Pasta-reffic

I am not a great cook. I do my best to cook from scratch with an occasional broccoli casserole (who can resist that mayo and Cream of mushroom combo?). I cook from recipes and sometimes I find one that works with my skill set and ingredients. I will then make that same recipe every week until Marvel informs me he is not able to eat another bite. Sometimes I will attempt to make changes to a successful recipe and most of the time it turns out to be a flop. You see I don't understand the chemistry of cooking nor do I have the attention to detail to notice exactly when my recipe went from ok to bad.
Up until now we have been eating whatever Srinivas cooked for us. We rationed the rice to make it last for lunch and dinner because most of you know my history with cooking rice (thank you again to Bob for calling 911 just in time). But lately the kids come home from school hungry and my offerings of fruit and nuts isn't satisfying them. I don't know if it is the different composition of foods we are eating (again with my lack of kitchen science knowledge) but I find myself eating more and always hungry. We also want to start having folks over for dinner. There are so many fabulous neighbors and many family members we would love to catch up with. I could of course have Srinivas make something but I am assuming Indians don't want to come to my house and eat Indian food some other Indian has prepared. So tonight I had my first go at cooking "American" food for our aunt.
We don't have an oven which poses a problem for me. So I decided to make pasta. Last week I went shopping, bought the ingredients and tried it out. It turned out pretty good I thought, with the one problem that I put the moz cheese in too soon and it melted only to harden up again so seconds were not so yummy. So I thought I was good to go. I prepared the tomato sauce prior, blended it and kept it in the fridge. Today I planned reheat it and add more chopped tomatoes and basil, then cube the moz cheese before serving. And here is where it all fell apart. One problem with having a cook in your kitchen is he uses your ingredients. Surprise, no tomatoes. They were in that yummy dal I ate Friday. So we will just go with a smooth sauce. Then I opened the cheese. Turns out pizza cheese is not the same as moz cheese. Pizza cheese is a white processed cheese, so I decided to make a cheese sauce. Except I added too much milk. So then what to do? Add flour or cornstarch, right? Except the only flour in my kitchen is rice flour and atta flour. I tried to mix a bit in a cup but neither turned out to work so instead I added the cheese sauce to the tomato sauce. Creamy tomato, right? Then the pasta just went gooey on me. It somehow went from hard, sped past al dente and straight onto gummy mess without increasing in size at all. Two choices- mix in the pasta sauce and have something that resembles pasta pie in the bottom of the pan or leave the pasta in the strainer and dump it out like a jello mold later.
Auntie was fabulous. Beyond asking for chili sauce or salt and pepper (need to buy both of those) she ate it with a smile, although she did not ask for seconds. I think I will try to dig up a different recipe and try that out on our second Indian guests.