Fettuccine Alfredo UPDATED

My brother wrote me an email today after trying (and failing spectacularly) to make this. Without further ado, here are some better instructions.

Half a stick of butter.
Garlic. Lots.
One cup milk.
One tablespoon flour.
Two tablespoons cream cheese. You can do this without cream cheese. Compensate by using one tablespoon more butter, and extra parmesan.
Two cups grated parmesan. Make sure this is real cheese, and not that Kraft powder crap.
Cooked fettuccine noodles. If your father happens to be the one who shops, and the noodles in your house have been there since the dawn of time, don't use them. Get on your bike and go to the store and spend a buck on new noodles.
Parsley, grated or fresh, and pepper to taste.

I find any recipes calling for a cheese sauce to be very tricky, but be patient with this one and it should work out just fine.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. You should probably measure to see how much you're using and not just dump it indiscriminately into the pan. Add garlic, sautee one minute. Stir in flour VERY CAREFULLY (it tends to want to clump). Gradually add milk with a whisk. Cook about 8 minutes until it starts to thicken, constantly stirring. Stir in cream cheese, cook two minutes or until melted. SLOWLY stir in the parmesan until it's all melted. This will take awhile. Add it very slowly, stir, add some more, stir, etc. OR: add half the parmesan in this way, then toss the noodles with the sauce, and add the rest of the cheese while you toss. Sprinkle with parsley and pepper, and enjoy.

The boring stuff:
Difficulty: 3, only because cheese sauce is tricky.
Serves four with a little leftover.
Takes about 45 minutes.