Favorite Alfredo

We've tried several alfredos... and this one is the best so far. You can make it almost as quick as you can open a bottle of sauce and it tastes much better!

2 Tbsp butter
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp papper
1/2 cup Parmesan (+ some to sprinkle with)

In saucepan, melt butter. Add cream, salt, and pepper. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Boil gently, uncovered, for 3-5 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in the 1/2 c parmesan. Add to pasta. Sprinkle more parmesan on top.

If you're feeling a little bit fancy...add some garlic and/or white wine (about 1/4 cup).

If you're feeling really fancy...saute some vegis in olive oil in a separate pan (the sauce doesn't thicken so well if vegis are involved from the beginning). At the end, toss the alfredo, vegis, and pasta all together. We've tried various combinations of yellow squash, zucchini, asparagus, red bell pepper, broccoli, and onion. Enjoy!

Carrot Cake with Honey

I got this recipe from allrecipes online. Not that it is the only place, but when I decided I wanted the first birthday cake to be made with honey, it was the only one I could find.

INGREDIENTS
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 cups honey
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups finely grated carrot
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.

In a large bowl, stir together the honey, buttermilk, eggs, oil and 2 teaspoons of vanilla until well blended.

Add the flour mixture to the buttermilk mixture, and stir until all of the dry ingredients are absorbed. Stir in the carrot, pineapple, and walnuts by hand. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting with cream cheese frosting.


The frosting I wasn't thrilled with. It has a different texture which day of is fine and delicious. The day or two after it isn't so great. Maybe I should have refrigerated the cake. I also considered using butter for some of the cream cheese...but I haven't tried it yet.

INGREDIENTS
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the frosting, mix together the cream cheese, honey and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until smooth and well blended. Spread over the cooled cake.