Fresh ideas for dinner can spring from so many places: the pages of a new cookbook or food magazine, a funny TikTok or instructional video on Instagram or (among my favorite sources for inspiration) websites like Food 52, Serious Eats or Smitten Kitchen.

It also can depend on what you happen to stumble upon while grocery shopping.

This week’s recipe hinges on what I was thrilled to find on sale in my local produce section: big bunches of spring asparagus priced at just $1.99 a pound.

I couldn’t resist swooping up two bundles of the tender spring veggie along with a couple bunches of spring onion and two fat cucumbers that were one sale for 99 cents. It’s so easy to get excited about green foods in the spring — especially when they’re so affordable — and I knew I’d figure out how to best put them to good use in my kitchen.

I ended up with this easy stir-fry.

Lots of recipes calls for steaming, blanching or roasting asparagus, and you can also saute it. Here, the stalks are diagonally cut into bite-sized pieces and then cooked hot and fast, gently blistered, in a skillet with oil and salt. Then, they’re tossed in a pan with ground pork that’s been cooked with Asian aromatics — garlic, ginger and green onion — along with soy sauce and Shaoxing wine.

It was incredibly quick, and really hit the spot when paired with a super-simple (and spicy) cucumber salad that also took just minutes to throw together. Both include the gentle heat of chili crisp, which you can easily omit if appealing to tamer taste buds.

When choosing asparagus, look for bright green stalks with tightly closed and compact tips. To keep it fresh in the fridge until cooking, store it upright in a glass or cup with about an inch of water, and cover the tops with a plastic bag.

I generally prefer super-thin asparagus because I believe it’s the most tender, but you can also use thicker spears. Just be sure peel the bottom third after snapping off the knobby ends.

Pork and Asparagus Stir-fry

INGREDIENTS

2-3 teaspoons olive or vegetable oil, divided

1 1/2 pounds asparagus, trimmed, cut on a diagonal into 1- or 2-inch pieces

Kosher salt

1 pound ground pork

6 scallions, white and pale green parts only, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled, finely chopped

2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine) or medium-dry cooking sherry

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1-2 teaspoons chili crisp, plus additional for serving

Chopped fresh cilantro, for serving, optional

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet on high.

DIRECTIONS

Once the pan is hot (oil will be lightly smoking), add half of the asparagus and a couple pinches of salt and cook, tossing only once or twice so the pieces have a chance to blister, until crisp-tender and lightly browned, about 4 minutes.

Transfer asparagus to a plate. Add another teaspoons olive oil to skillet (no need to wipe it out) and repeat with remaining asparagus.

Reduce heat to medium-high. Add remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil to skillet, then add ground pork, spreading it out in an even layer.

Season with a couple pinches of salt and cook, undisturbed, until meat begins to brown underneath, about 2 minutes.

Break up meat with a wooden spoon and add chopped scallions, garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring, until pork is crisp and mixture is very fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add wine or sherry, soy sauce and chili crisp, and return asparagus to skillet. Cook, turning to coat with pork mixture, until heated through, about 1 minute.

Transfer stir-fry to a platter or large shallow bowl and drizzle with sesame oil. Serve with rice and additional chili crisp, if desired, garnished with chopped cilantro.

Serves 4.

— adapted from bonappetit.com

Cucumber salad

For a less spicy salad, omit the chili crisp.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound cucumbers, sliced very thin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

1 heaping teaspoon chili crisp

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

1-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds, plus more for garnish

Red chili pepper flakes, for garnish

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, toss cucumber and salt. Let them sit for 5-10 minutes while you prepare the dressing.

In a large serving bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, chili crisp, garlic, ginger, sugar and sesame seeds. Set aside.

Rinse cucumber slices with cool water in a colander two or three times to remove the salt, then strain into a bowl. Pat dry with paper towels.

Pour cucumber slices into the bowl with the dressing and toss well to combine. Garnish with sesame seeds and red chili flakes for extra heat.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

In the early days of the Twins’ season, they’ve been let down by their own defense too often.

On Tuesday, they were finally on the other side of that. Though hits were hard to come by for much of the night, the Twins were able to take advantage of a couple of Chicago errors and pulled away late, snapping a three-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the White Sox in the series opener at Target Field.

In the second inning, down a run, shortstop Carlos Correa grounded a ball towards first baseman Andrew Vaughn. Second baseman Lenyn Sosa was unable to catch Vaughn’s thrown, and instead of it being a rally-killing double play, the Twins had two runners on and nobody out.

They got one run out of the situation when Ty France found a hole in the right side of the infield, sending a single to right and tying the game.

An inning later, rookie Luke Keaschall helped make things happen with his legs. After drawing a two-out walk and stealing second, some aggressive baserunning paid off. The next batter, Trevor Larnach, hit a little tapper. But when catcher Edgar Quero’s throw hit Larnach in the back, Keaschall kept running, speeding home from second.

He jogged home the second time around — after another walk and stolen base — scoring on Larnach’s two-run missile to right in the eighth inning, the outfielder’s second home run of the season.

For much of the night, it seemed like the White Sox were going to break through, putting baserunners on in seven of nine innings.

Starter Bailey Ober maneuvered around traffic all night, getting a pair of double-play balls and limiting the damage to just one run in the second when the White Sox loaded the bases.

Ober lasted six innings, giving up eight hits but just the one run, before making way for Griffin Jax. The reliever, who has struggled throughout April, pitched in the seventh inning rather than the eighth or ninth for the first time this season, working around a single to throw a scoreless inning.

Louie Varland, given a high leverage opportunity in the eighth inning, responded by sending down three White Sox hitters in order before Jhoan Duran came in for the save.

After loading the bases with no outs, Duran gave up a run before Byron Buxton made a game-saving catch, verging to his left as he ran back and then diving to corral a ball that would have driven in a pair of runs.

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober (17) delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is set to deliver his annual State of the State address on Wednesday night in St. Paul.

The address will be made to state representatives and senators at 7 p.m. in the House chamber of the state Capitol. Walz said at an unrelated news conference last week that his address will touch on the effects of the Trump administration’s decisions on Minnesota, including potentially large Medicaid cuts, as well as “things to be optimistic about” and ways to “work together.”

“This will be a piece of that,” the Democratic governor said about Trump policy impacts on Minnesota. “We decided to pick trade wars with our allies. We isolated and turned allies against us. We’ve forced many folks into the Chinese sphere of influence on a broader scale, and states are under threat from programs just like this. So I think to try and articulate we’ve got some real decisions to make … I’m also going to focus back that there’s many, many things to be optimistic about.”

The speech will live-stream on the Minnesota House Information YouTube channel.

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Five non-citizen graduates of Concordia University in St. Paul are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after their student visas were canceled.

According to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, the five plaintiffs are citizens of India who attained master’s degrees in information technology and management. The suit says each of the graduates were working for tech companies as part of authorized post-graduate training and that each of them had to quit their jobs because they couldn’t hold the positions without student visas.

“Plaintiffs were provided no notice, much less an opportunity to object, to the termination of their status — the foundations of the procedural due process that all persons in the United States (including noncitizens) are entitled under the Fifth Amendment,” the lawsuit reads.

In declarations filed in court, Salma Rameez Shaik, Akhil Pothuraju, Nithish Babu Challa, Shyam Vardhan Reddy Yarkareddy and Almas Abdul all say they were in compliance with all the rules and regulations required to maintain their student visas.

Four of the five say they had been cited for traffic violations — one of whom said they pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drunken driving offense.

However, the suit says these offenses are not sufficient to warrant termination of their student visas. The plaintiffs also said they had not engaged in any on-campus political protests or demonstrations.

The suit also asks the court to issue an emergency injunction that would allow them to keep their legal status and prevent them from being arrested and detained.

“Two judges in this District already issued temporary restraining orders similar to the one sought here on nearly identical facts,” the lawsuit reads, referring to the cases of Rattanand Ratsantiboon (Metropolitan State University in St. Paul) and Ziliang Jin (University of Minnesota). Both men, who also had their student status suddenly terminated by DHS, were granted temporary restraining orders by federal judges last week.

Ratsantiboon and Jin are among at least two dozen international students in Minnesota who have been stripped of their status by the department as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, both illegal and legal.

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