Some kind of Steak w/ Red Potatoes that appear to be cooked, Asparagus and Shallots with what looks to be a Mustard Sauce and Prosciutto or some other kind of cured meat

Doesn't that look good?

I realized I hadn't made a blog post in quite some time. So I began going through my Asparagus archives and I found this picture. I don't really even remember making this. Those are our plates though. And it is clearly something I would make. It has all of the things I like: Asparagus, shallots, steak, cured pork. Now I don't want you to get the impression I just haphazardly throw together Asparagus recipes. A lot of thought, time, consideration, and sometimes even compromise go into each recipe. I'm not over exaggerating in the slightest. I typically keep rigorous and extensive notes on each recipe so I can either reproduce what I've done, or make subtle changes to make the recipe better. Some asparagus incarnations go through as many as 12-15 attempts before I deem them worthy of this blog. That being said, I began looking for my notes for this recipe and subsequent photo shoot. To no avail. I'm not sure if I should be exposing this much of my method to my readers but generally my notes get hand written on paper and then transposed to a word document and saved in the archives on my computer. As I have the handwriting of a dyslexic 4th grader the transfer from the written document to the word document is usually the most arduous task of the entire process. This time however I could not find any notes on my hard drive. I can only attribute this to one thing. I must have had 3 glasses of wine, and titled the document something really clever. So clever that at the time I was absolutely positive I would never forget what it was. What I'm getting at is that this recipe may be lost forever. Or at least until I start trying to figure out what I did. I think for now we should just appreciate the picture and leave it at that. If there were some kind of a public outcry I would have no hesitation in beginning the resurrection process, but seeing as I have little to no initiative and only 3 readers come here per day, and I sincerely doubt any of them have even made it this far into the paragraph we will just have to come to terms with the notion that this recipe may be lost forever.

Here it is smaller.

Blanching Asparagus

I could make up reason as to why I neglected you. The justifications would would end up being transparent. I respect you too much for that. Mostly it's because I doubt you even noticed. Nice days in Portland aren't very common so I've been out galavanting whimsically instead of taking the 20 minutes it takes to write one of these. We can both acknowledge that I am selfish. I'm o.k. with that.

So my next recipe isn't a recipe. It's more of a precursor to my next recipe. It's delicious and simple and difficult to ruin. If you've read any of my other posts then you should know by now: that's what I'm all about.

Ingredients:
Asparagus
Maybe some salt
Water
Ice



Instructions:

Boil some water on the stove. You can add salt to increase the rate of the water boiling. (Does that actually work?) When the water is boiling throw in the asparagus you want to cook. When it's cooked for about 2 to 5 minutes then take out your asparagus and shock them with a bowl of ice water. You can drain your asparagus with a strainer. I've used tongs to pick them out and drop them into the ice water. I trust your judgement. Your asparagus will be cooked and delicious and still maintain some crispness without being hot. Perfect for salads.