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
    1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
    2. Wash and dry asparagus, and cut off the woody ends. If the asparagus is thick, it helps to peel the stalk.
    3. Spread the asparagus in a single layer in a baking dish. Drizzle the olive oil over the asparagus and roll the stalks to coat.
    4. Sprinkle the feta cheese evenly over the dish.
    5. Sprinkle the salt over the asparagus. I generally add a lot of salt, this is really to taste.
    6. 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!