Almond Asparagus

I wanted to share one of my favorite vegetable dishes. It's so easy to do & also extremely yummy! :) The recipe came from myrecipes.com and they got it from the March 2002 Southern Living magazine. After cooking this side numerous times with dinners, I have slightly altered how I fix it for a family of 2 1/2 (in terms of servings that is!). Here's the original recipe & instructions; my notes are below.

You will need:

2 pounds fresh asparagus

2 TBS butter or margarine

1 TBS lemon juice

3/4 cup slivered (or chopped) almonds, toasted

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Snap off tough ends of asparagus. Cook asparagus in boiling water to cover 3 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain.

Plunge asparagus into ice water to stop the cooking process; drain.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add asparagus, & saute 3-5 minutes. Toss asparagus with lemon juice and remaining ingredients.

Makes 4 servings.

Carrie's notes: I usually just take out a handful of asparagus, toss it in the skillet with some water, cover & boil on med-high heat for 3 min. Then, I drain the water from the skillet, throw in some butter, a touch of water, the lemon juice, salt, pepper & chopped toasted almonds, cover & cook for another 2-3 min on med heat. (I also stir it occassionally.) Our family's preference is crunchy/hard vs. soft asparagus, so cooking it this way does not make it very soft. Also, we like to eat it warm :) so this is the very last thing I do before serving the plates.

Bon appetite! :)