Asparagus Potage with Garlic "Cream"

Big night, Oscar night!  It was also a big night because I bought a hand held immersion blender and used it for the first time, discovered google books and learned a new word, potage (a thick soup).  Maria joined me for soup and the Oscars!

Love the shoes on Anne!

First, the Oscars.  It was a good show overall I would say, no surprises.  Anne Hathaway was great, James Franco was lame.  He looked bored at times and at others he seemed like he was above hosting the show.  Anne seemed to embrace it and she got props from Billy Crystal.  I wasn't able to find the clip, but her flub while introducing Sandra Bullock was hilarious.  She messed up on lines and suggested that everyone at home take a drink. 

It was also great to see Gwyneth, if she can get herself a leading role in a Broadway musical she just might perform at each of the big three award shows this year!

The soup... vegan and tasty, yes vegan.  As the story goes Maria bought a house in 2009.  She had a house warming party and I forgot the gift.  It has taken me nearly two years to finally give Maria the cook book I got for her, Voluptuous Vegan.  Maria is a vegetarian not a vegan, but I had heard good things about the book.  I have hauled that book around for that long and never opened it!  I can't believe that and now I am kicking myself, there was an entire section on soup.  I made the Asparagus potage with garlic 'cream'.  Because this is a vegan dish the 'cream' was made out of water, oil, tarragon and garlic cloves, my first chance to use my new immersion blender!

This takes me now to maybe the biggest discovery of the night... google books.  At google books you can search for books, naturally that is in the name.  After you search, results will pop up.  If a preview link appears next to the search results you can then view images of pages of the book.  Now, I have not tried to read an entire book, but it looks like the entire Voluptuous Vegan cookbook is on here.  I don't know the legalities of this, I'm sure google has this covered.  Nonetheless, google books allowed me to give Maria the cookbook and still have access to the recipe.

Recipe:
The link will take you to page 42 in the book for the recipe via google books.

Overall, good recipe.  It needed a little salt and the asparagus tops were a nice touch.