Penne Alfredo

An attempt at cooking (a.k.a. trying a new recipe)

Referencing Betty Crocker (a.k.a. my cooking idol), I attempted to make Fettuccine Alfredo... Attempted being the keyword in that sentence.  I encountered the first problem before I even started cooking; we didn't have any fettuccine noodles, so I had to substitute with penne.  Second problem: no cream, so instead I followed the "lighter" version using condensed milk (we happened to have a small stock on the brink of expiring sitting on the kitchen counter).  I followed the recipe, but ended up with a chunky sauce because the parmesan cheese never melted/dissolved into the rest of the sauce.  I have no idea why that happened, but if I try this again I want to try fresh cheese (instead of the Kraft from the can I used) and having the milk/butter mixture at a higher temperature before I remove it from the heat.  And maybe adding meat (and I really mean chicken in this case)

A Little Bit of Background Information

Hello world,

I'm an engineering student going into my sophomore year at Carnegie Mellon.  For those of you who have never heard of it, it's a private university (meaning its pretty expensive to attend) in Pittsburgh, PA.  Currently, I'm home for the summer, working a (menial) summer job, trying to make money, stock up for my apartment next year (!), and amuse myself.

So I've covered the three interests in my subtitle:

1. Saving Money = something I do because college isn't cheap, and its fun to shop but not to spend money
2. Cooking = something I do to amuse myself (and to save money)
3. Learning = something I do as I go along saving money and cooking (oh, and its basically my job as a student)