Asparagus

You know what they say about asparagus? 
The tips are the best part.
Also, it makes smelly pee.
As in, why does the dog smell so awful after we just gave her a bath and she's on the other side of the door? Oh wait...that's me.

In my effort to add more veggies to our diet (vitamins! healthy! it'll make you feel good!) I found a recipe from the googiemomma (no, really) and I HAD to take that jump. She raved so hard about vinegar and feta I thought she must have been talking to me.

So Mr. E and I found ourselves at Ralphs, staring blankly at bunches of fuzzy-tipped branches as I tried for all the world not to think of eating Archibald Asparagus.

Mr. E was skeptical, but I figured if I could put on a bright face and convince him feta solves all taste problems, we might have a shot. And we did. For a while.

We washed and rinsed, then broke off the more woody parts from the stalk, just like googiemomma told us to- hold both ends and bend: wherever it breaks is good enough. This worried me that we would be getting much smaller stalks than what we bought, but when you get right down to it we didn't eat all that much anyways. 

Feta Vinegar Asparagus

one bunch of asparagus

1-2 Tbsp olive oil (I would rather have crunch so fry 'em up!)

two cloves chopped garlic

lemon juice

honey-ginger balsamic vinegar (make your own with honey. and ginger, duh)

pepper

crumbled feta (at your own leisure)

Preheat oven to 425F. 

Break asparagus stalks and rinse. Coat in olive oil and add chopped garlic. Add lemon juice and vinegar, pepper to taste. Lay on baking sheet in a single layer and cook 10-12 minutes until desired brown-ness. Top with feta, push back in for two minutes to allow ample melting time, then enjoy.

We drizzled in olive oil and garlic, then made our own vinegar mixture. Small difference here, which I think diverged from the recipe a little too much, we used apple cider vinegar (plus honey and ginger) because it was all we had. I really think that balsamic would have been a better choice (a much different flavor in retrospect), but I am all about using what you have.

Not too crazy about the smell through the house as these bad boys cooked- reminiscent of those nights when my mother was trying to cook healthy dinners and I had to sit in anxiety because I knew I wouldn't like it- but when we took them out of the oven that vinegar smelled HEAVENLY. Top with feta (much more than we thought we should do) and melt a little before eating.

The first few bites were tolerable...getting used to the new texture, the unusual taste and the smell. Again, the vinegar should have been balsamic, but all in all it was something I could definitely eat with the rest of my food. Mr. E was NOT crazy about it at all and insisted that we didn't have to try this recipe anymore. Even if the tips were tasty.

So, lesson learned. I like asparagus more than my husband. But he did suggest we try something like this with green beans (and I think we might try brussel sprouts this way too!), so all was not lost. Tasty, but potty breaks for the rest of the night were done by holding our breath.