Success!!

I love baking.  I love watching as a half-distracted person, biting into some little thing, suddenly realizes that what they just put in their mouth is GOOD. Good, like down to your toes good. As Americans, we enjoy food in a hurry. We are addicted to it, and yet we are not connoisseurs of it. We get quick fixes to our little cravings and move on. But, I like making people stop. Obviously not everything I make is amazing. (I admit dinner tonight was Kraft mac and Cheese with hotdogs.) But, when I have the time, I will put every drop of myself into something just to give it away and watch what happens. It is priceless. A couple Christmas's ago I watched from across the room as someone stopped mid-sentence after  biting into one of my handmade caramel cream puffs. I don't think he had even paid any attention to which of the sweets on his plate he was about to pick up. But, when he tasted it, he closed his eyes and said something about maybe needing to cry before continuing his conversation. I love it. You gotta just stop and smell roses... or taste the cream puffs every now and then. One of those is worth more than a whole row of Oreos. You know? I think I got this from my mom. She is a most excellent baker. She actually just recently took the advice she has heard all her life and opened a bakery out of her home. Now she is getting paid to make food happiness for people. Maybe someday I will get to do that too. For now, all my best recipes are being stored away for "someday" or maybe just the next Christmas party.

 Anyway, I like to cook too. Maybe not as much as I like to bake, but I do like it. I have a particular affinity for Italian food because, well it's just amazing. Cannelloni, Pesto, Italian Bread.... Mmmmmm. One of my favorite Italian dishes is fettuccine alfredo. Unfortunately and frustratingly, I have always been unable to figure out the sauce... until the other day. :) I happened to be fiddling around on the website of one of my favorite chefs when I came across the solution. Up until I read what I am about to share, my Alfredo sauces have always come out disturbingly grainy. It's not that they necessarily tasted bad, but the texture just takes away from the sauce when it isn't right. And, seeing as EVERY recipe I could find said to make it the same way, I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Well, the problem, apparently, is that cheese is fragile. It takes very little heat to melt it and too much heat can make it do funny things. Chocolate is the same way. A little heat and you are in creamy heaven, too much and you have crumbly burnt mush. I know there is a life metaphor in here somewhere... The trick with Alfredo is to bring your cream to temperature, take it off the heat and then add the cheese. You let the cream do the melting, not the fire. Here's how mine turned out. Too bad you can't taste it...

Incredible. I have done it like this twice now, and Good grief, it is perfect. Unfortunately, most of the recipes online will tell you to "add the cheese and cook over low heat for 10 more minutes" or some such nonsense. DON'T DO IT. Somethings in life we just don't need to let simmer. Cook what needs to be cooked and leave the rest alone. Amen?!

So, here's my recipe... Sort of - I don't really measure things.
Melt about 3tbs butter in pan over med heat, add aprox same amount of flour (optional for thickening) whisk till combined, add about 3 cups total cream and milk combined (I think I used 2ish cups of cream and a little less than 1 cup of milk), salt or garlic salt and pepper to flavor, stir constantly until simmering, remove from heat and stir in cheese. I used probably a half a cup of grated parm a little grated monterey jack and bit of smoked fontina. Pour over fettuccine and enjoy... slowly. You mathematical direction followers should be good and annoyed by now. Sorry. I'm not precise, but it was dang good. I promise. :)