Miss Rachel

I’m going to a cookout today, and I decided to make an asparagus salad to bring.   Here are the raw materials.

First I steamed the asparagus (after breaking off the ends of the stalks).  I let the water come to a boil, and I put the thicker stalks into the pan first so they would be submerged and cook a little more than the thinner ones.  Then I put all the others in, put the cover on and steamed for about 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes I took the pan off the heat and put in the sink and began cooling the asparagus by running cold water on it and putting some ice cubes in the pan.  Then I dried a bit with paper towels, put half of it in the serving dish and made the dressing.

I didn’t measure the dressing ingredients. I just used the juice of 1 lemon and chopped up what looked like enough of the dill and red onion and mixed all those up (along with a few sprinkles of salt), with some Vegenaise.

I poured the dressing over the first layer of asparagus and then put the rest in and poured the remaining dressing over that, sprinkled on a little salt, ground on some black pepper and garnished it with some sprigs of dill.

Then I put the cover on the serving dish and put it in the fridge where the salad chills awaiting its trip to the cookout.

Blue and I went up to Rockport this weekend to visit my mom and my sister.  Saturday night dinner, the three of us (me, Mom and my sister, not Blue) went to one of our favorite places, Passports in downtown Gloucester.  My sister treated us – w00t!

I love this restaurant’s location and atmosphere, but the menu isn’t very vegan-friendly. I had to ask them to make me something vegan.  I was nice about it, and said I didn’t want to cause any difficulty, and the waitress was able to procure a pasta dish for me.  I also shared some of the salad that came with my mom’s meal.

They do a nice job presenting the food there.  I love the little rosemary “tree” garnish on my pasta.

It was nice to spend time with my mom again.

After a dinner we went for a scenic drive.  I never get tired of this view.  You can actually see the skyscrapers of Boston from Niles Beach in Gloucester – so cool!