Basic Cheese Sauce for Macaroni and Veggies

This post has been a long time comin'. Nothin' better than cheese. It makes everything better. I found this basic recipe on the internet, but can't remember where. (Sorry.) I have found that the key to success is precise measuring of the flour and butter. Use measuring spoons and butter (not whipped margarine.) I know, I know, I know. "But butter is soooooo fattening." Trust me. Whenever I use a regular spoon for the flour or guess with the margarine, the consistency is wrong. It's just not worth it.

So, I have made this with many cheeses and cheese combinations. My favorite is half and half of sharp cheddar and white cheddar. Yum! You can make it with a bowtie pasta and throw in some chicken and broccoli for a (semi-) balanced meal. (If you just want to make it with noodles, cook between 3/4 and 7/8 of a pound of past. Not the whole pound or it will be macaroni and cheese soup.) Or you can take the recipe down to 1/3 of all measurements and it makes a good amount for around a pound of steamed veggies. The only drawback to this sauce is when it cools it gets pretty thick and it's not nearly as good left over.

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 c milk
pepper to taste ( I always skip this)
8 oz cheese of your choice, shredded

Directions:
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat until just melted. Stir in flour very well. Let cook for a minute. take off of the heat source and slowly whisk in the milk. (If you like pepper, now is the time to add a dash.) Return to stove top and stir constantly until thick and bubbly. (If you don't stir, it takes forever to heat up and you run the risk of it burning on you before you know it.) Let it cook just a minute more. Add grated cheese and stir until melted. Immediately pour over noodles and/or veggies and serve.

Super easy. Very tasty.

Melissa's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs

These recipes are a variation of my mom's. When I moved into my own apartment, I wrote down her recipe and used that for the four years I lived there. Somehow, when I moved into the rental house from there, I misplaced the recipe. You'd think after making it every time I ate spaghetti I would have it committed to memory, but I guess being an 'overtime' student with a full-time job takes a toll on your brainpower and you don't really remember things you don't have to. Anyway. I remembered all of the ingredients, just not the exact amounts of each, so I began estimating and seeing how it turned out. (I refuse to buy a jarred sauce because I have tried to save time this way and just end up disappointed in the meal.) Here's what I came up with.

For the record: Any and all generic brands can be used for all ingredients except the Great Value brand peeled, crushed tomatoes in puree. The texture is just not right.



Melissa's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 large can (I'll check the amount) tomato juice
• 1 medium, short and fat sized can (" ") peeled, crushed tomatoes in puree
• 2 small (or 1 regular size) cans tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp oregano leaves
• 2 -3 (depending on the size) cloves minced garlic (it must be fresh or it will not be even half as good!)
• 3 -4 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• (Sometimes I also add a pinch of sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes. If the mood strikes me. I'm not sure how much of a difference that even makes because I've made it without more times than with and can't seem to tell the difference. It just makes me feel chef-like, I guess.)

Directions:
[*If you don't want to piss off the person who cleans up after dinner, I recommend two things. First, clear anything on your counter tops about a foot and a half away from the pot on the stove and use the deepest pot you've got. It's a pain in the neck to clean up the carnage (as Trav calls it) off of things like the tea kettle and baking canisters, but the extra deep pot helps. I don't know how many quarts mine is, but it's literally at least 12 inches deep. I would check but I'm on a roll here and don't feel like getting up.]
Combine all ingredients in a deep pot on the stove over medium heat. (I do not, under any circumstances, recommend a heat higher than that to save time. The one time I turned it to high, I burned the sauce on the bottom of the pot so badly that it took me (LITERALLY) 2 weeks of scrubbing with a steel wool pad and soaking in extremely hot water and soap to get it clean. Not worth it.) Bring to a bubble (it's not quite a boil) and stir very often for around 20 minutes. The goal here is to cook out a lot of the water to thicken the sauce. Turn down to low for 3 hours. Stir every 30 minutes or so. Makes enough for a pound of pasta one night, a pound of raviolis another night, enough to top 1 1/2 pounds of Chicken Parmesan, and even a little that I never quite use up. It freezes well, too. Definitely budget friendly!

Melissa's Meatballs

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 -1 c bread crumbs
• 1/2 - 3/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 clove minced garlic (again, it must be fresh garlic!)
• 1/4 c parsley
• 1 tsp ground oregano, if you so desire (Sometimes I add it, sometimes I don't. Again, just depends on my mood.)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together by hand. Roll into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Cook over medium heat in a nonstick pan until cooked through. (I don't add any oil...they render their own fat.) Honestly, I still don't know how long I cook them. I think around 20-25 minutes? I usually keep turning them and cooking them until all sides look a little too done. Then, I cut one open to see that they are a consistent gray color all the way through, and not any lighter in the center. Then I let them hang out in between paper towels to get the excess fat off. (Same as you would with your breakfast bacon.) Last, I put 'em in that sauce and scoop out a giant helpingt to top my pasta. Yum-my. Now I'm hungry.