Lost Finale

We often have people over to watch our favorite TV shows, usually of the scifi variety. Last night we watched the Lost finale and ate some really good locally grown food. I did the chicken and ramps dish that I've already written about. The ramps had been sitting around for a while so were less pungent but still really good. I love this chicken recipe because even if you overcook it the cooking method keeps it moist.

I made two new local dishes, a bacon, egg, and roasted asparagus salad and a rhubarb crisp. I am still using some non-local ingredients, lemons, flour, sugar, etc but I'm not about to throw our my pantry items so I'll take the blame of fudging a little.

Bacon, Egg, and Asparagus Salad
This is a lovely, easy to prepare wonderful spring salad. You really need to get all the components on the fork at once to see how they really sing together.

Makes 4 servings
6 pieces bacon (you could always, always use more bacon)
2 hard boiled eggs (would be great with a warm poached egg on top)
salad greens (I used mixed lettuces from the giant bin at the farmers' market)
1 large bundle of asparagus

Dressing
1/2 olive oil
1/2 vinegar (I use a mix of rice wine, cider, and balsamic)
juice of one lemon
fresh herbs from the garden, finely chopped
1 tbs spicy mustard
2 dashes tabasco

Cook the eggs and bacon. Trim the tough ends off the asparagus and lightly coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I put them in the over with the chicken at 350 F for about 30 minutes but the original recipe had them at 500 F for 7-10 minutes. I cook by temperature and sight, not by time so I took them out when they were shriveled and slightly brown. Dress the salad and put the asparagus on top. Its tempting to cut the asparagus into smaller pieces so that you can get one in each bite but the full asparagus is really pretty on top.

Rhubarb Crisp
All rhubarb really needs is a bit of sugar, but butter and flour aren't so bad. I've made this a couple of times now and basically cut the rhubarb into 1/2" cubes, put them in an appropriately sized glass or ceramic baking dish and cover them with the mixture. Last night I used an equal amount of flour and sugar and butter and it was a bit dry. I think using a 1:1:2 ratio may work better. So mess around with it and see what you get.