Asparagus - Two Ways

I am so incredibly fortunate to have Connie in my life.  He's the most curious man I've ever met.  How does it work?  Where does that road go?  Case in point.  On our recent trip to Rosewind Farms, we saw a mountain of dirt a ways away.  What is it and where's the road that leads back to it.  The entire trip to Huber Winery was spent surmising on it's origin and checking each drive for potential access.  We finally narrowed it down to a drive down the road and around the corner.  It was wide enough for big trucks and had a gate.  On our return home, Google Earth came through.  We were correct.  Score. 

But, I digress.  One of the areas where I'm most lucky is that we have such similar taste.  There are very few foods that either of us doesn't like.  Since I'm the menu maker, those that I'm just lukewarm about don't show up often.  Connie's not so lucky.  He'd rather not have soup.  But it's a regular on our menus because I love it.  When it comes to most everything else, our taste is remarkably similar.  He jokes that he knew he'd met THE ONE when he opened the meat drawer in my fridge and found it stuffed full of cheese.  We counted our cheese stash the other day and had 18 different kinds of cheese.  How much fun is that?  How many people do you know who typically have a dozen tins of anchovies in their pantry?  Yes, we do. 

Needless to say, we love variety in our meals.  I try and fix a seafood and/or fish, a chicken, a meatless, a pork and a beef dinner each week.  And, since we both eat about any vegetable, I regularly experiment with new recipes. 

There are two ways I fix asaparagus, however, that show up with great frequency. 

One side note here - you probably noticed the potatoes in the photo above.  I tried adding roasted garlic cloves to the potato stacks cooked in muffin tins.  Major yum!

Asparagus with Teriyaki Dipping Sauce
steamed asparagus spears
mayonnaise or sour cream
Kikkoman teriyaki marinade and sauce

Mix the mayonnaise or sour cream with enough teriyaki sauce to suit your taste. 

Dip the asparagus spears in the sauce. 

This is also great with steamed green beans.


Grilled Asparagus
asparagus spears
italian dressing (we prefer robust or zesty)

Blanch asparagus spears. 

Drain them and pour Italian dressing over the spears.   Put the pan aside for about 30 minutes. 

Grill the spears until they're done.