Thursday, April 3, 2008
Baby broccoli
I really miss Seattle. While it wasn't particularly warm, and it rained a lot, at least it was clearly spring. The cherry trees were in full bloom and daffodils and other beautiful flowers were everywhere. Here in Madison, there is still snow on the ground, although I did spy some snow drops (the flowering variety) in the back yard. I must be thinking of spring because when I grabbed my lunch from the refrigerator this morning, I thought I saw a package of asparagus in there. I have a wonderful recipe for asparagus cooked with balsamic vinegar that I make every year to celebrate the coming of spring. It seemed a bit premature to be eating asparagus, but I was willing.
By the time I got home, took the dog outside and did a bunch of chores, it was 7 p.m. I spent 15 minutes looking for my recipe before finally finding it. I went to get the asparagus and discovered it was actually a package of baby broccoli. Disappointed but unwilling to shift gears, I was ready to cook whatever with the asparagus recipe. There was also a package of small red, yellow and orange peppers so I cooked them too. Well, I'm not going to write the recipe here because it wasn't a particularly good way to prepare broccoli, and the recipe deserves asparagus. And I burned the cashews, which look kind of like grubs, don't you think? In my opinion the flavors didn't work well together and the vegetable wasn't tender enough - I think it needed to be steamed before being stir fried. The peppers tasted great, though. My son ate the leftovers the next day and thought they were good, but I'm holding out for asparagus.