First (and last?) dinner at home

First off, I'm not a great cook. Esp since my mom is an incredible cook, so I never felt the need to cook as a kid, when awesome 4 course meals were a daily thing. That being said, I still kind of like to cook. I have recipes I like, I like to have friends over and cook for them from time to time, and find that I eat way healthier (not to mention cheaper!) when cooking at home.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE IN LAOS. Cooking is, putting it mildly, a pain in the ass. Not to mention SUPER expensive, if you want to cook western food. There's a noodle place across the street from work that you can buy two drinks and two great friend noodle dishes (with veggies and everything!) for like 40,000 kip. That's $5. 

Last night I made pasta carbonara and asparagus. The Parmesan cheese, asparagus and bacon were all super expensive, and I couldn't figure out the oven to make asparagus the way my mom taught me (so I boiled it, sorry mom!)

And after all the kitchen drama, with me yelling at nick to get out of my kitchen, or to come in and help me, or trying to figure out what inane system he has for storing stuff, and me fighting with the oven or burning myself on the weird stove... We had dinner:

IT WASNT EVEN THAT GOOD. It was fine, but you can go to the French restaurant downtown and get this for 60,000 kip a plate, which is like $9, and it's way better and probably cheaper.

So I might not be cooking again... 

Baking and oatmeal don't count.