Welcome spring with a Green Goddess

The internet surely yields overwhelming search results for "green goddess dressing," but this version is a serious winner: it's rich yet light and silky, flavorful but not overpowering, and comfortably at home as an accompaniment for crudité, spread thickly on a torn hunk of baguette, and drizzled on steamed vegetables or roasted fish.   My favorite use is to place a few spoonfuls of it on top of a simple green salad with poached chicken (as seen above) for a light and satisfying meal (the flax seed tortilla chips weren't a bad partner, either).  The story Molly Wizeberg wrote about this dressing and Chez Panisse appeared along with the recipe in the May 2009 Bon Appetit.  I was curious and made the dressing as soon as I read Wizenberg's story last year, and the Green Goddess has since entrenched itself in a many a salad at my house.  Don't let the long ingredient list deter you--it's a dressisng, so you basically whirl everything together in a processor.  I'm happy to welcome the Green Goddess again this year with spring's warmth and cheery tulips...

--K, feeling awfully thankful for wondrous avocados

Green Goddess Dressing

See how lovingly it slumps on your salad?  If you look closely, you can see flecks of the various herbs through the creamy light green base.

Quinoa-Black Bean Salad

This recipe started as an experiment for a potluck last spring.  Several of my friends had never heard of "quinoa" so I decided I needed to make something to show off its tastiness.

Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with this grain, you should be.  Actually, according to wikipedia (the best source for random knowledge) it's not a grain, but a seed, but that doesn't really matter. Quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") is originally from the Andes and apparently used to be a core crop of the Inkan empire.  More recently, it has become popular among vegetarians for being a complete protein, meaning it has all nine amino acids.  Feel free to whip out that piece of trivia at your next dinner party.

Risotto, Part 2: Arancini (Fried Risotto Balls)

For my international pot luck a little while back, I decided to advance my risotto-making to the intermediate level.  I saw a recipe in my latest splurge, Andrew Carmellini's Urban Italian, that outlined the process for arancini, stuffed deep fried risotto balls.  Now, I'm a Minnesotan.  We are known for our "Minnesota Nice" demeanor, ten thousand lakes, and having one of the greatest state fairs of all time. Besides being one of the largest fairs in the country, and home to 2,000 pound pigs that my dad drags me to year after year, the State Fair is also known for its abundance of food that has been stuck on to a stick and deep fried.  Man, I love things that are stuffed with cheese and deep fried.  Or just cheese deep fried.  Brings me back home with every bite.