National Fettuccini Alfredo Day - February 7th

So February 7th is National Fettuccini Alfredo Day? Why haven't we been celebrating this in years before? 
Actually I know exactly why. Last year at this time, our experience with Alfredo sauce was either from Olive Garden or something from the grocery store out of a glass jar. This pandemic has caused us to revisit our eating and dining habits, and now we can make the most delicious Alfredo sauce at home!

It's become such a hit that Ian has stated that it's his second favorite meal we make (his first being Cheese Fondue). 

Tonight has a bit of an Olive Garden feel, so we're prepping a few sides to go with our meal. To make everyone happy, and to appease Alli who missed out on this during National Homemade Soup Day, Theresa is making Pasta e Fagioli     

Her recipe come from TopSecretRecipes.com, but her one modification is a 1:1 substitution of Beef Broth for the V8 juice.  

The soup is simmering away and I'm getting the next side started. Olive Garden makes tasty breadsticks, or at least they used to. I remember them being soft, buttery, and garlicky. That was years ago. Now-a-days, I get dry, over-baked, breadsticks. Not Good Eats (love that show). 

Today I'm going to mix and match and make everyone's favorite garlic knots. The dough comes from freshfoodinaflash.com and like the website says, it's super easy. 

I didn't love the seasoning from that website though, so instead I'm using foodiecrush.com for the garlic and herbs. Make no mistake, this is not a particularly healthy side. That's a bit of olive oil and a whole stick of butter in that pan. We won't use it all, but still, that's a few calories. 

Alright Ian is helping out! We're rolling these dough balls into snakes, just like playdoh. 

Those get tied into a knot with the ends tucked in. We set a few trays on the table in the sunshine to double in size before we bake them. 

Alright Ian, this is your favorite, so you should help out. We love this so much that we're making a double recipe. I grated a few cloves of garlic and tossed them into a large pan with 2 sticks of butter. Then in goes 4 cups of heavy cream. 

Ian added the pepper and salt, then finally a bunch of freshly grated parmesan cheese. 

While that's cooking, these garlic knots have doubled in size and are ready to cook in the oven. These only too 12 minutes, rotating them halfway through, in a 400F oven. 

Time to mix these up with our garlic butter! 

The pasta is almost done. I didn't take the time to make it from scratch today. Theresa is finishing up reheating the soup. It really is better after it's had a time to meld all the flavors together. 

Everyone was happy to be sitting down for a tasty meal. 

The star of the show tonight. A delicious Fettuccini Alfredo. 

Alli's favorite Pasta e Fagioli. 

And our amazing garlic knots. 

My plate tonight was so good. I pushed away from the table stuffed. When you're eating at home, it's pretty much the Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Bowl.  

This gets a definite thumbs up from the person who's opinion really matters today. 

The Alfredo Sauce is so good and super easy to make at home. I highly recommend giving it a try if you're a fan of Alfredo sauce at all.