Tasty Asparagus Tart

And not to mention SUPER EASY to make too!!

Ok, this has been sitting in my draft box for a while. I've made this twice and was really popular both times!!

Not to mention its pretty healthy too - well, in terms of it being vegetable dish.

I used ready made puff pastry. Thaw it slightly. Using the back of a butter knife, draw a smaller box (but do not cut through the pastry, just mark the lines sufficiently) and with a fork, 'stab' the pastry all over. This is to keep the puff pastry from puffing too much - gee that sounded funny but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

In pre-heated oven, bake pastry for 15-20 min until slightly golden brown.

Be generous and spread some marscapone cheese on top, then arrange your asparagus on top.

Sprinkle some cheese of your choice. You can top with some herbs or spices like paprika or just some freshly cracked black pepper. For a spicy 'kick', I like it with a hearty dash of Ichimi Togarashi (japanese red pepper flakes).

Bake until the cheese melts and is golden brown.

Slice and serve warm.

Do give this a try.
Its one of those simple dishes that is almost effortless to prepare and yet comes out totally elegant and everyone will enjoy, what's hard not to like - layers of crispy puff pastry and cheese...YUM (oh, and of course healthy veggies too)!! By the way, an alternative to asparagus is to use zucchini - think arranging a row of green and then yellow to contrast would definitely come out very pretty too.

anti-something & random thots

WHO reports that cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Topping the list are lung, stomach, liver, colon and breast cancer.

cancer, death & dying - taboo words? I suppose there are so many things in the world to talk about, more interesting, funnier and happier things, so why bother with such serious topic? Master Prince is afraid of dying. So much that he really watches and ensure that he eats properly - unlike his not very good role model mummy!! hah. There was this one time he was catching up on school homework. (I would like to qualify that he brought it upon himself as he didn't want to do them in a timely manner in the first place and it all accumulated to A LOT.) Anyway, it was late and basically a stressful time and week trying to play catch-up. Out of the sudden, on one of the nights, he burst out crying that he didn't want to die. I'm not sure what is the inter-relationship between completing homework and death. But I suppose if that was my last hour, I wouldn't want to be spend it finishing my school homework either!! I'd guess he was just tired but it got me thinking why he suddenly thought of death. Perhaps doing school homework can be like dying to a young boy? Ok I'm feeling very bad and pity for him now!!


A thoughtful read about coping with death & dying here.

More hearsay on what may 'help' if you are going through cancer.
Just sharing.

1. Cactus juice

You can read more here and here


2. Vitamin B17 - found in raw apricot seeds

You can read more here, here, here