Cake Vs. Veggies (Asparagus Risotto)

In case you are wondering, I'm still eating cake.

The chocolate cake mailed from Boston.  I never received anything in dry ice before!

In this week's battle of Cake vs. Veggies, Cake has won by a landslide.

Besides my birthday (three celebrations worth), it was also Mother's Day and my friend's bridal shower.  Cake, cake, cake.

So midweek when the sugar was actually starting to make me sick, I decided I needed a good, home-cooked meal that involved a vegetable.  But since it's been mostly rainy this spring, I also wanted some comfort food. A salad wasn't going to do it.

This arborio rice-- a "gift" from my mom-- has taunted me from the pantry for months.


That jar is definitely leering at me...











But risotto is so... hard.  There's so much... stirring.

Look at those little rascals.  Just waiting to be stirred into some broth. And stirred. And stirred.

Right?


But I had bought my first bunch of spring asparagus, and the idea of asparagus risotto was beckoning.  So I tried this recipe, even though I didn't have all of the ingredients.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/asparagus_risotto/

And it came out like this:

It wasn't that hard at all (I only had to stir, like, a handful of times).  It was really tasty and comforting.  And it wasn't cake.

In the future, I would prepare to have the appropriate ingredients and follow the recipe exactly.  I didn't have any white wine, so I used deglazed the pan with water, as recommended, and used shredded swiss instead of parmesan.  I think those two correct ingredients would have deepened the flavor.  I also overcooked the risotto a smidge because I didn't know what "done" should look like.  Now I think I do.

If you have some asparagus lying around, try this recipe, or this or this.  It's almost veggie season (and bathing suit season), so I'm going to try to lay off the cake....

<3