I JUST LOVE ASPARAGUS

Wonderful yummy green flowering stalks of heaven.  I always look forward to spring when my asparagus bed starts to come up.  I get so excited to see how big the stalks are.  I mean sometimes they are the size of Scott's thumb.  Just love the stuff.  I love it cooked in so many different ways.  Since yesterday was Valentine's Day I bought some from the grocery store.  Wow, it was even on sale.  Yum, right?  Plus frugal.  As I was pondering just what to do with the asparagus Scott decided he was going to cook Shrimp and grits.  That was a bit different from what I thought he was going to cook so my asparagus turned from a side dish into an appetizer.  

As usual, I started searching the internet for a recipe.  Again, as usual, I read several and then came up with how I wanted to do my recipe.  Since I wanted to use my air fryer I was going to have to adapt whatever recipe I found anyway.  I looked at several parmesan encrusted recipes but I really did not want to use a breading.  I finally found a recipe that I thought we would like and adapted it as follows.

Parmesan Smoked Gouda Asparagus in the Air Fryer

1 lb asparagus trimmed and rinsed
1/2 C heavy cream
1 T Italian Seasoning
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
pinch of garlic powder
1/2 C finely shredded parmesan cheese
pink Himalaya salt to taste 
1/2 C smoked gouda cheese

When using your air fryer make sure you have a non-stick surface.  They say not to spray your basket because it can make the basket sticky.  If you are concerned about this use a bit of coconut oil.

Make sure you snap the ends off of the asparagus.  If you do not do this you are going to have ends that are very woody.   

Once your asparagus is trimmed and rinsed dry them really well.  You do not want or need the excess water in your air fryer.  I used a cookie sheet lined it with paper towels.  Then put my asparagus down and another layer of paper towels on top.  I pressed light to make sure all the water was gone.  I sat that aside and went to work on the next step.  

Mix together the next 6 ingredients in a bowl.  Make sure you mix this well.  I found my seasonings needed a bit of a whisking to incorporate well.  This mixture will be a nice thick cheese bit of heaven. Yes, I have to admit I had to taste it.  

The recipe I adapted this from called for more heavy cream and also to dip your asparagus into the mix.  I did not want to do this because I felt it would not stick well and coat enough to my liking.  Instead, I chose to remove the paper towels from the cookie sheet and place the asparagus back onto the sheet.  I then poured my mixture on top of my asparagus.  Make sure you mix this well on your asparagus.  

Since it was just for Scott and I and my hands were clean I used my hands to get the mixture to coat my asparagus well. Warning, this is a messy way of doing this but I wanted to make sure every delicious morsel of asparagus was coated.  I also scrapped every drop I could on to the asparagus.  

At this point, I put the coated asparagus into my air fryer.  I layered the asparagus and every other layer I turned sideways and I was able to put all of it into my air fryer.  
I set the air fryer to 400 degrees and cooked it for about 15 to 20 minutes.  I kept checking on it to make sure it was cooked well but not soggy.  

While the asparagus is cooking shred your smoked gouda.  I did not shred mine finely.  

Once the cooking time is over take out the asparagus and sprinkle with the smoked gouda.  

This was such a lovely and decadent recipe.  

I want to add that while Scott chose to make something totally different then what we had kind of discussed it was a very lovely surprise.  He use to do most of the cooking in our household but when he changed jobs shortly after we got married and had to travel for work I took over the cooking and turned the kitchen into mine.  So, for me him doing research and buying what was needed to make me a nice Valentine's meal was heaven.  

Pour a glass of wine.  Put on some mood music and enjoy cooking your sweetheart a nice meal.  Happy Belated Valentine's Day!!!  

Enjoy!!