Either my cooking curse is still in effect, or white wine custard is just naturally lousy. Last night's dinner seems to support the former conclusion.

Yes, this is a post about cooking. Carry on.

The last good thing I made?

I've been eating spaghetti four or five days a week lately, because it's cheap and easy, but for educational purposes I've been trying to make my sauces from scratch. I usually make some sort of white sauce, because why would I have tomato sauce just lying around? I'm not made of money, leave me alone.

Late last week the situation got even more dire. I'd run out of flour and didn't have much else in the way of ingredients, so I made garlic butter sauce.

It's delicious, and ridiculously easy. I didn't have real garlic, but for 77 cents I picked up a bottle of garlic powder, a ridiculously potent alternative. 1/8th of a teaspoon is equivalent to a whole clove.

Garlic Butter Sauce

In a small saucepan with the stove on low, melt:

1/3 cup butter

Once butter is melted, stir in:

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

After a few minutes, stir in:

1/4 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano (you could use anywhere between 1/4 and 2 teaspoons for this recipe — start low and add to taste)

Stir the mixture for a few minutes and serve over pasta.

I will never use all that garlic powder, but some of my purchases are even less logical.

Confession. A few days ago I wandered into a big supermarket for the first time in months and just went nuts. Things like pancake mix, even olive oil make sense, but I honestly have no idea what I was thinking when I bought cream of tartar. I had to look up its various uses later that day.

Did I really think my eggs whites weren't fluffy enough? What part of my brain even notices that kind of problem?

So far, none of these new ingredients has resulted in anything good. In fact, the cooking sherry (?) I bought resulted in the second-worst white sauce ever.

My worst sauce is another story. Supposedly, you can substitute beer for butter if you just triple the amount. Of course, this is only for frying and sauteeing, not, say, sauces. And light beer is probably not the best choice either.

God I can still taste it. Slimy and garlicy.

I really don't know how to unjinx my cooking. Plan A is to start simple (garlic butter) and start working my way up. This may take a while, if heating up wine, water, eggs and sugar is really too much for me.