50 NEW Recipes In 2010- #6 Olive Garden's Homemade Alfredo Sauce with Chicken

My Grandma Russell always did an odd thing when went to restaurants of a "finer dining". Usually, and I cannot recall at this moment exactly where, these restaurants would feature a little bit of parsley next to the entree.  While conventional approaches to this garnish would be to simply admire its "decor" on the plate, my Grandma would snatch up everyone's parsley, wrap it in a napkin, and place it in her purse.  I don't recall totally why.  It may have been simply to provide a garnish on her own plate. 

Tonight, I returned to my cookbook, America's Most Wanted Recipes, and found myself cutting up that one green garnish my grandma loved to snatch off the table...Parsley.  The parsley mattered very little in the grander scheme of things because my past experiences with sauces that involve melting cheese into them has not always been great.  I've made a few nacho cheese sauces and sauces for homemade Macaroni and Cheese that were more reminiscent of sawdust gravy than anything remotely I was attempting. 
   And tonight's cheese ingredients were not in the usual McCulloch family dining budget.  Last night, while my wife was perusing the bread at Meijer's, I snuck in a a little bar of Romano cheese.  Romano is NOT a cheese that sits next to the American cheese slices that we use for grilled cheese sandwiches.  I found the Romano in the "expensive cheese section" near the deli.  This little wedge of Romano cost me $6.24.  For the McCulloch budget, this is expensive.  The alfredo sauce also included Romano, Parmesan, heavy cream (my first time working with "HEAVY" cream), milk, egg yolk, garlic powder. 

   I didn't double check the amount of cheese to be put in, so instead of putting a 1/2 cup EACH of Parmesan and Romano, I put in a FULL cup EACH.  So the kids and Amber got to have a little "cheesier" version of the sauce.
   One of the BEST parts of making dinner tonight was getting help from my "little chef" Logan.  Usually, Scout is the only one that I can tempt into the kitchen to help me.  She LOVE helping me, and surprisingly, she never surfaced the whole time Logan helped me.  Logan grated cheese, turned over the grilled chicken. mixed ingredients, used the colander to strain the angel hair noodles, and peeled the potatoes.  It was a great time just having him there to help, and he was very, very eager to be my assistant (Of course, he has my dominant personality.)  I loved it.
  So recipe #6 I'm reporting on was a HUGE success and enjoyed by everyone....Homemade Alfredo Sauce over Angel Hair noodles with breaded chicken...yummmmmm!

50 NEW Recipes In 2010- #4 Applebee's Chicken Grande Quesadilla and #5 Chili's Salsa

Again, catching up here....last Tuesday (March 9), I began cooking out of a new little cookbook I bought from Barnes and Nobles, America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants.  In this book, you can find "copycat" recipes that claim to have broken the sacred, secret codes of famous recipes from national food chains, like Chilis, Outback, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Applebees. There are countless books out there that cover this topic, and it occurred to me tonight that I have actually gotten many of these types of recipes from online sources.  I could have saved myself a little bit of money.
   Having been out of the kitchen for nearly two weeks due to Tech Week rehearsals at the East China PAC for TO  KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, I went a little crazy in the kitchen that night.  Not only did I help my little daughter, Scout, make cupcakes for her First grade class, but I also made three new entrees.  Two of those are featured in this blog (#4 and #5 for my yearly challenge), and the third will be in the next one.
     Having not a great deal of time to round up supplies from our local Krogers, I was limited in what I could take on for my first slew of recipes.  Also, I did not want to make anything that would have long prep times.  We usually eat between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. due to the fact that our children usually go to bed by 7:30 p.m.  With all of this into consideration, I decided to tackle Applebee's Chicken Grande Quesadilla and Chili's Salsa.  I am a huge fan of Chili's salsa, and I discovered that it probably has more to do with how fresh their chips are when eating their salsa than just the salsa.  The salsa has a great deal of canned tomatoes that are pureed.  Also, I got to add "cumin" to the salsa as well as diced jalepenos (which were a suprising part of the supposed recipe).  I fired up my Ninja food processor I received this past Christmas, and I was very happy with how the salsa came out and seems to be very much like the original Chili's salsa (except without the awesome, salty, deep-fried chips).
    I have made quesadillas many times before.  They are a quick dinner at the McCulloch ranch, but I have never followed such an extensive recipe.  Diced tomatoes, jalepenos, bacon (which I cooked and crumbled fresh for this dish), grilled chicken, and then came the interesting ingredient (among others)....chipotle sauce. Once again I found how much I wished I was closer to a Meijers or even Super Walmart, as finding a bottle of Chipotle sauce became a quest of its own at Krogers.  I DID find some, but I'm not sure if it is ACTUALLY authentic chipotle sauce. The bottle claims to have something to do with buffalo wing sauce, but much of the wordage on the bottle is in Spanish.  I assumed I found what I needed.  The chipotle (buffalo?) sauce coats the flour tortilla. 
   It was very cool making and eating both new additions to the McCulloch canon of recipes.  My kids stuck with the simple chicken and cheese jalepenos, while Amber and I struggled to put down the monstrous (due to the fact that you use 12" shells filled with a ton of ingredient) quesadillas.  Very, very yummy.  I'm anxious to try more of these "secret" recipes this week!!

50 NEW Recipes In 2010- #3 London Fog (Earl Grey Latte)

So when you are directing a high school theater production of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, attempting to be a teacher, husband and father of four children, AND taking an online class, you just don't find much time to cook, let alone, post anything on your blog to show what you have cooked.

  Despite being away from my tiny little kitchen due to two weeks of tech on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, I have managed in the past months to occassionally put together something new in my kitchen, in addition to the regular dishes I like to rotate.  So Starbucks has this amazing tea latte I stumbled upon one morning at our local Meijers over a year ago.  It's called the LONDON FOG.  I might have even had it first when hanging out with friends over the 2008 Christmas break.  It is not a permanent part of their drink menu, but I have yet, over the past year, to run into a barista at Starbucks that cannot make this sweet, vanilla drink. 
   Basically it is Earl Grey tea, which my Grandma Russell raised me on, with vanilla syrup and steamed, frothy milk.  Not having purchased an espresso maker or milk steamer/frother, I have to follow these "old school" instructions of making my own frothy, steamed milk....microwave for a minute and then whisk in a bowl until frothy. 
   While the drink is NOT quite up to Starbucks standards, my wife and I have enjoyed these sweet little tea drinks a few times.  A milk frother or steamer is on my "wish list."  You'll note that we also made cinnamon rolls to go with this batch of "frothy" London Fog.  I just like the word "frothy."