This is one of my favorite pasta sauce recipes.

Ingredients:

Vodka (around a cup)
cloves of garlic (1-2 clumps, about 1.5 handfuls), thinly sliced or finely diced
butter
oil
1-1.5 cups half-and-half
salt
pepper
oregano
basil
1.5 cans of chicken broth (~16 ounce size)
2 cups of freshly grated parmesan cheese (or more)
rous (oil+flour)
small can of tomato sauce

Instructions:

In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, melt some butter in a roughly equal amount of olive oil. Put in garlic for 1 1/2 minutes or so (whisking the entire time), until the garlic has been lightly sauteed. Toss in 2-3 shots of vodka. Keep stirring until the vodka boils off. As soon as the mixture starts smelling sweet, take it off the heat and put in a sauce pan. Put salt, pepper, oregano and basil in the mix (coating the pan with oregano and basil). Put the sauce pan on medium-high heat and add the cans of chicken broth. As the mixture heats up, gradually add 1-1.5 cups of half-and-half. Heat the mixture to a slight boil and add one more shot of vodka. When it’s boiling again, toss in the parmesan cheese. Add the rous and stir until it thickens. Then, add a small can of tomato sauce and add another shot of vodka if necessary. Serve over angel hair pasta.

Notes:
Make sure to get good parmesan cheese, not the stuff in a plastic jar. I find that the sauce is actually awesome if you make it the day before and reheat it, as the flavors will have time to mix.

How to make a rous:
In a small sauce pan over medium-high heat, mix a few tablespoons of flour with olive oil (think elmer’s glue consistency). Stir rapidly until the mixture turns brown and starts to smell sweet, but not to the point where it’s burned. This is a thickening agent, so after you mix it in it might take a few minutes.

This is a super-easy hummus recipe. Some suggestions are at the end.

Ingredients:

31 oz. (2 cans) chick peas (also called garbanzo beans)
1/4 can chick pea juice
6 tablespoons tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 large cloves of garlic
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions: Dump all of the ingredients in the food processor. Puree until desired consistency. Serve with a garnish of olive, paprika, and/or chopped parsley, and dip with pita bread and chopped veggies.

Notes: I generally put in only about half of the chick pea juice at first, and then add liquid to get to the desired consistency. Tahini is pureed sesame seeds, and can be found in the “ethnic foods” aisle at your local supermarket. For whatever reason the store by me keeps tahini with the kosher foods.

Alternate recipes: Roast an entire head of garlic (or two), and then substitute the roasted garlic for the 3 cloves of raw garlic. I also made it with roasted red peppers once – use less garlic, and put in roasted red peppers. You can roast them yourselves or get them in the veggie aisle.