Asparagus & Mushroom Pasta plus garlic bread recipe

I had some asparagus in the fridge so I decided to use all of these asparagus and made pasta with it. In addition to asparagus, I also added mushrooms, arugula and grape tomatoes. You can eat lots of vegetable with this pasta.

I just sauteed vegetables and combined with cooked spaghetti but here is the recipe.

Asparagus & Mushroom Pasta (for about 3 people)
Ingredients
Asparagus   about 10 (cut into smaller pieces)
Mushroom   1 pack  (sliced them)
Arugula       a handful
grape tomatoes     about 5 (cut into half)
Canadian bacon or ham or regular bacon  4 slices (cut into small pieces)
Garlic     2 clove
Spaghetti    300g
Olive Oil    2 table spoon
Butter        1 table spoon
Heavy Cream    3 table spoon
Parmesan Cheese   as much as you like
Salt & Pepper        as much as you like

1. heat up a pan with olive oil and sauté chopped garlic until fragrant

2. Add asparagus, mushroom and canadian bacon and saute.

3. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a pot until your desired firmness.

4. When asparagus and mushroom get soft, add tomatoes and saute more.

5. When tomatoes start to break down, add arugula and saute until they are soft.

6. Add cooked spaghetti and one ladle full of pasta water and mix well with the vegetables. When everything is mixed well, add heavy cream, butter and salt/pepper.

7. Serve them in a plate with sprinkled parmesan cheese on top.

I also made garlic bread with some baguette. This is easy and always come out great.
Here is the recipe.

Garlic bread
Ingredients
Baguette  (cut into slices)
Olive Oil
Garlic    (cut the tip of it)

1. Turn the broiler on high.

2. Slice baguette and place on the baking sheet.

3. Sprinkle olive oil on top of the sliced baguette.

4. Place the oven sheet under the broiler and broil until it is golden brown.

5. Take it out and rub garlic on the baguette while it is still hot.

And that's it. You have garlicky delicious garlic bread! This is quite garlicky so this recipe is for garlic lovers! Enjoy!

Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup

My husband was eating Tomato soup in Germany and I realized that I never made tomato soup at home so I decided to give it a try. This is a great dinner for someone like us who is trying to eat light and loose some weight which we gained during our trip.

I used "Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup" recipe from "America's Test Kitchen" magazine. I like this magazine because they experiment many different ways in order to find the best recipe. The issue which I bought was this one below. I made cinnamon roll from this magazine also and it came out good and this tomato soup was also really good. I am looking forward to trying some other recipe from this magazine.

Here is the link for Amazon.















This recipe was pretty easy using canned tomato and it was really good!

Saute onion

Add canned tomato and other ingredients.

Blend the mixture by using the hand blender.

Of course you can use regular blender to make soup but I love using this hand blender because you can blend right in the pot. I just need to wash this hand blender after using it. I is less messy. My mother-in-law gave me this hand blender because she use it herself and she loves it. I love it also! If you make soup often, I think you will also like this equipment a lot! I highly recommend this hand blender!

If you are interested in, here is the link to Amazon.

  













I also made croutons. I just sauteed them in a pan with some melted butter but it was crispy and buttery and so good!

The soup was a success and my husband loved it also. I am happy with the result. It is beautiful color.

By the way, we went to a movie this weekend. It was called "How to train your dragon". This movie is for kids but I enjoyed it. We watched in 3D. There are so many 3D movies lately. I love going to a movie!

Also, we had a visitor from Europe on Saturday. He was on his way back to Europe and made a stop over in NY and came to visit us. He was supposed to fly out on Sunday but unfortunately because of the volcano ash situation, his flight was cancelled. Today's flight seems like cancelled also so I think he has to stay here for a while. There are so many people affected by all the flights cancellation. It made me realized again how powerful the nature is. There is nothing we can do because we can not and (should not) go against the nature. I hope everything will work out soon though.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup recipe

The cauliflower soup I made the other day was quite good despite the fact that I just added whatever I had, so I will post the recipe here before I forget.

By the way, this cauliflower was quite expensive. I did not realize when I bought it but I checked the receipt after I came back from grocery shopping and found out that it was $4.99. Is cauliflower always expensive like this? I never really pay attention to cauliflower price but I think it is expensive. Is it because it is not in season right now? or is it because they were not able to harvest much this year?
I have seen broccoli being on sale quite often but never cauliflower... Oh well.

Since it was quite expensive, I decided to make soup to enjoy the cauliflower taste.
Here is the recipe.

Cauliflower Soup  (for about 4 people)
Cauliflower    1/2 (of big cauliflower) about 2 cups of florets
Potato             2 medium size
Onion            1 medimum size
Apple            1
Garlic            1 clove
Ginger           about a size of your thumb
Chicken Stock  1 QT
Milk              1 cup
Salt               for taste
chopped chives   2 table spoon

1. First, chop all the ingredients into small pieces.

2. In a pot, heat up oil and saute onion, garlic and ginger.

3. When onion is started to get soft, add potatoes, cauliflower and apples and saute.

4. When all the vegetables started to get soft, add chicken stock.

5. Simmer until all the vegetables are soft.

6. When everything is cooked, turn the heat off and add milk and chives. Then transfer into blender and make soup.  Do this in batches if it does not fit in the blender at once.

7. Add salt for taste and serve.

The secret ingredient for this cauliflower soup was an apple. I think it make this soup little bit sweet and mild. But this soup has a little kick from the ginger also. It was expensive cauliflower but I sure enjoyed it so I guess it is OK.

By the way, I am planning to go see a movie today. It is called "How to train your dragon". I think it is a kids movie but it is 3D and I think this one should be watched in movie theater instead of DVD at home.
I hope it will be good!