Recipe: Bacon & Eggs over Pasta

I like eggs. I like bacon. And I feeling for some pasta.

So, why not whip something that incorporates all of that? I sure ended up doing that.

Ingredients:
- spaghetti (any pasta you prefer)
- eggs
- bacon
- fried dried onions
- salt
- pepper
- Italian seasoning
- garlic powder
- oil

I didn't notice how little the ingredients were until I took a photo of it and it looks so simple. I'm determine to add more ingredients next time.

I started with dicing up my bacon into small pieces. I cooked them on a pan over low heat until they're crispy brown. It feels a lot like mini frying them. The aroma of the bacon literally filled up the room instantly!

That's how crispy and brown it should look afterward. If you don't like it crispy, then feel free to cook it just enough that it's not raw.

In the meantime, I just threw some spaghetti in a pot to let it cook. I only cook for one person (myself) so you can adjust accordingly to how many people you're feeding.

While the spaghetti is cooking, in the same pan where you cooked the bacon add 2 eggs and just fry them. Don't scramble your eggs.

When your pasta is fulling cooked, add them to the eggs and start tossing to coat the pasta with the eggs. Add the Italian seasoning, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste.

Place the spaghetti on a dish.

Remember the bowl with the bacon?
Add some fried dried onion to it. This can be fold in any Asian supermarket and comes in handy for great flavoring.

Finally, place the bacon and onion on top of the spaghetti and you're ready to eat.

I love a good pan fried egg, and bacon is always good. It's a quick pasta dish that you can make, gives a bit of a homey brunch feeling.

Recipe: Gỏi Cuốn (Summer Rolls)

I always like food that doesn't require much cooking because truthfully, I don't like cleaning pots and pans. I've been exposed to a lot of Vietnamese dishes since I was a little girl. One of the great light and fresh dish would be Gỏi Cuốn, a summer-y roll that can be eaten at any time. It can also be considered on the healthy side since there's a lot of veggies and nothing is fried or drenched in oil.

Ingredients:
- a pack of Rice Paper
- shredded lettice
- boil or pan-fried shrimp (sliced in half)
- cooked vermicelli
- any mints or herbs you like

The mints and herbs are optional since a lot of people have different opinions on them but they do give the roll a nice touch to it. The rice papers need to be dunk into lukewarm water so it can be soften and easy to wrap. If you notice in the following step-by-step photos that there is an extra small triangle rice paper in the middle, don't fret. It actually helps give the roll a bit more support since sometimes one piece of rice paper might rip and 2 whole piece will make the roll too chewy.

Starting with the rice paper, after you dipped it in water, lay it flat down. Put lettuce just a tad bit under the center of the circle.

Next add some vermicelli. You want to be generous with the amounts of each item you put in because you also have to keep in mind, the more you put the bigger the possibility of it exploding.

Adding in my mints, Thai basil, and other Asian herbs.

Three shrimps right above that layer of greenness, you can do 4 if you like.

The wrapping action speaks for itself.
Fold the left and right side towards the center and then from the bottom up, start rolling and wrapping.

The finished product. It's not the best looking Gỏi Cuốn in the world but it taste no different than the ones you order in restaurants and it's so easy to make. Gỏi Cuốn tends to taste bland since there isn't much flavor in them, the main star would be the dipping sauce. You can either choose the peanut sauce or the traditional nước mắm aka fish sauce.

Would you give this a shot?

Recipe: Bánh Cống

A simple Vietnamese dish that is served as a snack (well at least to me it was - and still is). It's fried with your choice of dipping sauce or none at all. The process of these dough-y fritters are extremely simple!

Ingredients:
- Deep Fried Shrimp Cake batter
- any sorts of beans
- shrimps
- water
- oil (to fry)

Three simple ingredients to make the final product, and also water but I know we all know what water is.

I used this large metal soup spoon to get the rounded shape of the Bánh Cống. You can find this is any Asian kitchen gadget store.

After prepping everything, it's time to make the mixture. The package on the batter tells you to mix 12 oz of flour with 1 3/4 cups of water. I usually eyeball it and mix it to a light gooey consistency. It also tells you to wait 30 minutes for it to rise but you don't need to!

Get your pot of oil ready. I fill the pot just so the oil can cover my "metal spoon," fries better that way!

In goes the action!
What you want to do first is take the "metal spoon" and fill it with a spoon of the mixture, then put the beans in, top it off with a shrimp, and take another spoonful of mixture to cover the shrimp. When that assembly is done, place the "metal spoon" into the pot. It should take no longer than 3-5 minutes for each one. When its golden brown remove it from the oil!

I love these as snacks and it's so easy and simple to make. Who knew that 3-4 ingredients can make something so mouthwatering and complicating-looking.

I love eating mines with fish sauce.
Next up, how to make - fish sauce!