Grilled Garlic Chardonnay Asparagus

A recent green party had left me with a clump of asparagus, and I had an old, half-opened bottle of chardonnay in the fridge, and thus this recipe was born.  I don't have much asparagus tasting experience-usually the vegetable frightens me-but I was determined to cook it, and white wine and garlic does tend to be a winning combination.  This recipe was pretty good, and I might even venture that I enjoyed a few full servings of the once feared vegetable in one sitting.  The asparagus is easy to prepare and makes good use of a dormant George Foreman Grill.

To make this you will need:

• Bunch of green asparagus (if you try yellow here and it works, sound off in the comments!)
• White wine (I used chardonnay)
• Garlic cloves
• Red pepper flakes
• Sea salt
• Pepper
• Sweetener (optional)

1. Snap the ends off of the asparagus and put them in a ziploc bag or a tray to marinate in white wine.  Throw in a few garlic cloves and red pepper flakes.  If you would like, you can also add some olive oil to the marinade.
2. Let the asparagus marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
3. Heat up a small kitchen grill (such as a George Foreman Grill) and cook your asparagus until cooked through.  This took a few minutes on my grill - watch carefully and cook to desired doneness.
4. Add salt and pepper liberally and taste.  The salt and pepper really bring out the flavors here.  You may also want to try adding some sweetener to the finished project for a sweet-salty combination.
5. Enjoy!

There's a lot of steam coming off of these vegetables - I tried to capture it in the photos, but in general the steam just made everything look blurry...

These asparagus had thick, woody stems even after snapping them and cooking the "good" parts.  The whole piece, however, was still quite tasty.