Celebration Food

I couldn't help but thinking while cooking this dinner what a celebration it was. There was nothing "special" about our evening, except that we were celebrating the coming of Spring with some of our favorite flavors. I wasn't intending to blog about this particular meal, because it is nothing out of the ordinary. We eat it all the time: pesto pasta with roasted asparagus and cherry tomatoes. But there are few flavors I love more than hot roasted asparagus, drizzled with olive oil, freshly cracked pepper and sea salt, and I just wanted to talk about it! One of those that I actually prefer is a hot roasted cherry tomato, with a fresh sweetness that explodes in the mouth. Combine the two, and there is hardly a prettier sight:

Gorgeous! I swear this is my favorite part of spring: in-season asparagus! Tomatoes! Fresh veggies whose prices drop and flavor profiles expand. Veggies that come from local farms rather than South America. It's worth celebrating, even if it's just a regular week night.

Fresh, homemade pesto is a favorite of ours as well ... Fresh basil, lots of garlic, olive oil, pine nuts. Blended in the food processor and tossed with pasta. Heavenly:

It's easy to say grace for food like this. Not because it was cooked particularly well, or because it was a complicated and fancy recipe. Because it's a simple celebration of God's goodness in the Spring. There's so much joy in food like this. Surely God is present in these meals!

And then, we celebrated laughter and indulgence with one of my favorite married-life activities. A pint of peanut butter ice cream, two spoons, and reruns of The Office ... Not so good for my body, but so good for my soul.