I have been eating asparagus for dinner-- and breakfast-- all weekend long. Normally this time of year I'll blanch or steam some asparagus with dinner a couple nights a week until it's out of season, once in a great while attempting to throw it on the BBQ when we have it going. I went over twenty years avoiding asparagus, and I think I am attempting to make up for lost time. When I was four or five my mom had a rule that we had to take at least one bite of everything on our plate before we could have dessert. It is well known that young children often fear green vegetables as devices of torture, and asparagus in particular resembles some sort of medieval lancing device. I was no exception. My anxiety about the impending bite of asparagus was so high, my dramatic toddler tantrum so fully engaged, that by the time I took my one bite of the pointy green vegetable, I gagged on it and nearly threw it back up. I would not go near asparagus again until my early twenties, when a friend who is an excellent cook, made it as part of dinner he and his wife cooked for Marc and me. I ate it to be polite, and found it to be actually quite delicious. And so, the love affair began.
My love was taken to new heights this week when my friend Jenna wrote a blog about broiled asparagus and I decided to give it a try. On Saturday night I was home alone, studying frantically for my impending exit exam while Marc was away doing good deeds in service of his 92 year old grandma. It got to be 8pm and I still hadn't had dinner, and I decided I would start with some hard boiled eggs that needed to be eaten, and would add broiled asparagus to go along side. How did I not know how amazing this could be? Broiled asparagus is Angelina Jolie sexy, to blanched asparagus' wholesome Jennifer Aniston simplicity. The outer skins become slightly crisp while the insides tender and juicy. Eggs and asparagus became the new go-to meal-- I ate it again for breakfast the next morning, and yet again today. I find myself eating beyond capacity because between the asparagus and the local strawberries I final found at the farmer's market, I can't stop eating.
As asparagus season draws to a close, I am working hard at trying to get tired of it, so that the time between now and next season won't seem so long-- but so far I am not succeeding.
1 comment:
For me, it was broccoli. I hated it so much as a kid that I would come up with all kinds of excuses not to eat it, and find all kinds of hiding places in which to put it. (The old crumpling it up in a napkin trick didn't last very long). But now I love, love, LOVE it. I wasn't wild about asparagus, either, but I eat it at least once a week now. And I love broiling it! I like to drizzle a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar on it, and a bit of salt and pepper. TASTY!
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