Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 15, 2021

We live in an era where asparagus can be roasted and included in eggs Benedict. It’s a wonder!

My mother loved asperguts. Even to the point where she would sometimes buy… and serve… the canned version. It WAS better than canned spinach (an extremely low bar). But we did get fresh, at the grocery store, “in season”… which she cooked until it had the texture of the canned stuff. Blch. But she also kept the “trimmed ends” aside and would cut them into thin rounds and put them with milk, salt and pepper into the pan in which she’d just fried some onions in butter, then simmer until they were al dente. THAT was delicious. I never asked her why she boiled the “good parts” to death, but once out of her house, began to cook it until just … right. I also like it real well when it is coated in EVOO and a little lemon juice, then roasted until the tips are … just … barely crunchy, Ahhh.

Asparagus is good raw, sautéed with pasta or wrapped in bacon and grilled.

But I’ll bet she does. My mom overcooked everything from burgers to turkey.

Peru! Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you should. Eat local.

Lotta good thoughts in today’s strip.

“Boiled to death” is the mantra for almost any restaurant serving vegetables.. I did have some broccoli the other day, though, that wasn’t gray and mushy. Cheers to the chef!

Never been able to bring myself to try it and I won’t now! It’s enough that I tried artichokes. I’ll stick with corn, peas, and green beans, thank you.

I hardly understand why people boil vegetables. They’re so much better roasted, and it’s no harder: you put it in the stove instead of on top of the stove. That might be why kids of my generation didn’t like vegetables. They’re even usually good raw.

This is well timed. The first summer farmers’ market opens today, and I am told there will be asparagus. Yum. Ist das nicht die Spargelzeit? Ja, das ist die Spargelzeit!

I had a beautiful black cat who loved asparagus, cooked or raw.

“Boiled to death” is the operative word/phrase. It is the secret for broccoli too. I love those things just past “blanched” without the ice water quench. So much better than baked or grilled … a waste of fresh.

Guess who eats ‘boiled’ dinners.

Eat a baby fern? Eww! (actually I like it sauteed with a couple strips of bacon, then steamed until al dente, serve with grated pecorino or really strong feta. Good for breakfast with mayonnaise lightly tainted with sriracha.)

I seriously doubt that most kids love (or even eat) asparagus, non-boiled or not.

Mom used to boil the nutrients out of broccoli and give it to me during our Sunday dinners.

HORK! HORK! HORK! HORK! HORK!

We had the CHEAP canned asparagus—tips removed.

My family grew it for market. What we didn’t sell, we ate – now or later. Was SOOOO glad when we got a deep-freeze, no more canned asparagus. And yeah, my grandma cooked it until it was DEAD!

My favorite way is to roll it in olive oil and grill it 4 min. per side. I have wire baskets with handles to make turning easier.

i love asparagus…all ways, including raw

Best gently microwaved !

I am with Frazz, Asparagus, Spinach, Brussels Sprouts, Peas and Lima Beans the five foods that are hardest to get kids to eat.

Grilled or steamed are the only ways we cook asparagus.

Jef Mallett’s Blog Posts

Frazz 16 hrs ·

The standard joke about having stuck around for the year 2021 or thereabouts is, “Where’s my jet pack?” I’m glad it’s still just a joke. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with a jet pack, unless you picture how well everybody drives the stuff we do have — cars, big-ass cars, electric scooters, (and yes) bicycles — and picture trying to share three dimensions worth of potential wrong turns with them on combustible flying machines a guaranteed-injurious-in-a-fall distance above the deck.

And besides, we’re walking around with technology on our wrists and in our pockets well beyond what we were too busy thinking about jet packs to think of.

And not to ruin anybody’s trip down nostalgia lane, some of the miracles didn’t need to be that spectacular. They only needed to be finally figuring out that it was possible to do the obvious if we just quit doing things the way we had always done them. We didn’t even need new technology. At least I’m pretty sure that by the time we had the resources and skills to boil vegetables, we already had what we needed to roast or steam them.

And that’s the next type of miracle I’m eager for. For one, I bet the owner’s manual is smaller.

The Chinese figured out how to cook all kinds of vegetables and make them tasty, The WOK is a great cooking device, along with sesame oil, soy sauce, lobster sauce, and garlic among other items to use.

Asparagus was okay when I was a kid, but much better now when cooked less. The bigger transformation is Brussels sprouts, which I swear nobody actually learned how to cook until the 1990s (and also, new varietals have been developed).

I have a 1980s cookbook with meticulous steps for dealing with Brussels sprouts, but I could never make those work.

except if you live in Michigan (as does Frazz and the writer) it comes from Holland Michigan on the west coast.