A spring feast

I don't know what hit me, but I was in the mood for serious cooking this weekend. I invited a friend, Mr D.,  well know for his love of food (see: pork, butchering and eating) and I made us a feast in honor of spring.

First course: homemade bread with lemon goat cheese and chives. The bread was supposed to be flavored with dill, but the 1/2 cup of fresh dill I added to the dough before baking seemed to get lost. The topping of goat cheese and lemon zest was marvelous, though, and I think next time I'll just sprinkle the dill on top. (Spring-y ingredients: dill and lemon, plus chives cut from the garden)

Second course: Cream of asparagus soup. Simple, but good. (Spring-y ingredient: asparagus)

Third course: A roasted asparagus and cherry tomato salad, topped with walnuts and balsamic dressing. (Spring-y ingredient: you just can't eat too much asparagus.)
Fourth course: Cheese ravioli and smoky tomato sauce. (Spring-y ingredients: okay, nothing. And this was actually the least exciting course, but you can't live on asparagus alone.)
Dessert course: Raspberry mousse cake. (Spring-y ingredient: raspberries) A genoise layered with raspberry whipped cream and a kirsch flavored syrup. I had been looking forward to this all week, and it was as wonderful as I hoped. It tasted like a proper European dessert, not too sweet, but rich and full of berry flavor. This was straight out of the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, an encyclopedia of everything baked. I have never been dissatisfied with a single recipe I've made from it. (Thanks for the book, Motherrocker!)