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.

Roasted Asparagus and shallot soup w/ Avacado

This is a new soup I tried. I couldn't sleep the other night so I did what everyone does in this situation: midnight asparagus Google searches. I found a recipe that sounded promising but I felt it needed some changes. The soup turned out really good but just like everything else that's worthwhile in this life it left me with more questions than answers. This soup is served hot with roasted asparagus and shallots.  It's made me curious about trying an asparagus gazpacho though. However, not wanting to be gauche I will have to wait until the Summer to attempt something like that. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I love avocado. When I cut into a fresh avocado it fills me with hope. Something as piquant as avocado is proof that there's a divine force in the universe. That I'm not alone. If something this delicious can exist it has to be an indication that there's something more than me. My trite existence is one small piece of some larger scheme. Nothing this beautiful can be created purely by chance or serendipity. Sometimes though when I cut into one and I see it's brown and rotted, a rush of doubt enters my mind. I'm reminded that I'm all alone in an indifferent universe that's cold and bleak. And Serendipity is just a shitty John Cusack movie, not the driving force behind existence.

 Ingredients:

1 bundle of Asparagus

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 shallot

2 avocados

1 clove of garlic

Salt/Pepper

2 cups of chicken

1/2 lemon, juiced

                                                                                    1 teaspoon of bacon grease

Instructions:

Heat your oven to 425 degrees. Put your roasting pan in the oven to heat it. Cut (or snap) the ends off your asparagus, slice your shallots and your garlic. When the pan is hot and your oven is warmed take the pan out and lay the asparagus across the pan with the shallots and garlic. Roast them for 12-14 minutes. While this is happening take out your food processor and add everything else to it. The chicken stock, the avocados the salt and pepper the bacon grease and the lemon juice. When the asparagus is done roasting add those to the food processor and puree. Don't puree the stuff that's going to end up garnishes. Leave a few spears of asparagus and some slices of avocado and shallots out. Serve quickly in bowls and enjoy! Garnish how you see appropriate.