BostonZest

Farmers Market Asparagus Ragout à la Jacques Pepin

We have had Asparagus Ragout for supper repeatedly in recent weeks. We visited the Provincetown Farmers Market on a recent trip to our favorite spot on the tip of the Cape and bought a bunch of asparagus from Silverbrook Farm. We didn't want to turn on the oven in our rental apartment to roast it, so Penny remembered a Jacques Pepin cooking technique for cooking fresh vegetables in a little water and a bit of butter. We both loved the result. 

After returning home, we located a Jacques Pepin video with instructions for what he calls Asparagus Ragout. (This dish is first up on this the program.)  

Via Wikipedia we found this about Ragout, "The term comes from the French ragoûter, meaning: 'to revive the taste." The Italian ragù (the word being borrowed from French) is a sauce such as Ragù Napoletano used typically to dress pasta."

While this farm fresh asparagus did not need reviving, this method of cooking it certainly results in great flavor complete with a light sauce. (Naturally, Ed selected his favorite utensil – a slice of fresh bread – and sopped up every drop of the sauce remaining on his plate.)

When we returned to Boston, we bought more asparagus at the Atlas Farm stand at the Copley Square Farmers Market and had a second supper of lovely, local asparagus.

We do peel the stalks and this time we had watched the video and followed Jacques' method. If you have the time, you can make an asparagus soup from the trimmings. 

We highly recommend this quick and easy cooking method for many of the fresh, local vegetable you'll be gathering at local markets this summer. 

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

Train Your Body for Dog Walking with Tai Chi

Recently, one of our favorite dog publications, Bark: the dog culture magazine, featured an article under its Training and Behavior section titled Tai Chi and Dogs.

Penny has been a student of Tai Chi for about a year now and says this will be a lifetime practice for her. Naturally, this post from a most reliable source caught her attention. We thought so much of the content that we decided to share it with our Sunday Dog readers.

Author Christie Green has been studying martial arts for nearly 20 years and has taken her knowledge of Tai Chi and applied it to some of the most common training issues we have with dogs.

She covers:

• How to prepare your body for a dog who is about to jump on you
• How to use your larger back muscles to counter bad leash manners
• How to use a weight shift to control pulling
• How to use relaxation to help with all aspects of dog life but also to improve your reaction time.

What Green says rings true to what Penny has been taught in her Tai Chi classes and gives her one more reason to be grateful for all she's learned while exploring the possibilities of this ancient art.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: Screengrab from Bark: the magazine of dog culture 

The Giants Are Coming...The Giants Are Coming...

Beautiful beds of Allium giganteum or Giant Allium, that is. This morning in the Public Garden, Penny noticed the buds on these members of the onion family beginning to open.

Soon they will be the subject of thousands of photographs. (Here's one that Penny took a few years ago.)

Get out there and enjoy them while you can.

 

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012-2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino  

Sunday Dog Link to Good Information to Save Dogs Left in Hot Cars via Mother Nature Network

Today's Sunday Dog feature is a link to an excellent article, "Dogs in hot cars: Where is it legal to help them?" that came to us on social media from the most reliable site Mother Nature Network.

Many of our readers are in Massachusetts where we've had a Good Samaritan Law since 2016. 

Massachusetts Law Updates explained the new law, "

"A bystander, in addition to animal control officials, law enforcement or firefighters, may enter the vehicle if “reasonably necessary to prevent imminent danger or harm to the animal.” Any action by a person or first responder would follow checking to see if the door was locked, calling 911, and making an effort to locate the owner.  The person must stay with the animal until law enforcement arrives, and is immune from liability resulting from the animal’s removal.

The Act also prohibits dogs being tethered outdoors for more than 15 minutes during a weather advisory or watch issued by federal, state or municipal agencies, as well as extreme weather conditions.  Additional restrictions were placed on dog tethering “for longer than 5 hours in a 24-hour period and outside from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., unless the tethering is for not more than 15 minutes and the dog is not left unattended by the owner, guardian or keeper.”

This article is national in scope and may be of help to our friends and readers around the U.S.

 

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: Screengrab courtesy of Mother Nature Network.

Smiling Tulips Are in our Photo of the Week

After our long winter, everyone is enjoying every precious burst of color along our paths.

"Colors are the smiles of nature." - Leigh Hunt (English Poet, 1784 -1859)

 

About Photo Tales & Quotes: We keep hearing that people miss our cover photos that ran for years in the Back Bay Sun. That assignment was to provide a photo that showed what the week was like in the neighborhood. Often the photos illustrated favorite quotations. Photo Tales & Quotes is an occasional offering to our BostonZest readers featuring photos along the same theme but taken wherever we happen to be.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2018 Penny Cherubino  

We Toast May 2018 with 2013 Argyle Brut Rosé and Look Forward to 2023

We just returned from Provincetown where the ever reliable wine folks at Perry's had the 2013 Argyle Brut Rosé chilled and waiting for these two Argyle lovers to enjoy.

This year we're celebrating old friends and wines we already love as we choose our sparkler of the month. We are so happy we discovered Perry's curated wine selection. It's always great when your wine merchant has similar taste to your own.

The friends connected to this wine begin with Argyle founder Rollin Soles. He's the man with the great big smile in the photo. We corresponded with him long before we had the pleasure of meeting him. We have a great history of friendship with his wines. 

This wine is a stunner! We tend to be one glass of wine people these days but, with this one, we couldn't resist a second pour. 

The 2023 mentioned in our post title is because Argyle says,

"Like all Argyle Sparkling wines, Argyle Brut Rosé is made to be long aging, maintaining its richness & minerality. It was cellared and aged on the yeast for 3-5 years and disgorged on demand, just prior to release. A portion of this vintage will remain on yeast 10 years to become Extended Tirage Brut Rosé in 2023."

We've made a note on our calendars to find that wine in 2023.

We enjoyed one bottle in Provincetown, but stopped by Perry's to buy a second one to bring home and share with friends on May 1st!

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month! Join our Sparkling Resolution!

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast...

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this is a category, this post may appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018 Penny & Ed Cherubino, Rollin Souls photo courtesy of Argyle.