Friday, April 16, 2010

with something that makes me happy

this picture makes me happy. it was late on a tuesday afternoon. the sun was almost gone. i had forgotten to make up the asparagus for easter dinner. the asparagus was two days older than it should have been. i have a very nice lens.

i have never prepared asparagus.


i bought it on a whim (not the lens, the asparagus), it's not that i don't like aparagus, i love it actually. but i know kelly wouldn't eat it and i know ethan wouldn't. wasn't sure on annie (cheers to that girl, she came through for me!), but i decided that i wanted it, so i would buy it. as a kid, i remember eating asparagus (help me on this one mom, didn't it grow wild in front of uncle glade and aunt donna's house? –my mom reads my blog faithfully. we'll discuss this next week, i guarantee it.) it was good.

but as an adult, i'd only had it at parties where someone else prepared it. so i was a bit flummoxed as to how to proceed, i knew boiling was out of the question though. so tuesday night, i grabbed my trusty book, Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks (serioulsy, one of the best things you could have in your kitchen, i got it from my husband and kids about 5 years ago for my birthday. it has EVERYTHING you need to know in it. the BEST guacamole recipe ever, but that's a whole other blog post.).

i turned to ASPARAGUS. sure enough, a fabulous little explanation and a variety of ways to proceed. roasted asparagus. go ahead, say it. roasted asparagus. lovely sounding, huh? a bit of olive oil, a bit of kosher salt (i have a salt restriction, but i can have a bit, and isn't it pretty in the photo? i highly recommend kosher salt, it's bigger and so you can use less if you need to cut down on sodium–again, another post.), some fresh ground pepper. roast for a couple of minutes, turn, roast a couple more. it was HEAVENLY. it's like eating what i imagine luscious green rolling grass cover hills to taste like. now i know, dirt and such probably doesn't taste good, but at least, the hills LOOK like they would taste good, don't they? annie joined me in the feast, i was right and couldn't get kelly or ethan to try, but i am determined to get ethan converted. he's a non-traditional foodie. he loves to find fancy recipes on the food network website, but he won't try the fancy foods. it's rather humorous to me.

anyway, that's something that makes me happy. had to share. i like writing the word asparagus too :) can you tell? and just in case you've never prepared asparagus, it's wicked easy. if you want help, you know how to get a hold of me...

have a lovely weekend. i'm going to be scrapping tonight. kelly and ethan are going camping, annie's going to a friend's to finish up a school project.

oh, and in other news: yesterday was a proud parent kind of day. i'll post pictures soon. i love my kids. they are the best!

11 comments:

Mary Kay said...

I didn't realize Kelly was such a picky eater. (Is he? Or does he just have something against asparagus?)

Jon tries everything I put in front of him, including his nemesis-- cooked spinach-- but he doesn't always finish it. :)

kL said...

we just had our first bunch of the season on wednesday night. steamed over and olive oil & butter bath with a dash of sea salt. mmmm

and it is excellent when you take 3-5 pieces and then wrap them in bacon and grill on the bbq on low.

xoxo

lisa truesdell said...

i like to add a little minced garlic when i roast asparagus. mmmmmmmm. sam's the only kid of my 3 that will eat it willingly, though. good thing matthew and i like it - i make it almost every week.

Karen said...

i totally love asparagus that way. it is the only way i will eat it! yummy!

Denise said...

Grilled asparagus is very good and kosher salt on it is awesome. Love Kosher Salt. Can one really love salt? Well I do. Since you are my fellow Minnesotan (once a Minnesotan always a Minnesotan) and may recognize where I am talking about, I will tell you that as a kid we would go foraging for wild asparagus at Nine Mile Creek in Bloomington. Today that strikes me as odd, but in the 70s we were super groovy. LOL!

Tonya said...

Another asparagus lover here! YEs, Denise I think we can love salt! Especially Kosher salt. Em, how do you handle a salt restriction?!!!!!! Bless your heart!

Kathy Martin said...

YUMMY! LOVE asparagus! And believe it or not, so does my son who's 8! :)

Anonymous said...

I always prepare asparagus that way. It is Brendan and Sean's favorite thing to eat! Mmm. now i need to go buy some. :oD

Aly Dosdall said...

okay, this is cracking me up because I did the EXACT SAME thing! bought asparagus on a whim for Easter, forgot to make it, made it a few days later for dinner and had to look up a recipe because I had never cooked it before (though I had eaten it before). only difference is i sauteed it with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and a bit of garlic. it was yummy. =)

Lauren said...

I love fresh, crisp, slighty grilled and salty asparagus. Boiled, unflavored = yuk!

And I like your picture of it!

Lwingard said...

Could I use this asparagus photo for a layout of mine?