The Electric Company

Again, thank you for the great support last week. I hope you guys aren’t burned out on the food. We will be taking next week off so we don’t get burned out. I had an idea that each week we produce food, we could feature a vegetable, a grain, and a bean. Kind of like the Electric Company. This week’s show was brought to you by the vegetable asparagus, the grain quinoa, and great northern white beans. Here is the complete rundown.

SNAX
The white beans show up here in the form of a roasted garlic white bean dip. This was advertised a few weeks ago, but I messed up the dip and it was horrible. I want you guys to think I know how to cook and part of this is hiding my mistakes. I couldn’t even salvage that one. This week should be better.
I made a sun-dried tomato feta dip last Friday on the fly and it was delicious. I am going to try and do it again on purpose. Most dips have a base of mayo and sour cream and are simply not good for you. The base here is pureed garbanzo beans, which is a much better alternative on the health front. I could call this a sun-dried tomato hummus, but that is just so honky. Hummus comes in one flavor. HUMMUS!
We ran out of the honey almond cranberry granola so it has once again made a return to the VCSC. This batch did not get burned. I am finally getting used to having a fancy convection oven.

SIDES
I again apologize for no casseroles. There just has not been time to develop these. But I do have some cool sides this week. The featured Red Quinoa can be served hot or cold as a salad. It is accompanied by grilled peppers, roasted corn, sweet onion, and cilantro. This is some healthy stuff. Quinoa was dubbed the Mother Grain by the Incas for its health properties and it does contain all 9 of the essential amino acids. A STUDLY protein source for a seed that can be cooked like a grain.
Asparagus saute with a lemon-garlic sauce is the second side. I have high hopes for this one. I thought I would gently toast thinly sliced garlic in Olive Oil then add fresh parsley and lemon to create a good friend for the grilled spears.
The Veggie Charros Beans are spiced up with tomatoes, garlic, sweet peppers, onion and cilantro. These are good and also pretty. They would be great topped with cheese or in a quesadilla.

SOUPS
The White Bean with Parmesan is an excellent soup. So rich and creamy it is hard to believe that there is no dairy in it except for the parmesan tossed in at the end for sharpness. (And the cool title of course.) The featured Veg makes an appearance here in the form of Asparagus Soup. I liked the idea of seeing a vibrant green soup next to a white one inside of Flash (the silver fridge, soon to be accompanied by a new silver fridge/freezer combo, name will be assigned upon arrival in the VCSC). Finally, because it was so hot this weekend, I was inspired to make Gazpacho, one of my favorite soups of all time.

SALAD DRESSINGS
There is a great article in this month's Saveur about iceberg lettuce. This week’s dressing was supposed to be a creamy blue cheese but I got inspired by a blue cheese vinaigrette in the article. Let’s see how it goes. The other dressing will be the chipotle vinaigrette I am still trying to develop for work.
I really hope you guys enjoy the food. If you don’t, please let me know and I will try to fix it. I rely on your feed back to help perfect the craft. Thanks for everything.

JOANNA NOTE'S
FYI, the white bean soup is good enough to suck, through a straw, or your nose, whatever, it’s yummalicious. And the granola has hit some new heights in the way of crunchy loveliness. The asparagus soup is otherworldly and I just tasted the lemon-garlic sauce, wwwwwowww!

WE WELCOME LUSCIOUS PASTRIES. . . Jennifer and Anne-Charlotte will be bringing their sweet lovelies to the VCSC so be prepared to have some desert as well. Peace out friends!