#2: Pasta something and Asparagus with Sweet Onion Vinaigrette

Hey everyone! Tonight was night numero dos for me to cook something up! I can definitely say I was happy to be eating at 6:30 p.m. tonight! I decided to try to re-create a dish that my mom makes: a pasta tossed in garlic butter with olives and cherry tomatoes. However, since the Boy can not have garlic, and I omitted that and added broccoli instead (yay for healthy vegetables)! I also wanted to add a healthy side and I found this recipe for Green Beans with Sweet Onion Vinaigrette. However, the Boy makes it hard on me and doesn't like green beans, so I switched those out for some yummy asparagus! ...And we didn't have a sweet onion, so I used a white onion, JUST SAYIN'.

Process:
1. I followed the green bean recipe but halved the ingredients (except for when I forgot and accidentally put in a little more olive oil...), and replaced the green beans with asparagus.
2. I prepped all the veggies for the pasta, which included broccoli, olives, and cherry tomatoes.
3. Well, at least I know how to make noodles, so that didn't take very long. Cooked, drained, back in the pot.
4. I steamed the broccoli and when that was done I mixed that, the olives and the cherry tomatoes together in with the pasta. I also added some salt, pepper, teensy bit of butter, and olive oil.

Prepped asparagus, and ingredients for the vinaigrette.

How I cooked my asparagus. It came out wonderful!

Mmmm, broccoli!

Finished dish sans Pecorinio Romano. Turned out well!

Voila! 'Twas done. I felt like more could have been done with the pasta so we added some Pecorino Romano (Sheep's dairy) on top, and I added some garlic salt to mine. That definitely improved the dish. The Asparagus turned out AMAZING and I recommend the above recipe! It definitely impressed the Boy. :)

What I learned:
+Better time management skills than last night, but I can totally still improve. For example: prepping the veggies first, getting all the ingredients out first, etc...
+When I make this again, I'll add more of a buttery sauce something for the pasta.
+When looking up how to prepare asparagus I found out that if you hold both ends about two inches in, bend it and let it snap, that's where the good part will separate from the tougher part! (Does everyone already know that? I didn't. And that's pretty cool to me!)
+There's a million different ways to cook asparagus...

How do you like to cook your asparagus?