Vodka Cream Sauce

When we first moved to Fairbanks I found frustration in not having the selection of cooking ingredients that were so easily accessible in Washington. Another issue was the fact that the grocery stores on our side of town seem to be even more limited in their selection. There was a certain incident in the east end Fred Meyer when exasperated I proclaimed, "I suppose we aren't supposed to eat tofu on this side of town either". Poor David could do nothing but shake his head. Over time I have adapted to these issues by ordering specialty food online (mostly spices) and learning to cook a lot of items from scratch, a journey I have shared here. My trips to the grocery store are now mostly limited to the basics of flour, sugar, milk, butter, etc...

Still, all the grocery stores in town are not equal. One has a fairly decent selection of natural foods and some specialty items as well. Now, it is still a chain store and not my usual place to shop as it is significantly more expensive. Once a month I stop by just to see if there is anything I am missing. I usually pick up some organic breakfast sausages and a few Izze sodas. During my last trip I was surprised to find a bag of orecchiette on the shelves. I remember that I had been looking for this pasta a while back, but couldn't remember why. I picked up a bag anyway and still have not figured it out. The problem with limited supplies is that by the time you find them you can't remember what you wanted them for. I decided to serve them with Vodka Cream sauce that I had also made a while back for our ricotta gnocchi. This time I was out of shallots and used 1/3 cup of onion instead and it was still just as good. I like the simple indulgence of this sauce.

*Where's the recipe you ask? I have decided unless I am presenting a truly unique recipe, I will just give you the link or reference the book it came from. I feel it is fair to give the credit where it belongs and quite frankly will save me some time and hopefully enable me to post more often.