Just as important as having the food itself is knowing what to do with it. Recipes are the quickest way to learn how to make a meal, but what if you want to change it up? Would you know how? If your salmon dish calls for a lemon butter sauce, but you're in the mood for a cream sauce, would you know how to make the switch? Recipes, in my view, are recommendations. Good to follow, but not set in stone. Never feel like you have to follow a recipe exactly. Except for baking. Man, those recipes you can't mess with. Trust me on that...

I have made my fair share of dishes that were colossal failures. It happens. In the end, I learned from my mistakes. More importantly, I learned how to take what I learned from Recipe A and apply it to Recipe B. So now I know when I want to make a cream sauce, I can modify my alfredo sauce recipe and get to where I want to be.

Alfredo (or Cream) Sauce

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup light cream (can substitute 1/2 & 1/2 or whole milk)
1/2 cup shredded Italian cheeses (Mozzarella, Romano, etc.)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
a pinch of ground nutmeg
a splash of dry sherry or vermouth (can substitute a dry white wine as well)
salt and pepper to taste

Start by melting the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk together for about 4 minutes (this is called a roux.) Pour in the cream and whisk together until there are no lumps of roux to be found. Add the garlic, nutmeg, vermouth (my personal preference), and a pinch of salt & pepper. Continue to whisk for 3-5 more minutes. At this point you have a perfectly good cream sauce!

To continue to an alfredo, mix all the cheeses together, then add them a third at a time to the sauce, whisking until completely melted & blended in before adding the next batch. Once all the cheese is blended in, taste for proper seasoning, add in additional salt & pepper if needed.

Serving suggestions for the cream sauce:
Salmon or snapper
Par-boiled potatoes with pearl onions
Fresh English peas or asparagus
Fresh biscuits (for the Southerners in the audience, brown ground sausage & add it in!)

For the alfredo sauce:
Fettuccine (you had to see that coming...)
Roast chicken
White pizza (use in place of tomato sauce)

Enjoy!
@GeekBoston