Super Secret Fettuccine Alfredo

 My grandfather told me he learned to make this from Alfredo himself. He also said he personally visited the queen of England and dated Kathryn Hepburn and told her to quit acting and marry him because she'd never make it in Hollywood, so maybe take the origin of this with a grain of salt...However he learned how to make this, the recipe has been a family secret for at least three generations and is the best fettuccine Alfredo I've ever had. It's also super easy, although the measurements are along the lines of "add until the spirit of your ancestors tells you 'that's enough'" rather than being super accurate. 

Ingredients:

1 lb fettuccine noodles

Salt for the pasta water 

1 stick of butter

1 egg yolk 

1 pint of heavy cream

About 16 oz of grated Parmesan cheese (if you can get fresh, that's best, but I often just use the one from the local grocery store as we don't have Italian delis where I currently live - also, I like the combo Parmesan and Romano cheese as well)

  

Start by boiling a pot of water with some salt added. I think a few teaspoons of salt? Or maybe a tablespoon? You want to add some flavor to the pasta, but not make it overwhelmingly salty. 

Once the water is boiling, add 1 lb of fettuccine noodles. Do not break them to make them fit in the pot. No real Italian does that. I've seen lots of social media videos that showcase Italians' responses to people who break the pasta to put it in the pot. Stir it about every 30 seconds to a minute at the beginning until it's all under water. Then stir it every minute or two to make sure the noodles don't stick together. Cook to al dente, which means cooked with a slightly firm center. This is one of the things that my ancestors whisper to me, which has apparently also been inherited by at least one of my children. Check the box of pasta if you want more specific directions and make sure to factor in your altitude. Things take longer to cook at higher altitudes.  

While the pasta is cooking, combine the egg yolk with some of the cream (maybe 1/3 cup) and mix it together. This is so the egg yolk can spread through the pasta instead of cooking into fried egg bits. 

 Drain the pasta, but don't shake it to get all the water out. Leave a little of the water on the noodles to make the sauce creamier. Return it to the pot you cooked it in, but take the pot off the stove. Proceed to the next step quickly - don't let the pasta cool.

Cut the stick of butter into slices and put them into the pasta to melt. Stir the melted butter into the pasta. Add the yolk/cream mixture and stir to coat all the noodles. Pour in about half the container of cream and mix to coat the pasta. Add about half the container of grated cheese and stir to combine. Add more cheese if you want it to have more flavor and more cream if it's too thick. We like lots of sauce, so I usually end up adding about one 16 oz container of cream and about 16 oz of shredded cheese per lb of pasta. Serve immediately. 

Meatloaf

 Even people who don't like meatloaf often like mine. It has a few ingredients that most don't include, but it's super easy to make. 

I start by prepping the pans. I use two glass bread pans (4.5 x 8.5 inches or 5 x 9 inches), but you can use any type of bread pan, or make it in a square pan if you prefer. This recipe makes two loaf-shaped meatloafs (or is it meatloaves?). To prep the pans, I line them with tin foil. I find this makes it easier to take them out when they're done. If you don't like the pans with tin foil, grease them so the meatloaf doesn't stick to the pan.

 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the following (adding these together first makes it easier to stir the rest of the ingredients):

3 slices of bread (pick whatever you want or have - ends of bread loaves are great for this), crumbled into little pieces

1 cup milk 

 

Mix in:

2 eggs

2 lbs ground beef

1 lb sausage (I like Jimmy Dean's regular breakfast sausage, but you could also use Italian sausage or even sage sausage if you prefer the taste - I prefer to buy it without it in sausage shapes, but if you have ones already in the sausage casings, cut the casing and take the sausage meat out of the casing)

1/2 cup of shredded cheese (the original recipe calls for shredded carrots - I prefer cheese)

 

Season with about:

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

 

I also usually add the following - you can use some or all of these or add in other seasoning you know you like:

A splash of Worcestershire sauce

A bit of ketchup

1 teaspoon dry mustard powder 

 

Divide the mixture in half and fill the bread pans with it. Top each loaf with:

Two slices of bacon

Ketchup (I just make wiggly lines of ketchup across the top)

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.

 

Remove from the oven and drain the grease/juice/drippings from each meatloaf into a saucepan to make the gravy. Add the following to the saucepan with the drippings:

1 can beef consumme

2 Tablespoons white flour (or cornstarch) 

 Heat over medium-low heat until it thickens.

 

I usually serve this with mashed potatoes, green beans, and biscuits.  

 

LAB's Bread

 This is my basic homemade bread recipe. I got it from another mom on a chatroom I was part of two decades ago. Her initials were LAB, hence the title of this post. This whole recipe takes about 2-4 hours from start to finish, although only about 30 mins of that time is active preparation time. If I'm making bread for dinner, I usually start shortly after lunch. 

Before starting, grease two bread pans. I usually use olive oil spray and wipe it with a paper towel to make sure the whole inside of both is greased. If you skip this step, it's really hard to get your bread out in one piece. You could also use shortening or even butter to grease the pans. Make sure you get the corners as well. Bread pans are usually 4.5 inches by 8.5 inches or 9 x 5 inches. I like using glass ones, but metal ones or clay ones work as well.  

Combine the following and let sit for 15 mins. If it doesn't sort of foam and give off a yeast-y smell, your yeast isn't working or your water was too hot. This means you need to get new yeast or start over again with water that's warm, not super hot or your bread will be very dense and heavy. 

2.5 cups warm water

1.5 Tablespoons yeast

1/3 cup honey (can sub sugar if preferred)

 

Add

3 Tablespoons oil (I use olive oil, but vegetable oil or whatever you have on hand works)

1 Tablespoon salt

 

Mix in  

4-6 cups of flour (I use half white and half wheat)

I don't think I've ever used less than 5 cups of flour. At higher altitudes I use about 5 cups and at lower altitudes I use 6 cups. I can usually mix the first three to four cups of flour in with a spoon, then I switch to kneading it in with my hands. Take your rings off before doing this or you'd get dough stuck in them :) 

 

Add 

1 cup oats (just basic oats) 

 

Knead until all the oats are incorporated into the dough. Kneading is basically folding the dough in on itself and then pushing down. Many bread recipes require kneading for specific periods of time or even kneading several times while it rises. This recipe only needs about 10 minutes of kneading at the beginning, which is one of the reasons I love it.  

 

Divide the dough up into two equal parts and sort of shape them into ovals about the length of the bread pan. Put one in each pan and put them somewhere they can rise for a few hours. I usually stick them in my oven with an oven-proof bowl of boiling water. Don't turn the oven on yet! I put them on the middle oven rack and the bowl of boiling water on the bottom rack. This provides a warm and moist place for them to rise, so the outside doesn't dry out and so they have the warmth to rise. If you set them somewhere else to rise, you may need to put a clean, damp towel over them so the crust doesn't get dry. Don't put them somewhere too hot or too cold. That stops them from rising. You don't need to replace the water at all - the steam and warmth from the initial temperature of the water is enough. 

 

After a few hours, usually about 2 hours, bake them at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. If you've put them in the oven with the oven-proof bowl of water, you don't need to take the water out before baking them. If the bowl isn't oven-proof, take it out before turning the oven on. Make sure the oven rack you bake them on is about in the middle of the oven. Too low and the bottom will cook faster, too hot and the top will cook faster - your bread won't cook evenly either way. 

Take it out and remove the bread from the pans. I find it helpful to use a butter knife to cut along the sides of each loaf to make sure it comes out in one piece. Let it cool for about 20-30 minutes before eating. If you want to eat it right away, it will be more likely to break into pieces, but it's super yummy to eat bread fresh out of the oven, so you can't lose either way :)