It’s spring, and that means it’s asparagustime (Spargelzeit).  The image above would suggest that it’s also tomato and watercress time, but that would not be entirely honest: These particular tomatoes are available all year round, and the cress is hydroponic (they came home with their clean wet roots intact), meaning that the farmer didn’t really have to wait for spring.

• two thick, bone-in loin pork chops (barely 7 ounces each) from Flying Pig Farms, thoroughly dried, seasoned with salt and pepper, seared in a heavy enameled cast-iron pan, half a lemon squeezed over them then left in the pan with them while they roasted in a 400º oven for about 14 minutes (flipped halfway through and the lemon squeezed over them once again), removed from the oven, sprinkled with cress from Stokes Farm, and the pan juices spooned over the to
• Maine Backyard Farms ‘cocktail tomatoes‘ from Eataly, added to the pan with the pork chops during the last moments they were in the oven, seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with savory from Bodhitree Farm
• large spears of asparagus from from Stokes Farm, trimmed, the thicker parts peeled, placed in an oven pan, dotted with butter and seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted for 15-20 minutes, turning once or twice, then served
• the wine was a German white, Stefan Meyer Silvaner Trocken 2013 from Chelsea wine vault from Rhodt
• the music was Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, played by Les Muciens de Louvre