Promises

Our grocers make a promise of hope to us when spring's inexpensive imported asparagus and strawberries hit store shelves. That hope has me thinking about local produce and fantasizing about garlic scapes, radishes, baby lettuces, peas, and rhubarb that will soon appear. The rest of you can fight over George Clooney; I'm dreaming about new potatoes.

This week's Called to the Table offers two salad recipes make use of the asparagus-strawberry bounty we are currently experiencing. I wanted to call the asparagus salad "Madame Defarge" because of the beheaded spears, but figured that reference might be a little too goofy even to those among us who spend a lot of time knitting shrouds. I wanted to name the strawberry salad Remarkable Understudies, and to get that reference you'll have to read the column. Happy Almost Spring!