Tempura asparagus fries

If you hate asparagus but love tempura, I think you should try these! I could eat asparagus anyway but boiled, so I may be biased.  You can also use this batter to coat pretty much any vegetable you like, so feel free to try other things and share your preferences. 

Tempura batter - it's finicky stuff so pay attention to what you are doing
3/4 cup of AP flour
1/4 corn starch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup COLD water
1 egg separated - save both parts; you'll be using them
1 lb asparagus washed and patted dry - I recommend the fatter stalked variety.  The thin stalks got a little soggy on us

Mix together the flour, corn starch, and baking soda. Then stir in the cold water and egg yolk.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until it's frothy and add to the batter.  Salt to taste, but go easy because you'll want to sprinkle the fries with salt when you're done too.
In a deep skillet, pour in about two inches of oil and get it very hot. If it's not hot when the asparagus goes in, they will just get greasy and not crispy.  Dust your asparagus in flour before dipping them in batter.  Fry them a few at a time until they are golden brown.  Drain them on a paper towel.  Dust with salt and enjoy!
If you fry more than you can eat in one sitting, you can reheat them in the oven later.  They are a little less than crispy, but still pretty tasty.

Mexican Chicken Stew

This is a great recipe to make for large parties or to share.  You can also freeze it for about a month without the beans getting too mushy.  It's fairly inexpensive and it goes in the crock pot! I'm giving you the regular size recipe, but you can double, triple, whatever as needed.  You can also add an extra can of tomatoes if you like yours with more broth and less chunk.

1lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can pinto beans drained
1 can black beans drained
1 can white shoepeg corn drained
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth

Dice and cook the chicken in a skillet and drain.  Put all the other ingredients into your crockpot.  Add the chicken and simmer on low for 4-6 hours.  I serve this over brown rice, but you can serve it with cornbread or tortilla chips too.  Add some sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese if you like!