Garlic Fettuccine Alfredo

Ingredients

4 ounces Parmesan cheese (1/2 regular size container or fresh grated)

3 cloves garlic (or more to your taste, great for colds), smushed, peeled and chopped

water

large pot with lid if possible

1⁄2 stick butter or a little more

8 ounces fettuccine, preferably made in “nests,” Italian style

freshly ground blacck pepper

Instructions

Boil water and gently place fettuccine nests in water: do not splash yourself with boiling water. Cook until done, usually 10 minutes but it varies. (Check package directions and follow them.) Drain water from the pot but leave about 1 cup water in with pasta. Add butter and chopped garlic and place over low heat. Stir every 30 seconds or so, until sauce around the pasta thickens. Throw in all the Parmesan cheese. Toss and serve hot. Ask everyone how much freshly grated black pepper they want on their own portion.

This is delicious and is great for dinner; surprisingly, it can also be made for a fast lunch, almost as quickly as heating up a can of soup, so it is convenience food.

Note: this dish has enough protein to be eaten as is for lunch, but you may add chicken (see recipe below) or ham, etc.. You may use leftovers or try slicing ham or chicken cold cuts into strips and adding them into the cooked and buttered pasta for just 2 to 3 minutes before adding the Parmesan.

Wellness Chicken

Serves 2, may be doubled or tripled. Great for illness.

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken breasts with skin left on

1⁄2 orange, organic (to be squeezed for juice)

1 onion, minced

1 to 2 teaspoons paprika

pink sea salt

3 to 4 garlic cloves, smushed, peeled and chopped

thyme sprigs

1⁄2 teaspoon oregano

1⁄2 teaspoon celery salt

freshly ground black pepper

butter, at least 4 tablespoons, up to 6

Instructions

Melt butter in a large cast iron pan. Lay chicken breasts in butter and sprinkle herbs and onion all around. Use lid and cook over medium heat.

Turn breasts twice and scrape everything off the bottom of the pan and stir it up. Usually takes between 20 to 35 minutes to cook fully. Make sure breast meat is white inside and that juices run clear.

Add more butter as needed. Squeeze juice over the top before serving. Scoop juices from pan and pour over or next to chicken breast on each plate.

Sweet corn pudding

An old New England traditional dish you still see at potlucks sometimes.

Ingredients

2 cans corn kernels (13 to 15 ounces each) or 3 to 4 cups of corn removed from cob

butter

sugar

1 cup heavy cream, up to 11⁄2 cups

3 eggs beaten

1⁄4 cup sugar

1⁄4 cup yellow corn meal

2 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled

dash vanilla

Instructions

Beat eggs and quickly beat in cream, sugar, yellow corn meal and then slightly cooled, melted butter. Add dash of vanilla.

Add corn to greased 9 inch casserole or glass pan. Pour butter-egg mixture over the top. Dot with butter and sprinkle very lightly with sugar.

Bake at 350 for 40 to 55 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Sunshine carrot cake-macaroon cookies

Makes 36 smallish delicious and rich cookies.

Ingredients

1 cup carrots, finely grated (2 big carrots, usually)

2 tablespoons mashed sweet potatoes or sugar

1⁄8 cup water

1⁄3 cup oil

1⁄4 cup melted butter (and slightly cooled) or substitute in more oil

2 cups sweetened coconut plus 2 tablespoons

3⁄4 cup flour or nut flour like almond flour

11⁄2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon very very finely crushed potato chips crumbs (”dust”) or 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt

Topping

1⁄2 cup chocolate chips, melted

Instructions

Mix ingredients, except for topping, in a large bowl. Taste and adjust sweetness and saltiness. Make sure dough is moist enough to cling together. You may add a few drops of water if needed.

Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

Make dough into 1 inch (or a little bigger) balls. Place one inch apart on cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 15 or 20 minutes or until cookies are moist but cooked in the middle. (Gently cut open a cookie to see the inside.)

Let cool on cookie sheet for 3 minutes, then place on a rack or plate.

Drizzle with chocolate.

Note: if you use the options above (check the “or”) instead of butter, flour, sweet potatoes and potato chips, these cookies are gluten free and are even easier on the digestive system.

Note: on the other hand, if you wish to play up the rich, carrot cake part of these cookies, take 1 tablespoon of room temperature butter and mash it with 2 tablespoons of room temperature cream cheese and then stir in 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Leave a dollop of this cream cheese topping right on top of each cookie.

— Mel Baker is an experienced chef, caterer and cafe manager. She has published “The Noisy Oven” since 2006. Email her a [email protected].