As Good as Chocolate?!

I heart asparagus. I heart asparagus as much as I heart chocolate. There, I said it. I eat asparagus almost as often as I eat chocolate but not quite as often, mostly because I don't have to wash chocolate. I just peel back the foil, break off a chunk and instantly have heaven on my tongue. Oh but with asparagus, there's all that drudgery of washing it and snapping off the woody stems. (Insert big sigh here.) But, I soldier on because it's so damn good....oh ya, and nutritious.

Ya know what else I heart? Garlic. Namely roasted garlic. I go through binges when I eat so much that there is no chance in hell that I will be approached by vampires...or single men...or anyone with a nose. I once ate so many Garlic Smashed Potatoes in the span of two days that a friend said I reminder him of Charlie Brown's pal, Pig Pen. Just as Pig Pen has an halo of dust around him, I had a very noticeable aura of roasted garlic following me. If you didn't know, when you eat garlic the scent "follows" you for days because garlic's sulfur compounds enter your blood stream and exudes from your lungs and pores. Oh well. I think there are much worse things to smell like.

So what happens when I combine two of my favorite foods? Double Roasted Garlic Asparagus Fabulocity. How's that for a name? Hope you enjoy this super delish, super easy dish which, in my not so humble opinion, is as good as candy...namely high quality, dark chocolate candy. Enjoy, garlic lovers and suck it vampires (pun intended)!

Double Roasted Garlic Asparagus Fabulocity

(Disclaimer, this recipe is a non-recipe because I didn't really pay attention to amounts or cooking times. Deal with it...it's called real cooking.)

Find yourself a big clove or garlic. Not Elephant Garlic, but just a big, fresh head of standard garlic. Cut off the top. Liberally pour EVOO over it, wrap it in foil and throw it in a 425 degree oven for a while. I don't how long exactly, maybe an hour or so, until you peek inside the foil and see that the individual cloves are all brown and caramelized and gooey and beautiful.

Refrigerate the clove until firm, as the cloves will be easier to remove from their individual husks. Once chilled, squeeze each individual clove from it's papery casing - squeezing out every last morsel of the roasted, golden goodness. Smash it with a fork, and whisk it with the juice of two small lemons, a shot of good quality balsamic vinegar and enough EVOO to form the consistency of ketchup.

Suffer through the laborious drudgery of washing your big ol' bunch of asparagus and snapping off the woody stems at the point where they naturally snap. Wait where is that oh-so-easy-to-eat-chocolate again? No, no, eat your veggies!! Lay your dried asparagus spears in a single line on a roasting pan or glass casserole dish and spoon the roasted garlic mixture over the top of the asparagus. Toss it well with your hands until each spear is lovingly and evenly coated. The amount of roasted garlic mixture made with this non-recipe will make enough to use for several batches of asparagus and I plan to try it on Yukon Gold Potatoes, which I'll roast, as well. Doesn't that sound yummy, too?

Roast the asparagus in a 425 degree oven until done. I never pay attention to how long this takes. Maybe 30 minutes. I depends on whether you're using an aluminum roasting pan or a glass casserole dish, but it seems to be about 30 minutes. About 5 minutes before the asparagus is done, spoon a little more of the roasted garlic mixture over the asparagus and mix well, so you have a little bit of the mix that doesn't completely cook into into the stalks.

Once plated, hit it with some sea salt. Enjoy and try your damnedest to not lick the plate...or go ahead and like the plate, I won't tell anyone!

Afterthoughts: I just made the most fabulous pasta dish with this golden, garlic goodness mixture. I sauteed some shallots in butter until crispy and set them aside. I then sauteed up some fresh baby spinach and drained the spinach with some cooked, brown rice pasta. Once well drained, I threw those two ingredients back into the saute pan, added the crispy shallots and sun-dried tomatoes and some of the roasted garlic fabulousness and gently tossed it and heated it through. Once plated, I sprinkled in with a little truffle salt. Ahhhhh.........

Snow Day Soup!

I woke up to big, beautiful, sexy snowflakes this morning. We don't get those too often in Seattle. I should have just put on some mellow music and enjoyed the view out my window but I made the mistake of turning on the television to a barrage of newscasts interrupting regular programming - newscasts repeating the terms "treacherous" and "Thanksgiving Week Blizzard 2010" and images of abandoned cars because we had 2" of snow on the highways.

I've gotta say, this amuses a Wisconsin girl to no end. Oh Seattle, you don't know "treacherous" weather until you're a 16 year old, newbie driver driving in several feet of blinding, blowing snow with the temps far below zero...and it's MAY! Those, you Washington weather wimps, are treacherous weather conditions.

So in order to stay off the road and away from the crazies who think they know how to drive in snow but really don't, I put on my red and white polka dotted puddle jumpers (which occasionally double as snow boots) and walked to the store for "provisions". I fired up the bread machine and made a loaf of my tried and true gluten-free bread and pulled out the stockpot to make some soup. It's a tasty, vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free, little diddy that was easy and fast! Enjoy!

Zingy Red Lentil and Coconut Milk Snow Day Soup

4 shallots, chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

5 Roma tomatoes

1 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained

3 cups veggie broth

3/4 cup light coconut milk

Juice of one large lime

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

2"-3" piece of cinnamon stick

6 cardamom pods

Salt and pepper to taste

Enough EVOO or butter to brown the shallots and garlic

A few tablespoons of medium flaked coconut (Not the sugar coated yuckiness you find in baking isle but unadulterated, plain, flaked coconut)

In a small saute pan, brown the shallots in butter or EVOO (your choice) until golden and caramelized. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Add the chopped garlic and cook until soft and ever so slightly golden. Don't overcook the garlic or it will taste bitter. Add a few tablespoons of the veggie broth to deglaze the pan, scraping up all the tasty brown bits and transfer the browned bits, garlic and caramelized shallots to a stockpot. Don't cook the shallots in the stockpot you'll make the soup in as doing so won't result in nicely browned and caramelized shallots. In such a deep pot, you'll actually be steaming the shallots and they won't truly brown.

Add the the remaining broth, along with the chopped tomatoes, lime juice, lentils and spices. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat, cover and allow the soup to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are soft.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, as you'll be toasting the coconut to sprinkle on top of the soup upon serving.

Remove the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick from the soup and discard. Transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and puree until it's almost completely smooth. An immersion blender used right in the stockpot works well (and means less dishes to wash!) but be forewarned that the turmeric will stain your immersion blender, making it a lovely shade of bright yellowish-green. It may stain a clear, plastic food processor bowl, too. If this bugs you, the glass pitcher of a blender would be your best best choice to not end up with a turmeric-stained appliance.

Stir in the coconut milk, return the mixture to the pot if you pureed it in a blender or food processor and turn the burner to very low, just high enough to heat the soup through again. As the soup warms, sprinkle the coconut onto a baking sheet and spread evenly. Toast the coconut until brown, about 3-4 minutes.

Ladle the soup into bowls, top with the toasted coconut and dig in!

Afterthoughts: The 3/4 cup of light coconut milk is about half of a 14 ounce can. I like to heat the leftover milk with almond milk, a little cane sugar and good quality, dutch-processed, unsweetened cocoa to make rich, decadent and dairy-free hot chocolate!