Asparagus will soon be coming up in the garden. My favorite way to prepare asparagus is on the grill, but any way of cooking that creates a char works nearly as well. I also like using lemon juice, and sometimes make a hollandaise sauce if I am feeling adventurous.
We had asparagus with dinner last night at my brother’s house and he put me in charge of cooking it. But he had no lemons, lemon juice, or even lemon pepper. So I improvised and made up a new recipe with what I could find in his pantry which turned out really well.
My brother was grilling but there was no room for the asparagus on the grill so I used his electric frying pan to cook one large bundle of young store-bought asparagus. I put a tablespoon (or two?) of butter in the pan with some olive oil, garlic salt, ground pepper, a couple shakes of ground mustard and a dash of ground ginger and turned the heat up. I wanted something astringent to replace the lemon and found a jar of garlic stuffed olives and poured a swig of the olive juice into the mix. For good measure, I added a splash of Worcestershire sauce, then put the asparagus on top and stirred it until it was coated with the oily sauce and let it cook uncovered for several minutes, stirring once or twice until most sides were nicely charred. After the last stir I grated some fresh parmesan cheese on top and turned off the heat.
It was delicious. The olive juice, ginger and ground mustard added a nice tangy flavor and with the added cheese, I did not miss the lemon juice or hollandaise sauce at all. 
The Wildwood Glen 