Flashback

Once upon a time not too long ago (my Kids aren't that old, but before Pete and Larry were born), two pre- and early teenage boys whose parents both worked lived across the street.  One day, there was a knock on the door and there was Mike.  "May I borrow a cup of sugar, please?"  "Of course."  A short while later, knock knock knock.  It was his younger brother.  "Could I please borrow two cups of flour?"  "Sure."  When there was another knock and a request for a couple of eggs, I had to ask, "What are you guys up to?"  It turned out they wanted to bake a cake and didn't have any of the ingredients.  (Okay, it was long, long ago because this was before boxed cake mixes; sorry, Kids.)

I had a flashback on this scene yesterday.  In Pete's goody bag, he'd brought a large bunch of asparagus.  There are so many things one can do with asparagus, but I fixated on a dish from my childhood, creamed asparagus on toast.  All vegetables were seasonal then and we anticipated when the next crops would come in.  Creamed asparagus was a staple in spring, especially on meatless Fridays.  Ohmigosh, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it.  Just one problem:  I had no milk and I had no bread and it's darned hard to make cream sauce and toast without them.  Drat!  Nothing for it but a trip to town.  It's a good indication of my craving because I got in the truck and made the trek for a cup of milk and two slices of bread.

Back in the day (and I have no reason why), the theory seemed to be that green vegetables should be cooked until grey and mushy, in fact all vegetables were overcooked.  Last night, I lightly steamed the asparagus before putting it into the bechamel and, truly, it was better than my mother's recipe.  I darned near foundered!  Ahh, satisfaction.