Inspired By: Hausfrau's Thursday Blog Hop

I really wanted to take Audrey up on her Thursday Blog Hop idea.  The theme was so promising: "Inspired By."  It got me thinking about the things that inspire me, about role models.  There are lots: the people at my fellowship, who are generous to a fault in the name of social justice; the people I have met in the blogging community, who write so poignantly and take such amazing photographs; my yoga teacher; great poets and poetry.  What to choose?

For some reason, I felt stuck.  The things I had on the menu for the week (because really, mostly what I'm making these days is just food) weren't really inspired by any of those amazing people.  But as I thought about it some more, I decided I am inspired by spring this week.  It's been teasing us here on the East Coast of the U.S.: after an almost eighty degree day, we're back in the 50s with rain.  But I can tell it's coming because of the vegetables that are now in season.  I love the vegetables of spring; their arrival in the farmer's markets remind me of the promise of renewal, of life defiantly nudging itself up out of the ground, after a long, dreary winter.  Though we haven't started our garden yet, there are tomato plants under a grow light in the basement, and whenever I peek down there, the eerie glow makes me smile.

The idea for this soup came from the Monastery Soups cookbook I've been telling you about (so I guess it's inspired by that, too), but I adapted it a bit.  First, you can't have too much asparagus.  Second, I think vegetables are almost always better in soup if they've been roasted first.  And third, though cream is lovely, milk will do just as well.

Tell us, what has inspired you lately?  Here's the rest of the hop:

Cream of Asparagus Soup

1 lb. asparagus
1 sliced onion
2 T. olive oil
2 peeled and diced potatoes
1 sliced carrot
8 c. water
1 c. milk (or cream if you must; you could also thicken with arrowroot or a white sauce)
creme fraiche (for fun)

Preheat oven to 400.  Drizzle oil over asparagus on onion on a prepared baking sheet, and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 45 minutes, until browned and tender.  Boil the water in a large pot and add the asparagus, onions, carrots, and potatoes.  Cook until the potatoes and carrots are tender, and blend well in a blender or with an immersion blender.  Add the milk, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover the pot to allow the soup to simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve drizzled with a little creme fraiche, if you like.  Enjoy on one of those spring days that is a little cool and rainy, and imagine the taste of the season to come.