When the first local asparagus of the season arrives in the market, I’m so eager for the fresh taste of spring that I prepare them as simply as possible.  A few minutes on the grill or steamer, a drizzle of good olive oil, and a little salt and pepper are all that’s required for a feast.

By now, though, I’m ready to experiment.  This year my focus is asparagus and eggs, a traditional French combination.

The classic poached egg over asparagus wouldn’t work, since I can’t bear even the sight of runny yolks.  (There go my foodie credentials!)  So I decided to substitute softly scrambled eggs as a suitably delicate complement to the grassy spears.

The inspiration for this dish is a flan in Jacques Pépin’s capstone cookbook, “Essential Pépin” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011).  If your idea of a flan is a sweet Spanish custard, you’re in for a surprise.  This version is more like an easy Gallic version of fritatta.

This one pan dish is perfect for a spring brunch but works just as well for dinner with a green salad and some crusty bread on the side.

The eggs are cooked on top of the stove just until they begin to set. Then the skillet is shoved into the oven for 10 minutes to finish cooking and brown.  Fresh parsley, basil and garlic pump up the spring flavors.

The chopped hazelnuts sprinkled over the top before baking are my way of trying to capture the nutty character the French achieve with browned butter.  The concept may sound a bit odd but the combination of soft eggs, barely tender asparagus and crunchy nuts is as delightful as it is unexpected.

Asparagus doesn’t get much better.

As much as I like to cook, I’d rather be in the garden on the first warm, sunny days of spring when there are vegetable beds to prepare, flowers to plant and weeds to pull.

These are the days when I’m happy to have a protein-packed salad in the fridge, ready to pull out for dinner.  This lentil salad in the French tradition is a new favorite.

Although it began as a terrific warm salad, I’ve learned that it’s even better after it’s spent time in the refrigerator and the flavors have had a chance to meld.  I set it out on the counter long enough to come to room temperature, then serve it over a bed of chilled arugula.  Add a chunk of good bread and maybe some cheese and dinner is served.

Lentils are enjoying their moment in the spotlight thanks to a recent mega-study touting the benefits of a Mediterranean diet in cutting heart attacks and strokes in Spain.  All other things being equal, people who primarily ate vegetables, fruit, fish, legumes, nuts and olive oil were less likely to die of heart disease.

Participants in the study were instructed to eat legumes—which include lentils—three times a week.  Low in calories, these little seeds are an excellent source of protein, fiber, and minerals.  They cook far faster than beans, too.

The study reminded me of an elegant salad that I found some years ago in “Parisian Home Cooking,” by Michael Roberts (William Morrow, 1999).  The cookbook called for French lentils du Puy, which are sometimes difficult to find.  I substituted “French lentils” from the natural foods store and learned too late that they aren’t the same at all.  They turned to mush long before their cooking time was up.

So I’ve switched to black lentils, which hold their shape better, and revised the cooking instructions significantly.  You can use other green or brown lentils but watch them carefully as you cook so they don’t get too soft. Shallots contribute a mild, onion flavor while carrots and celery add extra texture.

Never content to leave well enough alone, I’ve revised the dressing to include sherry vinegar and walnut oil for mellow, nutty flavor.

Simple, healthful and full of flavor, this is my kind of salad.

Never mind the calendar or even the weather forecast. I know it’s spring when rhubarb shows up in the farmers market.

Those first fuchsia pink stalks are always cause for celebration. After a winter of root vegetables and bitter greens, their tart flavor breathes fresh life into bored palates.

Eaten raw, rhubarb is an acquired taste with a mouth-puckering quality rivaling lemons.  Cook it with a little sugar, though, and it blossoms.  I think it’s best in simple dishes that capitalize on its bright acidity.

Crisps and pies are naturals, but I’ve also made rhubarb into a filling for crepes and substituted it for cherries in a clafloutis.  This spring, I’ve been playing around with a rhubarb upside down cake based on the homey French yogurt cake.

It’s a practically fool-proof dessert, best baked in a cast iron skillet for even cooking.  The only tricky part may be flipping the baked cake out of the hot skillet onto a plate.

You cook the caramel base quickly in the skillet and top it with diced rhubarb and walnuts.  Then you stir the wet and dry ingredients for the cake together as easily as if you were making muffins, spread the batter evenly over the rhubarb and shove it into the oven.  That’s all there is to it.

It’s a pretty forgiving recipe.  I like it with a balance of rhubarb and walnuts, but you could increase the rhubarb if you wish.  Or, God forbid, you could substitute another fruit  —  like fresh cherries.

The cake is even good without the topping.  It’s a variation of the classic cake that French home cooks make for birthdays and family celebrations.  They measure the ingredients out in yogurt containers.  Since their containers are not the same size as American yogurt cups, I’ve translated the recipe into standard measures.

Although you can  make this cake with ordinary low fat yogurt, I prefer to use a full-fat Greek variety for more body and better texture.   Besides, it’s a celebration.

Spring is here at last!

The last weeks before the local asparagus and strawberries arrive may be the most discouraging of the year for those of us who try to cook local.

The sun is shining, the tulips are blooming, and the fruit trees are breaking out in clouds of pink and white blossoms.  But the produce aisles of most markets are still dominated by sturdy greens, roots and cruciferous vegetables.

At times like these, I really welcome new ideas for preparing old standbys.  This cauliflower curry is one of the best.

With just a few pantry staples and a head of cauliflower, you can put a tempting side dish on the table in no time.  The flavors are bright and a little sweetness from the carrots balances out the curry.  It’s flavorful but mild enough to serve to heat-adverse family members.  Just add more curry powder if you crave extra spice.

The recipe comes from “Made With Love: The Meals on Wheels Family Cookbook,” by Enid Borden (Ben Bella Books, 2012).  A fundraiser for the organization that delivers meals to shut-in seniors, this is a slick, hardback version of the familiar community cookbook filled with contributors’ favorite family recipes.  In this case, though, many of the contributors are celebrities, from Martha Stewart and Mario Batali to Cokie Roberts and Helen Mirren.

For the most part, the recipes are of the homey, quick cooking variety.  A number rely heavily on canned goods and packaged foods. Those hold little appeal for me although I do make an exception for canned tomatoes, which are the only decent alternative at this time of year.

But there are gems here.  Patti LaBelle’s Baja Fish Taco recipe makes even tilapia taste good.  The Thai Tuna Salad from former Washington Post food writer Walter Nicholls gives an exotic spin to canned tuna.  And I’m itching to make the quick Moo Shu Egg from Meals on Wheels accountant Qingxin Cai as soon as I track down some dried wood ear mushrooms.

Some of the most appealing recipes were contributed by Linda Berns, a personal chef and caterer.  They offer a tasty twist to familiar vegetables, like the shredded carrots in this cauliflower dish.  My only adaptation was to reduce the olive oil a bit.

This dish is so good, I may even continue serving it after asparagus finally shows up in the markets.

Spring is a fickle season.

One day dawns sunny and warm, spurring an appetite for tender greens in a salad.  The next is dreary and wet, just the sort of weather for a good soup.

Although the calendar says we still have another week of winter, the weather here in Portland has been toying with spring.  The daffodils are blooming and the gardeners have been out in force.

But the skies are gray today and I have soup on my mind — not a hearty, long-simmering recipe, though.  I want something light and flavorful like this easy pot sticker soup.

Inspired by fragrant Vietnamese pho, the recipe comes together quickly with commercial chicken broth and frozen pot stickers.  Fresh ginger, dried shiitake mushrooms, a cinnamon stick and a couple of star anise work their magic in just half an hour.

The broth ingredients are mostly pantry staples.  I like  to add fresh lemongrass which is now available at Whole Foods.  If you don’t have it or can’t find it, though, the soup will be good anyway.  Fish sauce is optional although it adds a depth of flavor.  Sweet sherry, white wine or sake with a pinch of sugar can substitute for the mirin.

For the potstickers, I like to use Ling Ling brand chicken and vegetable pot stickers that I buy at Costco.  But any good pot stickers that aren’t loaded with artificial ingredients would work.

Pre-washed baby spinach straight out of the bag adds color and fresh flavor with almost no effort.

Until warm weather is here to stay, this soup will keep your spirits up.  One whiff of its delicate aroma is enough to brighten my day.

Today is birthday number 10 for our sweet golden retriever, Sunshine’s Agatha Super Sleuth — better known as Aggie

Normally I don’t do nutty things like celebrate a dog’s birthday, but we’re so grateful to have her still with us after a couple of scary bouts with pancreatitis last year.  Besides, a couple of her youngest fans thought it would be a great idea.

So we threw a little party for her last weekend, complete with a piñata filled with treats and squeaky balls for the dogs.  And a fabulous carrot cake for the humans.

Chocolate cake, usually my first choice, was out of the question since we were pretty sure that the youngest guests would to try to sneak the honoree a taste.  That would have been a disaster. Dogs can’t tolerate the theobromine in chocolate.

This cake was so good, though, no one even missed the chocolate.  Banish all memories of soggy, leaden carrot cake overpowered by an excess of cinnamon and cooking oil.  This cake from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours” (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) carries a full load of carrots, coconut, pecans and raisins without feeling heavy or soggy.  The flavors are rich and nicely balanced, with just enough cinnamon to make it appealing.

Part of the secret, I think, is this variation uses less oil than most traditional carrot cakes.  The recipe I used for years calls for 1 1/2 cups oil.  So do most of the recipes I looked up in my many baking books before I found this one, which cuts the oil by a third.

Dorie Greenspan always comes through.  Her recipes, written in her trademark chatty and generous style, always work.

I made few alterations to the cake, which Dorie credits to an old friend, Bill Bartholomew. Sunflower oil substituted for canola, which I detest for its lingering aftertaste, and the cake was baked in two layers instead of three.  (I only have two 9-inch pans and wasn’t about to buy a third.)

The layers did sink a bit in the middle, but a generous layer of icing took care of that.  Toasted coconut filled in the slight depression prettily.

With a scoop of ice cream, you couldn’t ask for a better birthday cake.

Too bad Aggie couldn’t have a slice.  But we love her and want to keep her around as long as possible.

Happy birthday, dear Aggie!

Valentine’s Day is all about the chocolate. So why not start with breakfast?

There’s no sweeter way to start a day of romance than with these indulgent scones studded with hazelnuts, dark chocolate and dried cherries.  They’d be perfect for a lazy breakfast in bed  — if you don’t mind crumbs in the sheets.  They’re very crumbly, which is a good thing in scones.

Alas, Valentine’s falls on a work day this year, though, so you may prefer to serve them at a table set with nice china and a single perfect rose so you’re not tempted to linger between the covers.

Now, you may think scones are too much effort for a workaday morning, but I have news for you.  You can make these treats ahead of time and stash them in the refrigerator unbaked.

The recipe is adapted from Chef William Leaman of Seattle, team leader of the US bakers who won the 2005 World Cup of Baking in Paris.  He taught a class on how to make them at Camp Bread at the San Francisco Baking Institute some years ago.  I’ve added the cherries, because I think they’re perfect with chocolate, and adapted the instructions for a food processor for everyone who’s intimidated by mixing by hand.

The scones are easy enough to make by hand, if you would prefer.  Just cut the chilled butter into the dry ingredients by rubbing the mixture between flattened palms as if  your hands were cold.  Stir in the nuts, chocolate and cherries.  Then make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the cream and sour cream, mixing with a large wooden spoon or spatula just until the dough comes together.

Bittersweet chocolate chips work just fine but I really like the luxury of large chunks. I’ve used Guittard’s couverture chocolate wafers with great results.

No hazelnuts?  I buy them at Trader Joe’s and keep them in the freezer.  Although they give the scones terrific crunch, you could substitute pecans in a pinch.

When you’re ready to serve,  just pop the scones into the oven and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve them with a good cup of coffee or tea.

Your Valentine will thank you.

When you’re planning a birthday celebration for a 3-year-old, you never consider an elegant cake with sophisticated flavors.  You want something fun and colorful that appeals to toddler tastes.

Cupcakes in ice cream cones are just the ticket, especially if they’re crowned with a shower of colorful sprinkles.

I know baking cupcakes in cones isn’t exactly a cutting-edge idea but it was new to me when I spotted a C & H Sugar tweet last month.  I knew immediately that these cone cakes would be an ideal birthday treat for a little boy who’s hard pressed to choose between chocolate “cuppy-cakes” and ice cream cones.

I baked them on a whim, not sure that they would actually work even though there is plenty of evidence on the web that they would.  My party co-conspirator even found instructions on YouTube —  using cake mix batter and whipped cream “icing” from an aerosol can.

The cupcakes turned out to be pretty simple, even if you mix up your own cake batter and frost them with homemade icing to mimic soft serve ice cream.  The only tricky part is keeping the cones upright as you get them in and out of the oven.

You can DIY a baking stand with aluminum foil but I found mini-muffin tins worked pretty well with less fuss.  Just try not to overfill the cones or tilt the tins as you slide them into the oven.

For these little cakes, I used a one-bowl batter recipe from “Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook” (Clarkson Potter, 2005) that get its intense chocolate flavor from unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Droste).  The flat-bottomed, cake-style cones came from the supermarket ice cream aisle.  Amazingly, they didn’t brown or burn during the baking.

The icing is a simple buttercream made with both cream cheese and butter.  It took quite a lot to get the look but the kids loved it.  And the flavor was far better than canned whipped cream.

Be generous with the sprinkles and you have a party.  Even worldly-wise  5-year-olds love them.

Even in winter, I crave a salad with dinner every night.

I do miss all the terrific warm weather produce that makes a summer salad so delightful, though. Winter is more of a challenge.

So when I ate a great grain salad at a Museum of Modern Art cafe in New York City earlier this month, I knew I would have to replicate it at home.

This salad starts with a base of chewy farro, a relative of wheat, dressed with a simple vinaigrette made with good olive oil.  Crunchy radishes, barely blanched carrots, and a handful of tender beet greens add layers of color and texture to perk up the palette.  I’ve thrown in shaved shallots and a spoonful of salty capers for more interest.

At one time, farro was hard to find outside of specialty stores.  Now, I frequently see it on supermarket shelves, although it’s always a sure bet at natural foods stores.  The grain is nutty, a little sweet, and holds its shape better than many whole grains. Just be sure to buy  “semipearled” farro, which cooks relatively quickly yet retains much of the fiber and nutrition of the bran.

The beet greens are a bonus when you buy a bunch of beets.  I look for the bunch with the smallest and most tender leaves.  Larger leaves may be cooked like spinach or used in stir fry for another dish.

Get the smallest, freshest radishes you can buy, too. Their crunchy snap and peppery bite are essential for an irresistible salad.  Baby carrots also starred in the MOMA salad but I’ve settled for slender young carrots cut into matchsticks.

The flavor is best if you dress the salad at least half an hour before serving.  This allows the dressing to soak into the farro and there are no worries about wilting.

If there are any left overs, they refrigerate nicely.  I ate this salad at lunch for several days and the flavor only got better with time.

2012 was a tumultuous year all around.  My husband and I pulled up deep roots in California, and shifted all our worldly goods to the Northwest in a chaotic move.  Meanwhile, politics kept the entire nation on edge with a nail biter of an election and the economic game of chicken playing out in Washington.  Natural disaster and the nightmare in Newtown capped it all off.

I’m ready to bid this year good riddance and welcome 2013 with open arms.

To toast the occasion, I propose a bubbly new cocktail combining ginger liqueur, a splash of tangerine juice and Prosecco.  The liqueur brings new depth and a spicy kick to the sparkling Italian wine while the tangerine juice adds a tropical note.  It’s a festive libation made to order for New Year’s Eve.

I had never even heard of ginger liqueur before I chanced upon it as an ingredient in a couple of baking recipes this fall.  I tracked down a bottle of Domaine de Canton, a French product made with baby ginger and Cognac, and was hooked.  Although it has the syrupy texture associated with a liqueur, it’s only lightly sweet.  The ginger flavor, bright and true, is the perfect accent for an inexpensive sparkling wine like Prosecco.

Add a bowl of salted nuts and you’ve got a party.

Happy 2013 everyone!