Okay, I'll admit that Anna and I are not very adventurous when it comes to trying new vegetables. In fact, this winter I think our staples were potatoes, yams, onions, potatoes, yams, and acorn squash... did I mention potatoes? Acorn squash wouldn't have even made it into our rotation had it not been for Matt and Kate prodding us into trying it when they were here for a visit. Well, Matt and Kate once again came to our rescue from veggie boredom with asparagus. I have always liked asparagus, I can remember when I was younger and visiting my Grandpa and Grandma Benjamin in the summer there was always asparagus you could grab growing wild on the side of the road. Nevertheless, I have never been able to convince Anna that asparagus is indeed good (I think she has had a run in or two with some bad asparagus... dark alleys, gunpoint, over-cooked, you get the idea). A weekend or two ago, Matt and Kate brought some asparagus over to go with our brats. All we did to it was clean it, package it in some foil with some butter, and grilled it... Mmm, it tasted like summer at Grandpa and Grandma's ;) We have since bought and consumed more asparagus, but it doesn't end there! We also became a little more adventurous, inspired by our encounter with the unknown, we tried an eggplant and an artichoke. The eggplant was in a coconut chicken dish and likely was overcooked because it was mushy, consequently, we didn't much care for it. The artichoke however was an entirely different matter. After watching my mom eat artichokes when I was a kid, I have always thought of artichokes as too much work, not enough gain. But I was recently inspired by an article I saw online and later by an older Good Eats episode to give artichokes another try. Tonight I prepared one very simply, cut the bottom off (save and cook the stem!), cut the top off and boiled it for a little over 10 minutes. Then I served it with some lemon butter. It was delicious. When all of the leaves were eaten, I put my Good Eats knowledge to use, cut off the choke, and we ate the heart... mmmm. I think we are both looking forward to many more artichokes in the near future.
So, my advice to you, if there is a vegetable you haven't tried since you were a kid, or maybe a vegetable you have never tried, give it a shot! Tastes change, maybe you just had a badly prepared dish or maybe a bad example of the veggie itself... What's next in our vegetable explorations? I'm thinking we should revisit Peas...
P.S. - Here is my most recent beer label, nothing special, but figured I'd share: 