My lovely sister and her boyfriend recently came to visit the Bay Area and I had the privilege of hosting them for a week. My favorite thing about having guests is the excuse to join in on their vacation. Drink every night? Go out to eat again? Dessert? Of course, it’s vacation! We enjoyed long, leisurely dinners almost every night they were here. We took turns making different dishes and sipped wine between courses. It’s so nice not to rush through a meal and really enjoy the food and the company of family and friends. If I had my way, dinner would be like that every night.
Tripp and Tina are good cooks and they introduced me to a few new dishes over the course of their stay. My favorite was roasted asparagus with feta cheese. It is a simple dish that’s really satisfying. The flavors of the cheese and asparagus meld nicely and the cheese adds a subtle richness to this vegetable dish. It’s a perfect appetizer and goes really well with a glass of white wine.
Roast Asparagus with Feta Cheese:
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 – 1 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
- Wash and dry asparagus, and cut off the woody ends. If the asparagus is thick, it helps to peel the stalk.
- Spread the asparagus in a single layer in a baking dish. Drizzle the olive oil over the asparagus and roll the stalks to coat.
- Sprinkle the feta cheese evenly over the dish.
- Sprinkle the salt over the asparagus. I generally add a lot of salt, this is really to taste.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
On a side note, I’ve been experimenting with my illustrations over the last two posts. They’re more hand-drawn than my usual illustrations. What do you guys think? I would love some feedback, just leave me a comment. You can see my experiments with the illustration from this post here. Thanks everyone!
This is Julie Duda.. Ellen’s sister-in-law. I love your blog! I made the guiness chocolate cake that you had on here for Aisander’s birthday. It came out great and was delicious. I love asparagus so I can’t wait to try this recipe. I think your illustrations are wonderful!
Hey Julie! Isn’t that cake amazing?! I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. Thanks for the feedback!
Hey Julie! Hope you are the babe are doing well!
Add Garlic Salt for an extra kick!
beautiful illustration (as usual ;). next time you might try a drizzle of reduced balsamic. pretty and yummy…
Thank you Becca! The balsamic reduction sounds amazing. I’ll be sure to give that a try.
Mmmm…my mouth is waterinng! For my birthday dinner on Friday, we’re grilling some surf & turf in the backyard. After seeing these beauties, I now know my menu was woefully incomplete. Thanks for the inspiration!
Many blessings,
Juniper
(P.S. Your illustrations are dripping with color and beautiful as always…I love the teal spoon with yellow olive oil, but do prefer the white background color.)
Thank you for taking a look at my other illustrations. I appreciate the feedback. Happy Birthday!
[…] cook together..so we chopped and peeled and whipped and grilled ourselves a feast: Thanks to: Illustrated Bites for the asparagus inspiration. Mmm…feta! Find the recipe for this incredible cake on […]