Spring Vegetable Penne (Thyme, Mushrooms, Garlic, Peas, Asparagus)

This recipe is taken from the May 2013 issue of Cooking Light and modified for our non-dairy, vegetarian diet purposes.

Olive oil
3/4 cup chopped sweet onion (like Vidalia)
1 4-oz package of presliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2  cup low sodium vegetable broth
1/2 cup pureed soft tofu (instead of half-and-half)
3/4 cup frozen green peas
3 tablespoons shaved Parmesan cheese (divided) (we omitted this, but will note in recipe)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
8 ounces of uncooked penne
1 pound of asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
Salt to taste

1. Heat skillet over medium-high heat and add oil. Add onion and mushrooms and saute 5 minutes or until tender. Add thyme and garlic; saute 1 minute. Sprinkle mizture evenly with flour and cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and pureed tofu; cook two minutes or until slightly thickened. Add peas, 2 tablespoons cheese (omitted in ours), lemon rind, juice, salt and pepper); cook 1 minute or until peas are thoroughly heated.
2. Cook pasta according to package. During the last three minutes of cooking add the asparagus to pasta. Drain. Add pasta mixture to mushroom mixture, tossing to coat. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, if desired.

This was our very first summer porch meal! It was Memorial Day and as we ate and enjoyed our wine we noticed the beautiful sunset. Soon we noticed a bright "star" in the sky. We figured it was a planet and saw another appear to the left of it. And then another appear above it. It was still kind of bright out for there to be stars but it was odd to see what we thought were three planets so close together so I Googled and guess what? They were three planets!
Apparently there had been a very close triple conjunction between Jupiter, Mercury and Venus the night before. The last time this happened was in May 2011 and the next time will be October 2015.
What we were seeing was Venus (the brightest), Jupiter (to the left of Venus), and Mercury (the one that was above Venus). We were so lucky to have noticed what we were seeing.