Saturday

Cate's springtime risotto soup (recipe in the comments)
Parmesan cheese
Roasted garlic rolls

Hot tea
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So this dinner seems a lot like our meal of cream of asparagus soup from last Saturday. Fresh asparagus just seems to call us in these early spring times and the tenor of this meal is somewhat different. That said, as today was cold and we may get snow showers tomorrow morning, perhaps we are simply yearning for the wondrous weather we had last weekend and hoping to call it to mind with this sort of repeat meal! We have only made this soup once before, back in February of 2005. For context, we were celebrating early spring then too - we still lived in southern California, where winter is merely a theory and spring flowers are out in late February as a matter of course. Still we missed the seasons then and tried to keep them as best we could. Now that we live in Michigan, we still celebrate the seasons as we are aware of them in a much more visceral way. The soup was excellent tonight and made us both wonder why it's been so long. We hope to repeat it sooner rather than later this time!

Everyone reading please give our magnolia a brief thought of hope. A late frost last April (our first spring here) caused it to skip blooming and the cold nighttime temperatures in the next two days threaten a repeat this year. It would be so sad if we didn't see it in its glory again!

Prep Notes
Difficulty: Easy
Chopping: Onion, lemon, asparagus, spinach
Time: 30 minutes
Make ahead: I think this one is best last minute - the rice soaks up a lot of liquid if left to sit. That said, I still like it for lunch the next day!

Reaction
J: "This *is* springtime soup!"
M: "Springy and refreshing."