Thrown Together

I always wonder how someone becomes a famous chef. What makes their recipes better than others? Do they really come up with the recipes on their own? I doubt it since most have names like "Mom's meatloaf" or "Aunt Sally's chicken pot pie". Are they just great personalities that people enjoy listening to? It must be. I love to cook but only like using recipes as a reference guide. I like going on websites like Allrecipes, Food Network, ThePioneerWoman, etc. and look at a dozen different recipes for the same type of meal and then take a little of this and a little of that from each one. I learned the "Thrown Together" technique from my mom. I don't remember her ever using exact recipes. She would take out a recipe and then adjust it to what she had in the kitchen or what her tastes were. And if you ever asked her afterwards what she did, she didn't have a measurement for anything. I love that style of cooking. While sometimes it's hard to be consistent, it's much more fun playing with it than following a road map to a tee. I wish I could say the same for baking. I tried this technique with baking and it simply didn't work for me. If I don't follow a baking recipe exactly, it will not come out good. So I'll stick to adventurous cooking and leave the baking exact. What keeps me going...I love to eat and look forward to each new meal I attempt to make. And a nice glass of wine while I do so. There's something wonderful about drinking wine while cooking.

For fun...here is a new recipe I made last night. (NOTE: All measurements are approximate)

Light White Wine Pasta

8-16 oz of any shape pasta you like
1 (or 2 depending on your New Year's Resolution) tbs of butter
2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1/2 large onion or a medium onion finely chopped
~ 1/2 cup milk (any percentage will do but I used whole)
~ 3/4 cup of white wine (I used chardonnay)
2 Roma tomatoes diced up. You could probably use canned petite diced tomatoes but I would drain the juice.
~ 1 tbs dried basil (fresh would probably be better but I didn't have it
~ 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste (Don't you hate when they say "to taste"? It really is true though)

Boil water, cook pasta. Drain but keep a little pasta liquid in case you need more moisture at the end.

Saute the garlic and onion in the tablespoon (or 2) of butter.
Add wine and reduce for a few minutes.
Drink some of the wine.
Add the basil
Add the milk, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese.
Take another sip of wine.
Add salt and pepper "to taste".
Let it all simmer for 20 or so minutes if you have the time.
Toss it all together and top with more Parmesan cheese because you really can never have enough.