Mr. Hawthorne Makes An Appetizer.

We were up at Sam's Club the other day and they had beautiful asparagus.

Mr. Hawthorne wrapped the spears in thinly sliced ham and I made a mustard and roasted garlic dip.

Ingredients for dip: 1/4 cup mayonnaise 2 tsp Dijon mustard 1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar 1 bulb garlic, roasted 1 dried cayenne pepper, minced chives, finely chopped 1 tsp white wine 1/2 tsp hot mustard freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste To roast garlic, pour a little oil over top and wrap in foil. Bake at 350 for about an hour. Let cool, then simply squeeze each clove to get garlic pulp out. Roasted garlic is very mild, so go ahead and use the whole bulb. Mix all ingredients.

Mayo, Dijon mustard, and vinegar.

Add in roasted garlic, chives, and cayenne.

Freshly ground salt and pepper.

Mix well.

Mr. Hawthorne added in a teaspoon of white wine at the end.

Mr. Hawthorne taste tested and suggested some horseradish. I wasn't looking carefully when I got out the "horseradish," then I noticed it was a funny color. It turned out to be Chinese Hot Mustard and it worked quite nicely in the dip. While I was making the dip, Mr. Hawthorne cooked the asparagus.

To prepare asparagus, first snap the bottoms off. They will automatically snap off where they're supposed to. Drop into boiling salted water and boil about 2 minutes. You want them crisp tender, not mush. Immediately plunge into ice water to stop the cooking and set the pretty green color. Drain on paper towels.

Wrap each spear in thinly sliced ham. We use Food Lion's Kentucky Double Smoked Ham.

The mustard and garlic flavors in the dip nicely complement the ham.

Good finger food for a party.

Loved the dip. Be sure you make enough of these.