Niçoise Asparagus Salad; closets; the point of no return

Ah….

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, gang
aft agley” (Burns).

And don’t I know it!

It started out simply enough….

Mon mari wanted to go to Bordeaux on Monday to get bathroom fixtures.

Sunday morning he decided to wait a week.

I found myself with a free, rainy day.

Couldn’t work in the garden; I’d already cleaned the house this month… seemed like the perfect chance to make a few, insignificant changes to my Thyme for Cooking website, just a tweak here and there, tart it up a bit…. Nothing major.

You know where this is going, don’t you?

It all started out well enough.  I put some photos together, played with the colors, researched type fonts, rearranged this, moved that….

After a few hours of play I reached Decision Time.  The Point of NO Return.

In order to see how it all looked in real life I had to upload to the server; replacing the existing pages with the new pages. (Yes, I had a back-up on the server…. for which I thanked the heavens at least a gazillion times last night.

I decided to be careful.  I spent the rest of Sunday, carefully making final touches, (so unlike me) and started the upload when I went to bed.

The next morning I started checking it.  For those who don’t know, things can look wonderful in Firefox but horrible in IE and unreadable in Safari – and vice versa.  There were a few minor glitches that I quickly fixed.

Then I decided to make sure the print function still worked. I wasn’t going to bother to check it – I didn’t do anything to it, it’s the simplest thing in the world…..

It crashed Firefox and caused IE8 to hang forever.

Without boring you with the details…. a little after 10 last night I found one measly mistake in one obscure line of code that had been replicated on over 2500 pages. I didn’t even know that that could be a mistake…..

I fixed it.

That’s where I’ve been the last few days.

Mon mari, wisely deciding that I was unfit to be around, built a potential closet for me.

It will fill in the wasted space on either side of the, currently, unused double chimney you see a sliver of.

The very first closet in the house!

He put the sub-floor in both bathrooms so we could draw out the plan.

Not that we normally need to do that, but the arguments over the necessary space between the sinks and the shower door had escalated beyond 2 adults brandishing metal tape measures.

He seemed to think that leaning one’s back on the shower door whilst brushing one’s teeth over the sink was perfectly acceptable.

I, on the other hand, like to be able to see my full length in the mirror above the sink (which I knew was not going to happen).

We compromised on 34 inches (I had been holding out for 42 – in hopes of getting 36)

And to reward him, I bought more green asparagus.

And we pretended that the sun was out and it was warm…..

We had a salad with capers, black olives and cherry tomatoes for lots of flavor.

I used mâche or lamb’s lettuce which appears every spring. Use
spinach or other greens if not available.

The green garlic is raw, but marinated
in the vinaigrette to soften it’s bite.

Niçoise Asparagus Salad

6oz (175gr) asparagus
2 tbs capers
10 black olives, dry-cured Greek, Kalamata, Niçoise
10 mozzarella ball
6 cherry tomatoes
4 green garlic
3oz (90gr) mâche (lambs lettuce) or other spring greens
Vinaigrette
1 tbs white Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon-style mustard
3 tbs good olive oil
1 tbs snipped, fresh tarragon substitute 1 tsp dried

The asparagus: Snap off ends of asparagus. Roll cut asparagus in 1.5 inch (4 cm) lengths. Fill a large saucepan half full of water and bring to a boil over high heat. When boiling, drop in asparagus and parboil for 2 minutes. Drain and immediately plunge into a bowl of cold water. Drain and fill with cold water again. When cool, drain and spread them on paper towels and pat dry.
The vinaigrette: In a small bowl mix mustard and vinegar. Slowly drizzle in oil, whisking until emulsified. Add tarragon.
The salad: Trim and thinly slice green garlic, including green tops. Put into a large salad bowl. Add half the vinaigrette and stir well. Let marinate for 15 minutes.
Wash and spin dry the mâche or other greens. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Pit olives if needed and cut in half
To finish: Add mâche to green garlic and toss well to combine. Divide and arrange on two plates. Arrange asparagus, tomatoes and Mozzarella on salad. Sprinkle olives and capers on top. Drizzle with a bit more vinaigrette and serve, any remaining vinaigrette on the side. 

If you’re in the mood to play critic, have a look at the newest Thyme for Cooking, and render your opinion in the comments below.  I’m a big girl…. I can take it…..

Next week – toilets!  I’m so excited…..