Aparagi or asparaguses?

Answer: neither.  The plural is asparagus.

This was so good that I just had to share it.  Jean brought home some fresh asparagus last week and so I was left with the quandary of how to cook it.  We hardly ever eat it so what do you do with it other than steam or boil it?  Well I found this fantastic recipe in mom's cook book (Berry, Mary and Marlena Spieler.  Classic Home Cooking.  Pg. 349.  DK Publishing, Inc.: 1995.):

Asparagus with Parmesan

Serves 4

1 1/4 lb (625 g) asparagus
1 c (90 g) grated Parmesan cheese
lemon wedges and flat leaf parsley sprigs to garnish

MARINADE
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dry white wine
1 tsp white vinegar
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 herbes de Provence
salt and black pepper

1. Trim the woody ends from the asparagus.

2. Make the marinade: combine the oil, wine, vinegar, garlic, herbes de Provence, and salt and pepper to taste.  Toss the asparagus in the marinade, cover, and leave to marinate for 15 minutes.

3. Sprinkle the Parmesan onto a plate.  Roll the apsaragus in the Parmesan to coat, then arrange in a single layer in a large ovenproof dish.

4.  Pour any remaining marinade over the asparagus and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned and sizzling hot.  Garnish with the lemon wedges and parsley sprigs and serve immediately.

I didn't have time to worry about the garnishing accoutrements, but I made up for it.  Instead of using lemon wedges, I simply added a little lemon juice to the marinade.  Also, I didn't have herbes de Provence available to me, since I live in the middle of nowhere, so I had to make something like it myself.  I used a combination of sage, marjoram, fennel, thyme, rosemary, and basil.  It's my understanding that savory, bay leaf, chervil, tarragon, mint, oregano, and lavender can also be used in the mixture.

Cooking it is a little trickier.  I used a rimmed cookie sheet so the olive oil wouldn't make a mess.  Watch the oven!  The recipe said 15 minutes, but it was ready at about 7 minutes.  I wouldn't leave it longer than 10 minutes.  Maybe my altitude is a factor since I'm a mile high.  Once the Parmesan is baked onto the asparagus, it's ready to come out.  If the asparagus starts turning brown, it's overdone, but still edible. Yeah, I admit to overcooking it the first time around.  I had it in the oven for exactly 15 minutes.

Eating it is wonderful.  It's best when it first comes out of the oven.  Don't let it cool down.  If you make it with other dishes, this should be the last one out.

I've never liked asparagus that much until I tried it with this recipe.  I guess if it's drenched in olive oil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and spices, it's got to be good. :)

Interlude - Computers, Kittens, and Home Renovation

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to tell about my vacation with Jean.  Mostly, the length of time has been because of the graphics--editing videos, making maps, editing photos.  I took about 500 photos and videos.  I will continue explaining my vacation later.  Right now I just want to catch up on all the news since Jean and I got back.

Like every May in Montana, we've been really busy.  It seems incredible that May is already gone.

I went to a couple of Jared's baseball games April 30.  It was pretty funny because he won the first game against Gardiner 6-1 (if I remember right) and then they played against each other again, and Gardiner won against Big Timber (Jared) 6-2.  I was rooting for Jared, but I was still a traitor to all the Gardiner kids. lol

Dad wanted me to install a new monitor on his computer, but that has proven to be difficult when it shouldn't be.  My thoughts are that the BIOS (the programming installed on the motherboard) needs to be updated because of some problem with multiple monitors on earlier versions of the programming.  Unfortunately, the BIOS doesn't want to recognize the new programming so that it can be installed.  I've tried going online for help, but so far they've only made suggestions for things I've already done.  That's been a bit frustrating.  I'm going to have a little change of pace on his computer.  This week when I go to Livingston, I'm going to install Windows 7 on his computer.

Jean and I have been fostering kittens at our house for several weeks.  We got them at the end of April and have been raising them since then.  Someone left a mother cat with six kittens by the side of a road near Big Timber as I understand.  Tim, my uncle, brought them to Jean.  The cats are flame-point Siamese crosses.  They could already eat solid food by the time we got them, so the kittens were between 4-5 weeks old.  We've had a lot of fun with the cats, and it's been a new experience for me.  I haven't had to foster so many cats before.  I know what you're thinking--I'm just like the cat lady that lives down the street from where you live.  In any case, I had fun.  It's a lot of work to take care of them all, but it wasn't too bad; it worked out.

All six kittens had homes accounted for before they were even ready to leave the house.  One of the boys and one of the girls went to different friends of Jean's.  Mary, a friend of mine, took a little girl which she named Willow.  Jean and I are keeping two boys.  We've named them Thunder and Storm.  We already have a female named Lightning--though she's not the brightest cat I've ever had.  Our other female is Butterscotch.  Tim and Zana are going to take the mother and a little long-haired girl.  I think the mother's name is already given - Lily.

Tim and Zana aren't ready to take their two cats yet because they're in the middle of a move, but they'll probably take them in the next week or so.  It's probably a good thing since Lily has been shut in one of our bedrooms most of the time to avoid cat wars with Butterscotch and Lightning.  There's no point in mixing the cats when one of them isn't going to be a permanent resident and it would only cause trouble.  We've allowed their little girl to mix with ours since she won't be starting any fights with our other cats though.

This is completely off the subject, but is certainly interesting.  Since I got back from Hawaii, I spotted an albino mule deer one morning.  I didn't get a picture of it in time.  When I saw it at first I thought I was seeing things.  It was less than half a mile from my house.  I haven't seen it since, but I'm always on the lookout for her.

Also, I've seen the bobcat a couple times since I originally photographed it on April 1.  I've only seen it crossing the road at night near my house.  It's a good thing I don't let my cats out in the dark!

We've been slowly working on remodeling one of our bathrooms since before we went to Hawaii.  We're almost there.  I painted the room recently, and now we're waiting on a man to do the tile job.  He's been really busy in Gardiner lately so the project's been postponed a couple weeks.  We're almost finished with the bathroom, and we're very excited to see its completion.

Our oil furnace hasn't been working very well lately.  It hasn't been firing within its allotted time (I think it's 30 seconds) and so a breaker on the furnace has been switching off on a regular basis.  At the Valentine's Day dinner at Evergreen (the nursing home where Grandma and Betty live), Dad suggested that since we're doing work on the house, why don't we replace the furnace?  For goodness sakes--it's the original furnace that was put in when the house was built in 1958.  It's about time that we replace it, huh?  Before we went on our trip, Jean and I discussed our options.  When we got back, we decided to have a combination heat pump and propane furnace.  We have the two installed now, but we've hit a snag--we either have to add a 220 volt breaker to our already crowded circuit breaker box or replace the breaker box (which seems to be the better option considering all the factors we have looked at.)  At the moment the propane furnace works, but the heat pump is not going to work until we can replace our circuit breaker box.  We knew that we needed to replace the circuit breaker box sooner or later in our renovation, but evidently it's going to be sooner rather than later.

Oh, the joys of living in an older house!

Since we're working on making the house more efficient with heat and other things, we're also going to replace the doors and windows.  Our windows have already been ordered and should be here next month.  We're going to order our doors soon, but we already have everything figured out for them.  Next on the list of efficiency renovations is the roof.  We already have three layers of shingles on it, and we need to replace it soon.  We're thinking of a tin roof, but we haven't got any bids yet.

Also of note for the month of May is our unusual weather.  As many of you have seen in the news, Yellowstone Park received a lot of snow this winter.  It's still pretty bad for snow, and even Dunraven Pass is still closed (it's usually open by Memorial Day weekend).  Sylvan Pass is only open at night and early morning for fear of avalanches, and Craig Pass recently closed because they got dumped on again.  The road between Tower and Mammoth recently closed because of a rock slide including a boulder.  Business is a little slower in Gardiner than in past years, but I think it's because of some of the road closures and bad weather.  I called West Yellowstone today, and they seem to be doing better than Gardiner tonight for tourism.

Taking in the Sights

I'm sorry I've been so remiss in posting about my vacation in Hawaii. Ever since I got back, I've been incredibly busy with both work and at home. I'll explain later, but I at least wanted to excuse myself anyway.

Jean and I started April 15 on the south part of the island at the Tree Tunnel. It is a stretch of Highway 520 that is lined with trees. It effectively is a tunnel.

The Tree Tunnel

Next we drove to Poipu Beach to see seals and turtles. We'd been advised by someone that if we wanted to see any seals or turtles, that this part of the island was prime. It was a bit overcast and rainy at first, but the weather got better as we remained. There was a Hawaiian monk seal resting at the beach. Apparently it's an endangered species. After taking some photos we spent some time watching the waves hit the ocean and looking at the small fish at the beach.

A Hawaiian Monk Seal

Then we drove to Spouting Horn, a blowhole west of Poipu Beach. It's a lot like watching a geyser erupt in Yellowstone National Park. The waves would crash against the rocky shore and then a few moments later the blowhole would shoot water sometimes 50 feet high. From the lookout point at Spouting Horn we were able to watch a couple of green sea turtles come up for air. I couldn't take a good picture of the turtles because we could only see them for a couple seconds as they surfaced. It was neat to see them though.  I like this video better than mine, so I'll use it instead:

We ate a meal at a pizza restaurant in Poipu and then had ice cream.

Since we didn't know how cloudy it might be in Waimea Canyon, we drove through it that evening. Most of the way up was foggy or cloudy, depending on your point of view; the road climbed 4,000 feet in elevation. We did get to see a pair of red-crested cardinals. The female was chirping very angrily at the male, and she wouldn't leave him alone. Suffice it to say that we found that amusing.

Waimea Canyon at one of the lower lookouts

A pair of red-crested cardinals

We went home happy that we got to see some wild animals.

Power Line & Party

Thursday, April 14, Jean had to register for her veterinary conference and spend the day with her continuing education.  So, I had the whole day to myself.

I decided that I was going to hike on the island for awhile, but I didn’t want to go crazy.  I know that the 11-mile trail to the Na Pali region is “It,” but I wasn’t that adventurous this time.  I kinda drove around until I found something I liked.

I saw Opaekaa Falls on my way to my final destination.

Opaekaa Falls

I started on the south end of the Powerline trail which starts near the Keahua Arboretum.  The trail is well-established and follows a power line that crosses the island, for the most part.  Although I could easily see the trail, I couldn’t get off of the trail because I was literally surrounded by jungle.  Besides, if I went too far off trail I would just fall down the mountain.  These mountains are very steep, and caution has to be taken.  I’m glad I wore my hiking shoes because the trail was fairly muddy.  By the way—the red dirt out here will never come out of any clothes, so hiking in Kauai basically requires clothes that you don’t mind destroying.  The trail went up the ridge of a mountain which I followed for about 2.75 miles.  Once I got to about the top of one mountain and was about to get on top of another mountain, I decided that I should get back to hotel because Jean and I had other things planned. ;p  In all, I ended up hiking about five miles round-trip.

My hike along Powerline Trail.  Source:  "Powerline Trail."  22.071526° N and 159.417915° W.  Google Earth.  April 26, 2011.  January 5, 2004.

After my hike I went to Wailua Falls.  It's pretty close to a road, so there's little hiking to see it:

Wailua Falls

Jean finished her classes for the day and she and I got ready for the event that night.  We met her friends Jay and Jane at one of the ballrooms at the Marriott where we had a luau.  This was Jean’s and my first time at a real luau.  “Dinner and a show” explains what we got pretty well; hula and fire dancing hallmarked the evening.  Jean thought the almost naked dancing guy was cute.  The food was exotic and wonderful.  I don’t think I’ve eaten a purple sweet potato before, or ate rolls made with taro.  Jean and I had basil and coconuts with dinner.

After we waddled back to our room, we simply fell asleep, awaiting the adventures of the next day.

Arriving in Lihue, Hawaii

Jean and I were in Hawaii for eight days.  Our flight left Bozeman on Tuesday, April 12 at 7:42 am, but we didn’t get to Lihue until 6 or 7 pm.  There is a four-hour time change between Montana and Hawaii, so we were traveling for a really long time.  Our second and third flights were late, but on the other hand, all our luggage made it to Lihue at the same time we arrived.  It’s been a recurring problem lately in my family, and I was prepared for them to tell us that our luggage was delayed.  I’m glad the cycle’s over!  That evening we ate at Duke’s, a restaurant at our hotel.  We both had the opah, a kind of white fish.

Wednesday, April 13 Jean and I had a play day.  She didn’t have to register for her continuing education until Thursday, so we just decided to enjoy ourselves.  I woke up to the sound of roosters crowing.  Since I just woke up I was a bit confused.  After all, I had left Montana (and even where I live we don’t hear roosters).  A few moments later I realized that Kauai had free-roaming chickens.  We began the day watching the koi get fed at the Marriott, where we’re staying.  We ate breakfast at Kukui’s first and then went on with our day.

Jean wanted to see Kilohana Plantation, so that was our first stop.  We looked at the Koloa Rum Company and tasted their products.  It’s a pretty new company.  It’s so new that this company won an international blind contest, but the judges were like, “who they?” when they found out whose product they tasted.  The rum isn’t aged since it’s so new, and this batch that they currently have uses the last sugar cane that was harvested on the island.  Sugar cane is so water-hungry and produces so little sugar that the island isn’t going to grow it in the future.  After tasting the rum fudge, Jean and I were convinced that it needed to be put on ice cream when we get back to Montana.

We took the train ride that the plantation offers.  The ride has a tour guide who very quickly explains the vegetation at the farm.  Kauai has both domestic and wild goats and boars, and they had both animals at this plantation.  It was funny watching the goats running toward the train for a snack.  We stopped briefly to see the boars.

Back at the plantation building Jean and I ate lunch at their restaurant which uses the fruits and vegetables that they grow there.  I had their fish and chips, and Jean had the grilled fish.  It was our first time trying mahi mahi, and we both liked it.

A family of boars rest at Kilohana Plantation.

Jean pets the donkeys at Kilohana plantation.

Our next stop was at Kauai Coffee Company.  Getting there was kind of funny because the speed limits on these roads sometimes seem random.  At one point I was driving 50 mph and had to slow down to 30 mph.  I told Jean it looked like a great place for a speed trap.  No sooner had I said that then I saw a cop car just past the 30 mph sign past a small hill.  It’s a good thing I pay attention to the road signs because all the tourists rent cars—new cars.  Locals generally don’t have new cars.  We would have been picked out so quickly!

At the Kauai Coffee Company, we toured the facility and sampled their coffee.  We learned how they make coffee from the seed in a greenhouse to the package on the store shelf.  Jean and I treated ourselves to iced lattes afterward and took pictures of the plantation.

The coffee cherries are the green berries on this bush.

This is a harvester for coffee.

A macadamia flower at Kauai Coffee Plantation

We drove along the south shore and then went back to Lihue, where we had dinner at Kauai Pasta.  We were just starting to have fun!