Last night, we had some friends over for an appetizer night, and those friends—Alice and Roger and Erma and Chuck—sure know how to make some terrific appetizers. It must be duly noted that we would be just as fond of them if they weren’t good cooks, but how lucky for us that they are. Erma and Chuck brought an artichoke crab dip and some French bread to go with it. Alice and Roger brought a mushroom spread, crackers, and beef with cream cheese and horseradish wrapped around perfectly cooked asparagus. I made some appetizers, too, of course, and we had quite a feast.

Among the leftovers were four of the beef-wrapped asparagus, and I tucked them into a container and put them in the refrigerator. They did, however, put us in a bit of a quandary. This afternoon, we are going over to our daughter Shannon’s home for an anniversary meal—our thirty-third wedding anniversary was on Friday, March 19th—which means that having the asparagus for dinner is out. Because of the rather delicate nature of the asparagus, it didn’t seem as though they would keep for very long in the refrigerator. We hate wasting food of any kind, and when it’s something as elegant and delicious as that beef-wrapped asparagus, we especially don’t want to waste it.

So what to do? Why, incorporate the asparagus as part of a Sunday morning brunch. We had leftover homemade bread, which we toasted, added scrambled eggs, and voilà!  A brunch classy enough to rival what we would get at most restaurants in Maine. All it needed was a bloody Mary to go with it. However, Clif and I settled for coffee and tea, and we thought the brunch was very good indeed.