Alfredo Sauce

Who doesn't love alfredo? Is there anyone out there? I certainly hope not. It's one of my very favorite meals and is pretty much the epitome of comfort food. Pasta smothered in a cheese sauce that is oh-so-bad-for-your-arteries. It's everything I love all in one dish! :)

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter (NOT margarine)
2 tablespoons flour
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 ounces freshly shredded Parmesan (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the brand of cheese and how sharp the taste is)
2 cups heavy cream (if you're in a pinch, you can use whole milk)
extra shredded Parmesan

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Saute garlic until you can smell it, about a minute or two. Whisk in flour, stirring constantly for about a minute (HERE is a refresher on the basics of a roux). Whisk in heavy cream. Stir frequently until sauce is thickened and sticks to the back of a wooden spoon.

When sauce is thickened, stir in cheese. Serve over your favorite pasta (pasta pictured below is homemade and will be posted sometime soon!). Or use it to dip veggies or breadsticks in. Or you can use it as a fondue for all kinds of things. If you're using it for pasta, top with the extra shredded Parmesan. Because you can never have enough cheese.

White Turkey Chili

I do a regular chili recipe in the crock pot that will be posted someday but I had been thinking about trying a turkey chili. So I search the web, of course, for something that would fit my tastes just right. Well I found two that I sort of combined to make my own. With chili you really can't go wrong. You can do beef, turkey, probably pork, or just beans. Then just throw in some veggies and liquid or whatever and you're set. Yummy.

The recipes I found came from HERE and HERE.

And here is what I did in my own cozy little kitchen :)

White Turkey Chili

1 lb ground turkey
3 cans white beans (any variety)
1 small can chopped green chilies
2/3 to 3/4 can chicken broth (adjust depending on how "soupy" you want it)
chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
1 tsp cumin
1 ½ tsp oregano
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
chopped green bell pepper ( i had to omit it in mine because I didn't have any)



Brown turkey with onion and garlic.



Add all ingredients to crock pot.



Cook on low until ready to serve.



Top with shredded Monterey jack cheese.

Enjoy!

Inspiration Comes In The Moments

What is meant by the term inspired? I like to think of it like this: inspiritos - inspiration - divine breath. But you may say "I don't get inspired." Oh yes you do! You just haven't learned to recognize it yet. As we are all divine children of the universe - how spirit works in our lives is similar - some recognize it some don't.

I'm sure if you dig deep you have a story you could tell that just doesn't fit with the every-day-run-of-the-mill events in your life. Go ahead dig deep.

When we're open to receiving from the universe - all kinds of things begin to happen. The synchronicity in our lives occurs more often, events coincide with other events and you begin to see the flow of the universe through your life like a river.

Get into that flow and enjoy the ride! It's better than an E-ticket ride at Disneyland. For those of you who are too young to remember or don't know how the old ticketing system worked - back when Disneyland first opened you were given a ticket booklet - so many A's - so many B's, and so on. The ticket book came with five E tickets. The E tickets were the BEST~! If you wanted to go on another E ticket ride after using all yours - you had to buy more!

Since we realize that inspiration comes from the universe and if we are aligning our desires through thought, feeling and emotion - and we remain open I guarantee that you will become inspired. A little nudge here a little nudge there, do this, go this way - stop off at the cleaners (I know you've been putting it off) drop by the post office and bam you connect with someone or read something that leads you to another step and another and another until you find yourself face to face with your desire.

Say you have a desire for greater wealth in your life - and you also have a hobby you are passionate about. So you align yourself and then a little thought trickles in WHAT IF I do this and this and this with my hobby and turn it into a business? So you research it (action), you develop a business plan (action) you find your market - you build your store (either on-line or otherwise) or consign your product for sale - BAM! Money starts coming in.

Inspired action is following each step as it appears before you. Like Dr. Martin Luther King said "you don't have to see the whole staircase, you just have to take the first step."

Committing to action is a step-by-step process. One step at a time. You don't have to see the whole picture. Go with the piece of you have.

When I designed our home Wildwind, I used a computer program that would allow me to see the interior (I taught myself to use the program - I learn by doing), but through the program, I never truly realized the size. You think you know what a foot is, but how about sixteen, twenty or fifty? When you see it on paper, without the experience of walking through the structure in physical reality and previous experience creating my own blueprints - I didn't realize the size.

It's a good thing I didn't (nor did my husband) because we probably would have been scared to death to attempt it. I just designed it, had the engineer do his work, filed the plans with the county and we were good to go.

After paying for grading and foundation - we solicited bids on the construction (not the materials). The bids came in at fifty thousand dollars just for construction. That's not much you say? We'd already spent that on grading and foundation! And that didn't include the lumber which would be that and more again. That didn't include sheetrock, insulation, electrical, plumbing, cabinets, carpets, flooring, painting, roofing, or trusses. That was just the labor to put it up. That's when I turned to my husband and said - "you're framing." In for a penny, in for a pound we were.

I realized then that this would be a serious do-it-yourself project. The bottom floor is twenty-six hundred square feet. The second floor is the same and the third floor is darn near a thousand square feet. Do the math.

How we accomplished this was one step, one nail, one wall at a time. It is the same with the creation of the live you want to live. If you try and look at the whole project or the big picture of what you want to do in your life it will scare you! The trick is to focus on the moment, focus and do what is asked of you in the moment, for that is your only place of power.

So you take a step, do a little today. Take another step, do a little more - and pretty soon your dream is built! It took us three years from start to finish doing just that. It was an adventure - scary at times - but I can guarantee this - the Universe hands out E ticket rides!

Next time you feel inspired - don't wait around - act and you might be surprised where it will take you!

Former managing editor of a small town newspaper, Brenner is the author of The Little Book of Becoming - Understanding the Law of Attraction and is currently at work polishing her metaphysical fiction, Changing Planes. Little Book of Becoming Law Of Attraction Masters

Learn Something New - Using a Roux

This simple technique is a must-know for any Kitchen Queen. Let me preface this by saying that I know now with a surety that I'm a mother, because I always think of Winnie-the-Pooh when I say "roux", and I'm always tempted to spell it Roo. Yes, I know it's pathetic. I do that with other words, too. Like every time someone says, "That's ridiculous!" or "Are you serious?", I always revert back to Harry Potter mode. Poor Sirius. I cried. Did you?

Anyway, a roux is a mixture of fat and flour or cornstarch and water and is used to thicken sauces. The first thing to learn is when to use flour and when to use cornstarch. If my sauce starts with melting butter in a pan (to sautée onions in perhaps), I'll add flour to the butter. For alfredo sauce or cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese, I'll always use flour, since those sauces start with a melted butter (fat) base. If I'm making say an Oriental type dish, like the Mongolian Beef I made earlier this week, cornstarch and water is the go-to-roux. I love random rhymes. I also love alliteration. Back on topic. If I'm cooking in the crock pot, cornstarch and water is the roux of choice there as well.

If your recipe doesn't allow for time to cook the flour in the fat to get rid of the flour taste, use cornstarch and water. If it's a fat based sauce, flour is best because the flour takes on this delish nutty flavor after you cook it, and there's just no replacement for that. That said, I tend to prefer to use cornstarch and water instead. It's just easier in my mind. It mixes in easier, and I don't have to worry about any raw taste.

Like I said, it's important to cook the flour in the fat for a few minutes before you whisk in your liquid. Most recipes call for equal parts fat and flour, but I tend to go a bit heavier on the fat or a bit lighter on the flour. I don't like the roux to get all thick because then I have a hard time not having lumps in my liquid.

For the cornstarch and water roux, I use equal parts cornstarch and water. I just use my finger to dissolve the cornstarch in the water. Most recipes will be fine with just a 1 tablespoon ratio, but sometimes I need to up it to 2 tablespoons to get the desired thickness.

If you add too much roux, whether it's flour or cornstarch, just thin your sauce out with more liquid (chicken broth, water, milk, whatever). No harm done.

Woohoo for the Roux!

Salsa Chicken

This was so super easy! You will all just love it.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken



4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream




Add chicken to slow cooker.



Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.



Pour salsa and soup over chicken.



Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.



Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.



Serve with rice.

(Recipe from sparkpeople.com)

Chicken in a Basil Cream Sauce

I randomly stumbled across THIS recipe blog. I used to go to church with one of the blog authors. ANYWAY, as always, I modified it, because I just can't NOT modify a recipe, and it is fan-tas-tic! So good. Really. And easy.

You'll find that the recipe seems very straight-forward and will wonder how and why I would change it. The first reason is because I ended up being out of bread crumbs. So I seasoned some flour with oregano, basil, salt and pepper, and it turned out perfect. If you do use flour instead, make sure you shake off any excess flour before cooking the chicken.

The second thing I changed is I thickened up the sauce at the end with a roux of cornstarch and water. I'll get into the basics of a roux on Wednesday. I just used about a tablespoon of cornstarch to a tablespoon of water and stirred that in. The sauce was just too thin for my liking.

On we go.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup butter
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Place milk and bread crumbs (or, in my case, seasoned flour) into 2 separate, shallow containers. Dip chicken breasts in milk, then cover in bread crumbs (flour). Melt butter in a skillet, and brown chicken in butter on both sides until cooked through. See the lovely golden brown color? That's what the flour does. Yummy.

After chicken is done, remove from skillet and cover with foil to keep warm. Add chicken broth to pan, stirring to loosen up the yummy-ness from the bottom of the pan. Stir in cream, basil and pepper, and bring to a boil. If you want to use the roux, add it at this point. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan cheese.

Serve sauce over chicken! And by that I mean smother your chicken in the sauce.
You'll definitely go back for more sauce. It's just too good.