Asparagus

I've made many of my own disasters in the kitchen, and some of them have turned out to be decent (albeit not always recreatable), so I was a bit intrigued when I read about Edible Tulip's unintended experiment with asparagus. (Via Too Many Chefs)

I'd picked up some asparagus as the farmers market on Thursday, so with nothing else in the plans for dinner, we gave the non-recipe a go: Set oven to 400°F, oil and salt asparagus, walk away and forget. I left them in for about 20 minutes, and they didn't quite match the visual description Edible Tulip gave of her asparagus, but they were pretty tasty with a crisped skin and a melty inside. I might want to try a little less oil next time, but I think this is one where there is room for a next time.

Other Stuff

CELESTE: She had a short morning nap and a long afternoon one and went down pretty well after her bath ... and we haven't had a peep out of her in over two hours. Could we have reached a turning point? Or will the thunderstorm wake/disturb her? Or is my blogging this certain to lead to a backsliding? I guess only time will tell.

P³ UPDATE: Evelin recently discovered Freecycle and has managed to get two no-longer-needed humidifiers and some Ikea sheets she hated out of the house. She also put out a notice that if anyone wanted free dirt we had a lot ... and we actually had a taker.

Okay, so the Freecycler who was interested in some dirt didn't show up on Sunday, but Evelin did talk to a neighbor across the street who recently had some trees taken out of his front yard and it turns out he needs some dirt to help fill things in. I took six wheelbarrow loads over there after work (and before the rain hit) and hopefully one of us will see him tomorrow or Wednesday to find out how much more he wants and where he wants it. We have so much dirt to give.

WEATHER: After a very cool spring, we finally turned on the AC on Sunday. The temperature wasn't too bad that morning, but the humidity was up to 94% (and inside the humidity reader was scoring 75%). The timing was pretty good because that afternoon it was in the upper 80°Fs range and today it hit 98°F (albeit a little less humid). I don't know if we're into summer heat from here until October or if this is just an early June heat burst, but the AC is working, which is always a nice thing to discover after it's been off all winter (kind of like finding out that the furnace is working when that first cold snap hits in November or December).