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.

Shallot and Pickled Asparagus Bloody Mary

Years ago I had a weekly Sunday tradition where I would go have Bloody Mary's and play pool all afternoon in an Irish Pub. There was this lovely but haggard old bartender that made the best Bloody Mary's I've ever had. Mine still don't compare to my recollection of hers. After I watched her make one after another she eventually shared her recipe with me. I always liked the drink because at noon on a bright California Sunday it helped to relieve your head of a late Saturday night. As your self-induced cognitive paralysis set in the Bloody Mary was there to help lubricate your mind. To get it going again. It acted as a catalyst to encourage the synapses in your brain to begin to fire. As thought began to return to your mind you could again have conversations that included more that just groans and grunts. When I had a sufficient amount of elixir my friends and I would wander next door to eat Mexican food.

Here's my Bloody Mary recipe.

Ingredients: 

Most of this list is going to be to taste:
Salt
Pepper
Vodka
Horse Radish
Tobasco
Shallot
Pickled Asparagus
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato Juice
 

 

Instructions: 

The way to properly do this is to mix all of your ingredients and then add the tomato juice last. I use tomato juice instead of Bloody Mary mix because I like my list of ingredients more than I like Mr. T's or a store bought brand. The first thing you do is to salt the rim of your cup. You can do this by spreading some water around the rim with your finger and then dipping it into a small plate that you've covered with salt. I prefer sea salt. Fill the cup about half way up with ice. The size of the cup is directly correlated to the level of ambition you have for that day. If the cup is too big you're probably not going to get a lot done. From there I'll add vodka, Worcestershire, grated shallots, pepper and Tabasco. The last ingredient I'll add before the tomato juice is horse radish. About a 3rd of a teaspoon.  I'll use the spoon to mix it all up. Like I said before it's mostly to taste. I will typically do about 30 to 40% of the cup with ice and vodka. Two to three shakes of Worcestershire and Tabasco. A few shakes of salt even though the rim of the glass is salted. Lots of pepper. Just fill the rest of the glass with the tomato juice and garnish with a slice of shallot and a pickled asparagus.

P.S.
After having this recipe proof read I made the argument that it's not really a recipe. Bloody Mary's are a very subjective taste. I can't tell you how you like yours. I like mine to be overly spicy. There are just going to be some things you need to figure out.