and it would add a little bit of sweet and salty flavor.

By this time I had almost forgotten about the pasta again, but it was still hot when I added it to my soup, which I promptly decided was more like goulash than soup, so now it was a goulash (you see how recipe naming works now, don't you?) I also added the chicken, and debated adding black beans, decided against and stirred vigorously. This broke the rotini a bit, but that was fine with me. I let it simmer maybe 6-8 minutes before serving, allowing to cool for about 2 minutes and eating.

It was super yum, and Shane only poked it once to find out what all was in it before eating the whole bowl!