(Basic) Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce

This is one of my family's favorite side dishes. I love that the sauce is a very good and simple 'basic' sauce but is very versatile. I can add to and change the ingredients to suit the meal. My sunshine's favorite pasta is bowtie so I use it most often, but the sauce works well over any pasta.  I am not very good at following a recipe so I'll try to explain what I do. 

Basic Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 stick real butter (not margarine!)

4 cloves garlic, minced OR 1/2 tsp garlic powder w/parsley

Onion OR 1/2 tsp onion powder (my bunch doesn't like onion pieces so I use powder)

1/2 tsp lemon pepper

4 TBSP flour

3 Cups milk

1 tsp lemon juice

Shredded (not grated) Parmesan cheese

2 tsp chicken bouillon

Heat the stick of butter, garlic, onion, and lemon pepper in a saucepan over med. low heat until bubbly and aromatic. Add 4 TBSP flour and stir constantly to form a thick bubbly roux. (I love saying roux!) 

Stir in 3 cups of milk until all lumps are removed, add the tsp of lemon juice and the 2 tsp chicken bouillon. Continue to stir until the sauce becomes thick and creamy - the consistency you prefer. (This usually takes mine about 10 minutes.) 

Pour over cooked pasta, sprinkle with shredded cheese. 

Enjoy!

Tea Time

Some of my favorite things:

 - a yellow spatterware tea kettle purchased at Debo's in Houston, MO. I use it several times a day to make green tea, herbal teas, hot chocolate ...  It is one of the most used item in my kitchen.

 - my favorite china tea cup set. We purchased it in Chinatown (San Francisco) last summer. It came with a china strainer inside for holding teas and a lid/stand for steeping/holding the strainer. I use it everyday as well!

 - tea towels my mother embroidered for me.

Each of these has a special memory for me - visiting with brethren from other places, wonderful expeditions with my family and a treasured heirloom stitched with love.

Everyone in the house is now drinking teas. We enjoy mixing different herbal blends. I got up a little later than usual this morning to find my oldest had already made his father's green tea and herbal teas for the rest of us. What a blessing he is to me!

Love

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, 
but have not love,
I am a housekeeper, not a homemaker. 
If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements,
but have not love,
my children learn cleanliness, ­not godliness.
If I scream at my children for every infraction,
and fault them for every mess they make,
but have not love,
my children become people-pleasers, not obedient children.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh.
Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.
Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.
Love accepts the fact that I am the ever-present "mommy,"
the taxi-driver to every childhood event,
the counselor when my children fail or are hurt.

Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, and runs with the child,
then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.

Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection.
Now I glory in God’s perfection of my child.
All the projections I had for my house and my children have faded away into insignificance,
And what remain are the memories of my kids.
Now there abides in my home scratches on most of the furniture, 
dishes with missing place settings, and bedroom walls full of stickers, posters and markings,
But the greatest of all is the Love
that permeates my relationships with my children.
-Adapted by Jim Fowler