Today, I will start my weekly post with the story of a sad day.
The featured picture is what’s left of my beloved plum tree. On Tuesday, we experienced a severe storm, with rain and wind gusts of almost 100 mph. At the height of the ferocious storm, I heard a deep “thud” and learned that our 75-foot-tall elm tree had fallen on the house. The 70-year-old tree was lush and green and the picture of health, but just couldn’t stand up to the winds after all the rain we’ve had. The tree literally lifted up out of the ground from the roots, its exposed root ball leaving a 5-foot round hole in the ground.
Our beautiful plum tree in the front yard suffered a similar fate, although it just fell apart piece by piece over the course of about an hour as it was buffeted and beaten by the wind.
I cried yesterday when the trees got removed and hauled away.
As hard as it was to lose those trees, I am grateful that we had no loss or harm to humans or animals, and so we move forward as we assess the damage to the house.
And I’m very grateful that I get to move forward this week with asparagus–my hands-down favorite vegetable, maybe even my hands-down favorite food!
I LOVE asparagus. On New Year’s Day, I start thinking about the beginning of a new asparagus season. Mr. Stone Soup Cook and I are quite addicted to them and when in season, we eat them for every meal. There are worse things we could be addicted to, right?
My favorite way to prepare asparagus is just steamed for a few minutes–no salt, no butter, no lemon, no nothing–just a little steam to soften them up. I also love them in soups, with ham, Hollandaise sauce, in a casserole, with a simple vinaigrette, on pizza—you get it. Whatever way I can get them is the way I like them best!
Asparagus made an early debut at the market this year, arriving in January due to all the rain we’ve had this season. They were gnarly, twisted and misshapen, but they were still asparagus, and I did my asparagus dance when I saw them–no really…I have an asparagus dance. Mr. Stone Soup Cook walks away in mortified disbelief when I start up in front of the asparagus stand, but I can’t help it. When I see the first asparagus at the market, I just get giddy.
Asparagus play really well with ham, so I will be featuring a couple of recipes using ham as a companion ingredient. Basil pesto is also a lovely pairing, and although sweet basil is not quite in season yet, there are several good options for pre-made pesto. I’ll try to make asparagus the star of the show this week, but as I said, my favorite way to eat it is steamed and naked, so…I’ll be featuring it that way, too 😉 And as usual, several of my meals will build off of previous meals, as with the asparagus risotto, which I’ll re-imagine into risotto fritters; and the ham from the asparagus soup will be re-imagined into the asparagus with ham and potatoes meal.
So let’s get started on this week’s menu, shall we?
Saturday: Brunch: Asparagus eggs, toast, sausage or fruit; Dinner: Seared salmon and asparagus risotto.
Sunday: Brunch: Asparagus risotto patties, scrambled eggs, sausage; Dinner: Chicken Rigonato with potatoes, steamed asparagus.
Monday: Pesto salmon, steamed asparagus and Dill rice.
Tuesday Asparagus soup with ham broth, fresh sourdough bread
Wednesday: Asparagus with ham, potatoes and vinaigrette, salad
Thursday: Pasta with asparagus, smoked chicken and pesto sauce, salad
Friday: Dinner: Pizza with asparagus, burrata and pine nuts, salad
Well, that’s it for this week–I hope you find my ideas and methods to be helpful and tune in again next week! Until then, I wish you peace, love and good food!
Keri
