“A”sparagus and individuality

Photo © Diane Weidenbenner

I had a revelation today, or, rather, my husband helped me with a revelation. You see, I don’t like asparagus. (That’s not the revelation – you need to read on…)

Everyone likes asparagus, at least that’s what I’ve been lead to believe. It’s unmatched for its nutritional benefits and everyone I know just coos over it like it’s a newborn baby. I’ve only prepared it once and the spears refused to get tender so I now equated asparagus with stubbornness. And, green, stringy-ness. See my dilemma?

Friends and family members say that I just don’t know how to cook it. I’ll agree with that. Even strangers who I have met encourage me to cook and eat asparagus. At a community luncheon two years ago, I bonded with a gal at my table who swore that I would like asparagus if I prepared it as she suggested. She gave me the recipe and also her email address so I could reply to her after I’d made my dish and realized that I loved asparagus. I went home, purchased a bunch of asparagus and steamed it until al dente (about 10 minutes). I then drizzled olive oil over it and topped it with fresh garlic, as instructed. I served it for dinner and my husband and I, after one bite, couldn’t eat it. This was the aforementioned debacle where it remained tough and unyielding no matter how long I steamed it. The experience made me gag. I never could bring myself to email my newfound acquaintance.

Today, after again hearing about all the health benefits of asparagus, I went to our local grocery store and decided to prepare it again. I baked chicken and dressing and, you guessed it, stir fried asparagus. I washed it as shown in a video on the Internet, then broke off the tough ends as recommended. This was a new step and I had high hopes that this would be the day that I declared “I love asparagus.”

When Joe, my husband, asked why we were having asparagus, I told him that I knew he liked asparagus and I felt bad because I never made it for him. “Hmm, why do you think I like asparagus?” he asked. I told him I remembered him eating it at a restaurant once and then listed off all the health benefits. Turns out he doesn’t remember liking asparagus. And, he expressed fear at eating it with our chicken. Great! Joe doesn’t like a vegetable that is beloved by the whole world also. We’re asparagus outcasts. I found it a bit comforting that, after 13 years of marriage, we’ve discovered yet another thing that we have in common.

I stir fried the asparagus in olive oil and minced garlic. I then tossed it with parmesan cheese and served it as another sure fire gourmet hit, by way of Allrecipes.com. For fear of stubborn, stringy asparagus, I overcooked it. It was mushy. The taste was okay but I still felt this overwhelming urge to gag. Guess it’s a texture thing.

I told Joe that everyone I knew said I should like asparagus. Even strangers at the grocery store tell me how wonderful asparagus is. I can hear my grandma Rose’s wise words when I would spend the night at her house years ago. “You have to try everything at least once or you won’t know if you like it.”

So…the revelation was not that I didn’t like asparagus. I knew that pretty early on. The revelation for me was that at the age of 50, I am an okay person even though I think asparagus is yucky. I’m not breaking one of the 10 commandments by dissing asparagus. I shouldn’t “should” myself into continuing to sample and torture myself by eating asparagus. I have become comfortable with my asparagus aversion. I wonder if there is a support group… To me it tastes like cooked spinach, which is an entirely different story. Guess you’ll have to wait until the “S” day to learn more, since I’ve begun the Blogging A to Z blogathon.