White Sauce

A white sauce is a simple thing to make, but after decades of recipes which read, “Use a can of mushroom soup,” or “Use a jar of Alfredo sauce,” this may have become a lost art. But look how simple it is to make a quality white sauce!

The great thing about making your own is that you can decide what goes into it and you can alter the flavors to suit your particular dish.

½ cup butter

4 tablespoons flour*

2 cups milk**

Seasonings

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour as soon as it is melted. Stir continuously and bring the butter flour mix to a boil. Add the milk and continue to stir and cook until it gets to the thickness you need.

2. For the standard white sauce, salt, pepper and a spoonful of vegetable or chicken bouillon powder will give it a good flavor. You can also add any herbs or spices that fit with your use for the sauce. A few good ones are: parsley, basil, caraway powder, curry powder, thyme, and coriander.

3. To make a cheese sauce, add grated Parmesan and/or Romano cheese.

4. If you want a garlic flavored sauce, add a couple of cloves of mashed, roasted garlic.

*You can use nearly any kind of alternate flour if you don’t want the wheat flour. A tiny bit of cornstarch mixed with water, chick pea flour, or rice flour will work as thickening agents.

**Almond milk, coconut milk or any combination of the two will work as well.

White sauce is simple and has only a few ingredients. Now, go look on the label of the mushroom soup!

Nothing is worth more than this day.  Goethe

Tomato Sauce with Vodka

 VODKA SAUCE FOR LASAGNA OR SPAGHETTI

This is a slow cooker version of an old favorite that is easy to make 

and has a dairy free option, as well. This takes some time, but very little attention, but you may never want to buy sauce in a jar again!

Mince and sauté:

1 medium onion and 3 or 4 garlic cloves

Boil a large kettle of water and immerse 8 large or 12 medium tomatoes. Let them cook for about 2 minutes; then remove them with a slotted spoon. Let the tomatoes cool slightly and slip the skins. Take out some of the seeds as you cut the tomatoes and put them into the crock pot. But don’t worry about getting all of the seeds out.

Peel and chop two good sized carrots. Add them to the crock pot.

Add:  Oregano, thyme, chopped rosemary, and basil. Fresh is always best, but use what you have.

Put all of the above ingredients into the cooker on high for 3 hours.

Cool, stir with hand blender; add salt and pepper to taste.

Add ½ cup vodka and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Just before serving, add 8 oz mascarpone cheese (or a cup of full fat coconut milk for a non-dairy option) and meat such as cooked sausage or ground beef.

You can obviously leave the vodka out of this recipe.  The vodka reportedly acts as a flavor enhancer, so there’s your iron clad reason for using it! The alcohol cooks away so it is safe to serve to anyone.

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the world.      Marcus Aurelius