pasta

To honor our 50th "like" on Facebook, I decided to create a super special dinner recipe that I have been meaning to make for some time now. For years, my husband and I have been trying to figure out how restaurants acheive a creamy cheese sauce that isn't grainy. We experimented with flour vs. corn starch, high end cheeses vs. the cheap-o brands, and had little success creating the perfect texture.

This past fall I had the pleasure of attending a pasta-making course at my husband's place of employment.

Betty Crocker really does have it all for the Best of Homecooked Comfort Foods.  If you don't own your own copy of Betty Crocker Cookbook, you should go buy one!  But in the meantime, you must at least have access to this recipe: Beef Stroganoff.

It's simple, delicious, and ready in roughly 1 hour.  Check it out!

My husband is always mixing sauces together to create *new* sauces. After mixing some alfredo sauce with some spaghetti sauce, he declared it tasted like "vodka sauce, or whatever they call that." Inspired by his creation, I decided to use my homemade marinara sauce, mix it with a can of Alfredo, and add some grated cheese. Thus, the Pasta Bake was born!

I had a craving for a cream pasta sauce, but wasn't feeling the Alfredo I normally whip up so I decided to search for something else.  When I came across the Basil Cream Sauce I knew that was going on my dinner!

I rummaged through my cupboards and was able to pull together all the ingredients I need to make this amazing sauce!  Let's get to it!

My husband doesn't much care for pasta salad, so I usually make it for myself during my summer break. I have always enjoyed cold pasta salad, especially of the Italian variety! There is something about fresh veggies cut up with noodles and pepperoni! Plus that Zesty Italian dressing that pulls the dish together! It's a refreshing summer dish.

For our third meal today we will up the time limit a bit due to the nature of dinner being somewhat more intensive.  Our dinner Meal in 20 Minutes or Less is going to be one of my favorites: curried broccoli with alfredo sauce on pasta.  I was skeptical the first time my husband made it for me, but it has quickly become one of my favorite meals!  And with some minor alternations from the original, we will make this dinner from fridge to plate in 20 minutes.  So

Despite growing up in an Italian home and learning many Italian recipes from my mother and grandmother, I had never learned how to make homemade Alfredo sauce.  Thus, I was stuck with the store-bought version until I picked up this particular alfredo sauce recipe from a friend of mine. It is delightfully simple, yet tasty!

My mother has always made the BEST lasagna I've ever had. Whenever we went to a restaurant or over to someone else's house and they were serving lasagna, it just never compared to my mom's homemade lasagna. The sauce wouldn't be quite right or there wouldn't be enough cheese or, worst of all, there would be sausage in the lasagna! I mean, sausage?!