Walking back from work on a Monday evening, stopping to check if all's well with your car, only to realize that it was broken-into. Again. When you just got the same window fixed less than 2 weeks back. Not the best mood to be in while starting to cook for the night. Even plans of making dessert wasn't enough to cheer me up. What did the trick, was cooking with no recipe, no measurements, and ending up with perfect dinner!
Main course: Spaghetti in Alfredo sauce, with a side of asparagus and snap peas
Sure, sounds Italian and boring enough. But not when the Alfredo sauce doesn't come from a bottle, but is made based just on taste, one step at a time.
Started with saute-ing cut asparagus and snap peas in olive oil with chopped garlic, while pondering what to have it with. Spaghetti comes to the rescue, but sans sauce. Didn't have any of the red-pasta-sauce-in-a-bottle in hand, since I would like to think I've moved on from busy grad-school-cooking days. Only usable thing in the fridge - milk. Alfredo sauce, ofcourse. Next step, google for Alfredo sauce recipes, as usual, hoping you'll have all ingredients in hand. But the only ones I find require either heavy-cream, or cream-cheese, neither of which I have, leading me back to depressed 'forget the sauce I'll just eat it dry' mode.
Although thankfully, this time I wasn't willing to settle for an anything-edible dinner. Which reminded me how the recipe for dessert called for egg yolks, which would leave me with egg whites I didn't know what to do with, again. Brain-wave - egg-whites in the alfredo sauce!
Hence:
In a pan heat and melt butter, add milk, some grated parmesan cheese, and some whipped egg white. Stir together until it starts to thicken, add random herbs (I had a herbs mix with oregano, fennel, rosemary, thyme and dill), some salt and lots of pepper. Throw in the cooked and strained spaghetti, and dinner is served!
Finishing up with the dessert - molten chocolate cake - only made the night even more perfect. There really is nothing food can't do.
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