More on asparagus

Tonight I felt like a child again. I had finished an awesome hamburger and was left with a small pile of asparagus stalks. And I just couldn't finish them. Didn't want to finish them. Had to force myself to eat them, even though Matt would have left me off the hook. After all, I am an adult.

I'm a healthy eater. I love vegetables, get sad when I miss my "5-7 servings," and even ate at a vegetarian restaurant last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

However, I'm struggling to love asparagus. It's been sounding like such a good idea these days - easy to prepare, in-season, affordable, etc. And I haven't even been steaming it .. I've been roasting it in lots of olive oil, with plenty of sea salt and lemon pepper.

But it's not really working. I do think the tips taste fine, but the thick, hard to chew, stringy stalks are another story. Ugh! And when they get cold (as they often do when you leave them till the very end to eat) they're just unbearable.

Matt, on the other hand, loves every last bite of every single stalk, no matter how thick or thin. Wish I had known him when I was a child, and really did have to finish every last bite. I could have used the help!

Failproof landscaping

We did a little yardwork yesterday. Actually, perhaps I should say Matt did a lot of yardwork yesterday and I was moderately helpful and hopefully inspirational. (I only say that because on one of our trips between the nursery and home I commented that I didn't feel like I was much help, and Matt said I was inspiration. Kinda cute and I'm hoping he wasn't just joking!)

In just three hours, Matt mowed the lawn, dug up 5 ailing rhododendrons, extended the width of our front bed by two feet, transplanted our Japanese maple, planted 5 hydrangeas and 13 boxwoods, and laid some mulch!!

To my credit, I planted some herbs, did some pruning and weeding and laid some mulch as well.

I really don't have much of a green thumb, and, at this stage in life, am not all that interested in doing what it takes to make it greener. It makes me sympathetic to those people who really aren't that interested in cooking, but still want to eat well without too much effort or cost.

Our friend with expertise in landscaping told us that this plan was "failproof" ... here's hoping he's right!

The top five things

Well, we just returned from a fantastic long weekend in Charlottesville, which has me missing the East Coast a bit more than normal.

So, here's what we do about that ... we make a "Top five things about being in Michigan right now" list!

1. The weather is awesome. Even better than VA and MD. No humidity,and steady temps in the 70's and 80's.
2. Local produce will soon be exploding and my summertime meals will surely benefit. Hopefully my yet to be planted garden will, too.
3. It gets light very early and stays light very late, making waking up in the morning less painful and the evenings seem a lot longer.
4. It's golf season, and since last season got cut off unexpectedly early due to my foot injury, I'm feeling a new sense of gratitude for the ability to enjoy this sport. Also, we often play on Friday nights after work, and finish off the night with sausage and green olive pizza from our favorite pizza place - a perfect way to end the work week in my opinion.
5. Summertime also means that we have a couple of trips to look forward to in the next several months that will bring us back to the East Coast.

I'm not sure if the last one really counts as a top five for being in MI right now, but I'm running out of time and ideas, so it will have to do!

I need to be more careful

Last night I volunteered at a cowboy-themed fundrasiser for the Junior League. I don't own cowboy boots, a cowboy hat or even a checked button-down shirt ... the only affordable Western flair I could figure out at the last minute was a bandanna.

So I asked Matt if he had any I could borrow, and he hedged a little. To be honest, I was a bit miffed by his response. After all, it's just a bandanna, he wasn't going to be using it on Saturday night I'm pretty sure, and what was I going to do ... lose it?!?! Of course not! It would be tied around my neck for all of 2 or 3 hours and then back in his hands, safe and sound.

I'm guessing you can tell where this post is going. Matt was right to hedge a little in lending me his white bandanna, the one he feels the most sentimental about, the one that reminds him of his backpacking trips.

When I got to the event, I put my belongings in a coat closet and decided not to wear the bandanna at first, since I couldn't really make it look cute tied around my neck and figured I looked "cowboy couture" enough with my denim and heels.

And of course, a few hours later, I returned home, bandannaless. In my rush to leave, I didn't notice that it had fallen of the top of my purse, where I had set it initially.

Here's the good news, though! First, and most importantly, Matt forgave me pretty quickly. Yes, he was bummed that we might not be able to get his bandanna back, but he didn't give me a hard time about it. And for that I am very grateful!

Second, I did track down a friend who was still at the event and she rescued it for me.

Lesson learned - I need to keep bandannas tied around my neck! (and be more careful of course)

The hockey scream

I guess I always knew that different sports call for different spectator sounds. Polite clapping and conservative cheering are appropriate for tennis and golf. Basketball, football and baseball allow for more expressive outbursts of emotion. I thought hockey fit into that category, too, but my exposure to the Detroit Red Wings has proved to me that it doesn't.

When Matt watches hockey, the sounds that come out of his mouth are so bizzare. I was certainly caught off-guard the first time I heard them. They are these high-pitched yelps, sporadic "OH's!" that get you all keyed up and make you think maybe something really exciting actually has happened.

But then I look at the screen and nothing really that tremendous has occurred. The puck is still sliding around, the score is the same and not even a fight has broken out.

I'm still not sure why hockey elicits these strange noises from my husband. And I doubt they're unique to him. It just must be something about the sport that I don't understand.

All I know is that I won't be disappointed when the playoffs are over and I'm pretty thankful that Matt's basically just a playoff fan.

Ice cream!

I adore ice cream. And it's my good fortune that we live within walking distance of three ice cream shops ... all well-suited to satisfy three different moods. When I have an appetite for serious ice cream, the kind you can scoop, the kind that can handle big chunks of chocolate and big bites as it totters on top of a sugar cone, we can walk to Clark's.

When I want predictable, we can walk to Dairy Queen and enjoy smooth vanilla ice cream and precise portion control.

Almost always, though, I'm in the mood for soft ice cream and for supporting the mom and pop shops of our town, which is why we headed to the Frosty Freeze tonight.

There's just something sweet and old-fashioned about the Frosty Freeze. Even its name makes you think of the "good ol' days." The menus taped to the window are a bit haphazard and rattle off almost every kind of ice cream concoction you can imagine. Case in point - Matt got his usual Boston Cooler tonight (a smooth blend of ginger ale and vanilla ice cream).

I don't think I've ever seen anyone over the age of 15 working at the Frosty Freeze and there's almost always a line-up of cars at its drive through, and a pile of kids at the walk-up window.

I nearly always get a vanilla or chocolate dip, because it just sounds sooo good, and often regret it when it means I finish my treat faster than Matt finishes his. There's really no way to lick and leisurely relish a dipped cone.

I love that even in this recession, even in Detroit, people are still enjoying simple treats like ice cream. Maybe even enjoying them more than they ordinarily would. I think we are!

Asparagus!

Have any of you ever seen the moving Waiting for Guffman? For those of you who haven't, it's a mock documentary (or mockumentary). It chronicles a community theater in Blaine, Missouri that is putting on a musical called Red, White and Blaine. If you enjoy parody, it's worth watching.

If you enjoy unintentional parody as well as asparagus, then Asparagus! Stalking the American Life is a documentary you won't want to miss. Matt taped the movie and we just watched about 20 minutes of it. We couldn't believe how similar it was to Waiting for Guffman, except for one important detail - it's for real.

There really is a Mrs. Asparagus. There is an asparagus song and everyone knows it. The ladies in the town are seriously excited about asparagus dishware, sweatshirts and other spear-headed paraphernalia.

The documentary takes place in Oceana County, MI, the asparagus capital of the world. However, this could all change very soon due to the U.S. war on drugs, free trade and a fast food nation.

I'm not a huge fan of asparagus, but I think by the time I finish this movie, I'll be just a little more passionate about the green spears that our state depends on.

For more information, check out the documentary's Web site http://www.asparagusthemovie.com/

And as they say in Oceana County, "Our tips are tops," so buy Michigan asparagus!