Spaghetti alla Carbonara

As of tonight, it's been nearly over two years since we've had this meal.  Personally I've wanted to learn how to make it for quite some time (since a visit to Italy in 1997!).  Grabbed the simplest looking recipe I could find on the internet (food network).  Made it with the following modifications based on items we had on hand:

• Turkey bacon instead of regular bacon or pancetta (this also required the addition of a little butter during the garlic sweat step)
• Fresh basil instead of Italian parsley
• Grilled garlic cloves instead of raw
• Added some chopped tomatoes for a little added color

It turned out great, and was heartily enjoyed by our most finicky food critic:

Added bonus: there are plenty of left overs for a repeat performance at lunch tomorrow!

Green onion (scallion) pancakes

Just this last Friday, we went out for dinner at Fu Man Dumpling House, a small Chinese restaurant about a quarter mile from our house.  A few noteworthy things:

• Lia loves BBQ pork chow mein
• The dumplings at $6.95 for 12 are a delicious steal.

They also had on the menu leek and green onion pancakes, but sadly, the leek ones were sold out for the day.  So, we ordered the green onion ones - which Lia also happily devoured.  We had plenty of left overs, which still tasted awesome as a Sunday lunch.

Next came the obvious question - what can we make at home on our own? The first requested item (from Lia) was the pancakes.  Googling about, I came across this recipe on Appetite for China along with the suggestion to eat them with a nice cold one on Eating Out Loud.  Added bonus, these things are vegan.

Time to powder up the kitchen!