My mother has been on my mind a lot recently. Our birthdays are two days apart in early April, and last year she and I traveled from California to Oregon together on the day between our birthdays.

She loved flowers. I see the tulips blooming in our back yard and I remember her noticing them as she walked toward her little cottage for the first time that day. “Oooohh!” she said. “Look at them!” The blooms this year come from the same bulbs that lay hidden under the earth since then.

She’s gone now. I wonder if the bulb that was her root is blooming somewhere else? Maybe just in the thoughts and emotions I’m experiencing as she comes to mind.

She loved asparagus, one of the few vegetables she would eat. Now is their season! Here’s a simple way to eat them, roasted and delicious. Enjoy.

Roasted Asparagus

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F.

Snap the cut ends off the asparagus, they will break where the fibers start to get tough. Discard the ends, or save to make soup. Rinse the asparagus in cold water, spraying the tips well to dislodge any sand that may be caught in the tips.

Spread on a sheet pan, one asparagus deep. Don’t stack them! Drizzle the olive oil over all and toss them to distribute the oil well. Spread evenly on the pan and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.

Roast for 15 minutes, or until the asparagus spears begin to look a little shriveled and begin to brown slightly.

Remove from the oven and drizzle with the optional balsamic vinegar.

Serve warm or room temperature. Homemade mayonnaise or pesto (or pesto mayonnaise!) is a nice accompaniment.

Serves 4 – 6

This entry was posted on Friday, April 19th, 2013 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Recipes, Seasonal Change, The Simple Kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.