A Dish Fit for My Mother-in-Law

5 ingredient recipe for meal time? Yes, please!

My mother-in-law is the person responsible for getting me to eat asparagus on a regular basis after years of my family trying to do the same thing.  She is also a United Methodist minister and when she decided last fall to take a leave of absence beginning this summer, we all knew that meant lots of packing.  During the transition of moving from the parsonage back to the family house she participated in the town wide yard sale that occurred over Mother's Day weekend this year.  We spent the weekend with her and my sister-in-law to visit, pack up my husband's stuff, and to see what little things we could find for Sprout--that's our nickname for the baby until the actual birth day--and for our home.  While out and about we stopped by a yard sale that had 3 bundles of Everyday Food for $0.25 a piece.  Being the foodies we are, we walked away with a ton of small recipe magazines for $0.75 and they are proving to be a great investment!

One of the recipes we decided to try was the Pasta with Goat Cheese & Roasted Asparagus. We were intrigued by the simplicity of the recipe and we liked that it didn't take many ingredients to throw it together for a quick dinner, so we decided to give it a whirl.  Per the usual there were a few modifications, albeit that's because we were unable to get a hold of a couple of ingredients.  First, I had to use a different kind of noodle.  The cavatappi noodles were not on the grocer's shelves, so I found cellentani, which is another kind of short, corkscrew pasta.  I'm not sure what was up, but we couldn't find chives for the sauce anywhere we shopped, so instead I sprinkled in herbs de Provence & garlic powder. Also, we bought crumbled goat cheese--it was actually cheaper than the log and it meant less prep. Instead of dotting the asparagus with 1T of butter, I decided to melt the butter with the salt & pepper and then I just brushed the baking sheet & asparagus with it.

I was pleasantly surprised by how creamy this pasta dish turned out just by virtue of the goat cheese!  We had my mom and grandparents over to try a bite, too, and they also liked it very well.  I hate how much the goat cheese costs, but it is well worth it!  This recipe is a part of my recipe collection now and I can't wait to share it with the person who got me to give asparagus one last chance.