A spring treat, roasted asparagus in an omelet, topped with a French sauce called "rémoulade" [pronounced ray-muh-LAHD]. A complaint arrived this week. "Don't you cook anything except asparagus?" Well. Um. No. Not really. At least not right now, while the local asparagus is so completely gorgeous. Gorging on one vegetable during its short season is a twist that accompanies the practice of enjoying vegetables in their season, when they're at their prime and taste the best -- and often, the least expensive, too. While supermarket imports mask the seasons, eating plant foods when they're in season creates an entirely different sense of food and time passage. And that, my dear complainer, is why here you won't see tomatoes until July and winter squash until October. And in May? Yes, it's asparagus time! (Plus, I'm told, the local strawberries will make their first appearances at St. Louis farmers markets this morning! No more grapefruit!) BU

A warm welcome to 'vegetable lover' visitors from Simply Recipes , one of my own favorite websites for recipes. Here on A Veggie Venture, you'll find asparagus recipes galore , for sure -- and don't miss the gorgeous raw asparagus salad from earlier this week! But if there's something else in your frig, check the Alphabet of Vegetables for ideas. Chances are, you'll find the perfect recipe there, too. Look around, let me know what you think. I'm happy you're here! ~ The 'Veggie Evangelist', Alanna Oops, so there is no radish called 'girlie'. But aren't the colors -- pink, purple, red and white -- just gorgeous and ever so teenage girlie? I set out for a recipe that would preserve the beautiful colors but still cook the radishes. Call my search half successful: the radishes cooked too long in the microwave too long; less time would likely preserve more color. The microwave? Yes! These radishes are cooked in the microwave! And the tas

I can't say I set out to make homemade rémoulade. What? You know, [ray-muh-LAHD], the 'classic French sauce made by combining mayonnaise (usually homemade) with mustard, capers and chopped gherkins, herbs and anchovies'. Thank you, Epicurious! Heaven knows, I'm happy with shortcuts. But inspired by My French Cuisine 's recipe for a celeriac salad recipe bookmarked ages ago, nothing could have been easier! Recording the recipe here, I see that the chopped hard-boiled egg should be added AFTER the other ingredients are whizzed in the blender. Oops. But I'll tell you: what I loved most about this completely delicious sauce was the underlying egg flavor. I'd repeat the same "error" in a heartbeat. And if you can't find or aren't interested in celeriac (aka celery root) don't worry. The sauce is itself is simply gorgeous. Essentially it's a mustard-y homemade mayonnaise. It was completely delicious over a light-supper asparagus omelet b

An easy salad, made with thin spears of raw (yes raw!) asparagus tossed in a simple vinaigrette. Fresh & Seasonal, A Spring Classic. Just Four Ingredients! Low Carb. Low Fat. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free.

It takes some juggling to keep all the pots moving for asparagus eggs benedict. I'd recommend a helper and/or cooking for just a few. But still, it's decidedly delicious, a great way to cook skinny spears of asparagus and use up homemade hollandaise . The asparagus were so fresh and so small that once chopped, they quick-quick sauteed in butter in just a flash, maybe five minutes. Even if you're not interested in the fuss and calories of English muffins, Canadian bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise, still, try the asparagus all by themselves -- very very good! WEIGHT WATCHERS ENGLISH MUFFINS On a lark, I tried the Weight Watchers brand of English muffins. Harrrummph. They were cardboard-tasting AND pricey -- $3.59 vs $1.79 for Trader Joe's whole wheat English muffins (I love these!) and $1.99 for Bay's English muffins (long-time favorites). The only upside is that the Weight Watchers muffins add up to 1 point, the others to 2. But the real difference is minimal: 30

My great-grandfather kept a strawberry patch of local acclaim in a sunny corner spot. In my mind, he bends low behind a white picket fence, wearing dusky dungarees and a buttoned-up shirt. His hands are gnarled with arthritis but he tends the plants with deftness. Some perfect day in late spring, he brushes soil from the first berry of the season, lifting it to the sun for visual inspection, then pop! it stains his lips as he begins the ultimate flavor test. And so the three quick and easy strawberry desserts featured in this week's Kitchen Parade column are worthy of the very best strawberries, the ones plucked straight from the lovingly tended plants, the local berries found at the farmers market. Yes, three recipes, all simple. A gorgeous strawberry banana chocolate -- yes, all three! -- crumble that roasts into fruity chocolatey goodness, each flavor distinct, the blend something beyond measure. And my variation of the classic strawberry fool, just berries and cream spi

Talk about a serendipity salad! This simple salad made from raw celeriac is delicious! At Soulard Market, the local offerings are slim at the moment, thanks to four days of very hard-freeze in April. To make their trips worthwhile, Soulard's real farmers are adding imported produce to their own limited supplies (unlike the Market's many produce vendors who sell only outside produce year-round). Kruse Gardens is one of my favorite stops at Soulard , a regular source of organic, locally grown and unusual vegetables in St. Louis. I really enjoy Earl and Arlene (whose 50th wedding anniversary I was happy to share last year!) and son Steve, who for 13 years has greeted me with a big smile. And I'm struck by how different the Kruse's add-ons are different from the produce vendors' regular fare. Take big knobs of celeriac. (Yes, you'll want to! Grab one now!) They're fat and plump and alive-looking, despite their rough, knobby exterior -- compared to the celer