Just another made up holiday ;)

Hey everyone!! It is so gorgeous out today my goodness, cant believe it was raining a few days ago. 

I hope everyone one else is experiencing this great weather other places too . 

So I know I am a little late on posting this but I realllllly wanted to get it up , this past valentines day my husband and I stayed in . Since we both had to work and were too tired to go out after work . 

I decided since I got home before him that I would make us dinner. Better that than spending a couple hundred out at some fancy restaurant . 

Now here we go ... Welcome to Restaurant A La Thomas haha!! 

  I took some cilantro and shaved off the leaves with my knife into the bowl . 

 Took some sun dried tomatoes that were already cut added it to the cilantro ( time saver )

Rinsed the asparagus and cut into about 2" lengths 

I heated up a pan to med-high heat with some extra virgin olive oil , pan fried them real quick to bring out that green color . I didn't cook these fully left them with a little bite. 

Then I set them aside on a plate . ( if you leave them in the pan they will continue to cook )

Threw on a pot of water seasoned a little with kosher salt. cooked till just al dente .

While the pasta was cooking I took the mozzarella and sliced them up. (saving the marinade) Then I also slice up a small roma tomato and added it to the bowl with the cilantro . 

Once the pasta was cooked I threw the drained pasta over top of all the waiting ingredients in the bowl (what ever you do,  do NOT rinse the pasta !! big no no . )

Next I tossed everything around , cooked up some bacon in the microwave and crumpled it up in to the mix.  

Then this is where that marinade I saved comes in , pour that into the bowl and another toss.

  There you have it !!

Whats dinner without something sweet after  ?!?

So for our something sweet I made us Pannacotta.

took some cream and milk brought them to a simmer. 

Chopped up some chocolate

bloomed some gelatine

1 cup of nutella 

 Took the simmered milk and cream added vanila , chopped chocolate and nutella

I was too impatient to wait for it to cool to room temp on its own , so I gave it a ice bath. 

poured the mix into wine glassed let them chill for a few hrs tilted 

chopped up some chocolate covered pomagranate seeds and sprinkled them on top. 

<3 <3 LoVe too CoOk

Get in my belly ! !

So some of what is going to be below are some of the dinners I have made for my husband and I (with some friends on one night)

Below isn't so much dinner but a few things that I picked up at the asian market while I was there getting some things for dinner . I enjoyed these thing when I was little , yes they are all asian related obviously coming from an asian market hah. but for those of you who don't know,  I am half vietnamese also. 

 So moving on hah .  For almost a week I was craving egg rolls and wanted to make them again from scratch , but this time with the right wrappers (dont use the ones from the grocery store too thick! ). So my husband and I ventured to the asian market one sunday afternoon. 

After a little chopping and sauteing and more chopping and sauteing . . . the filling was ready to go after cooling down . 

 


So each package of egg roll wrappers come in a pack of 25 , so I planted myself at our dining room table and camped out and watched some tv. after rolling and rolling ... i was finally done !

My 2nd most favorite kitchen gadget ..... The deep fryer!

Load them up!! 

bubble bubble bubble . . . 

tada !! all nice and crunch !!

Then a few nights later we both had worked late and wanted it to be an easy night for dinner . Nothing crazy with a whole lotta prep. So I went and picked up some tots a can of chili , sour cream , cheese and green onions . prepared the tots in the oven , warmed up the chili on the stove . Threw it all together and PRESTO !! dinner is served haha 

Then moving on to something with a little more work 

Two nights ago I wanted to try something new that I came across , so off to the store I sent my husband =)

We learned that we didn't need to do exactly what the recipe had said to do and use 2 puff pastry sheets for a chicken breast . 1 is PLENTY . 

 FINALLY broke out one of our wedding gift !!

marble rolling pin had been in its box since august. hah

Since the chicken breasts we got were too small to stuff we put two together with the filling (cream cheese, bacon, diced onions, salt pepper and parsley) in the middle 

salt and peppered the top chicken breast

folded one side over

 then folded the other side over ( trim a little bit of the excess dough to avoid soggy dough if you're using 2 sheets )

flip the whole thing over like so

made an egg wash 

and brushes the whole thing with the wash

we baked them for about 45 min at 350 

so nice and golden !! 

And there you have it cut into it and see the yummy juices run out. 

Served with a little mash potato , sprinkle of parsley and a dollop of sour cream =)

Happy eating ! <3