You know,  I am pretty sure that I had never tasted or even heard of asparagus until I came to the east coast to go to college.  When I did finally try it, I found it delicious but entirely unaffordable.  I find good prices on asparagus all the time now, which makes me very happy!  I ate a lot of asparagus this last spring.  I would buy two big bunches every week and roast them in the broiler.  This is a good thing to make if you a very busy person who has only a few minutes to prepare enough cooked vegetables a week to stay healthy.  Over the course of the week the asparagus would get tossed into my salad (a good example can for how to use roasted asparagus can be found in the post Fancy Salad for a Rugged Situation), eaten as a snack with my mother’s amazing crab dip or served up with poached eggs and home-made mayonnaise for brunch.    When choosing asparagus look for bunched with no mushy parts and stems that do not look too dry.  I do not believe that it matters at all if they are thick or thin stocks…only freshness counts.

• One bunch of asparagus
• a generous splash of olive oil
• a generous shake of salt
• a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper

1. Turn on your broiler.
2. Rinse the asparagus and snap the bottoms off of each stock.  I recommend snapping them instead of cutting because they will naturally break off at the point that they become tender and that point varies a great deal from stalk to stalk.  There is no point trying to eat tough stringy asparagus stalks.  If wasting the bottom of the asparagus bothers you and you have some time on your hands you can cut of the bottom 1/4 inch of the stack and then peel the outer layer off of the next two inches of stalk leaving only the tender center.
3. Place the asparagus in a roasting pan and toss it with the oil, salt and pepper. Get all of the stalks laying in a single layer and put them in the broiler.
4. Set the timer for 8 minutes.
5. Take the asparagus out after 8 minutes and eat it, or save it for later.