Saturday Evening

On Saturday evening we had friends over for dinner. It was probably our last Grilled Pasta of the Summer. I used Janice's recommendation and tried a new Alfredo sauce recipe from Best Bites.

I used 2% milk and added some parsley for color.

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender. Process until smooth and set aside.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. Ahhh…butter and garlic. Okay, now get cooking again. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don’t want to burn it.

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.
When it’s nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

For dessert I baked a Tiramisu Layer Cake. We had an Italian theme going on with dinner so I just went with it. I'll post the cake recipe sometime, if you like.

We had starters on the patio and dinner inside. It was a fun evening with good conversation and great friends. A nice way to move from summer into fall.