This week I seem to be making foods that I don’t usually prepare. It’s nice to get out of the routine and make something new. Take this recipe. I use a lot of asparagus in the spring but tend to cook it simply, either steam, cook it in a skillet, roast in the oven or cook on a grill. As all recipes seem to happen, I took the asparagus out of the fridge to grill it in a ridged pan on top of the gas stove but started thinking of perhaps doing something different and combine it with the puff pastry I bought the other day at a local pastry shop (Sandrine, if you are in this area). I thought it would make a nice lunch or a light supper for my husband who was working on his beloved Isa Lei. Asparagus tart with a salad and a glass of vin blanc, sounded pretty good.

When I was learning how to cook years ago I tried my hand at making puff pastry with reasonable success. It was a fun challenge (emphasis on challenge) but once I got “reasonable” at it I kind of gave it up in favour of buying prepared puff pastry from specialty pastry shops that make it with butter. It’s not something I use often but I do have my sources for good puff pastry just in case. Here it happens to be a French pastry shop owned and run by Sandrine after which the pastry shop is named. Sandrine is a French woman (yes, with all the chic that goes with it) and our foodie “group” here have taken classes at her shop recently (macaroons). At Sandrine you can pick up a small roll of puff pastry made entirely with butter and rolled into a small convenient cylinder. You can defrost it in the fridge or on the counter for a limited amount of time. My pastry roll was in the fridge as I was going to use it to make some tarts but change of plans – it’s going to be an asparagus tart.On the fingertips of happiness Elegant sadness Cut a streamer The midnight dream Is the taste of love 念念不忘的身影 素色年华 遙望漫天的繁星 带走我的忧伤 浅浅的喜欢