Improv!

So Danny and I had people over yesterday evening.  We made curried chicken.  That was our plan, curried chicken.  Then we realized we had no munchables.  There was a bag of veggie booty, which reminds me of styrofoam with salt and cheese flavor.  The veggie booty was the kind dusted with green stuff (powdered kale and spinach?  maybe?), and as Danny poured it into a bowl, I had a brain flash!  MARTIAN POOP.  IT LOOKED LIKE MARTIAN POOP.  

So I stuck a sign in the bowl saying "martian poop."  

But aside from that, we had no munchies.  So I improvised a dip.  1 can of white beans, a few spoons of sour cream, 1 clove of garlic, a scant 1/4 cup of rinsed capers, and some dill.  Put in food processor, add a small dash of vinegar to bring up the tangyness factor.  The capers were salty enough, and dried dill was fine.  Sure, fresh is always nice, and I could see this tasting really awesome with tarragon and lemon (use the juice instead of vinegar and some zest for flavor), or basil and oregano.  You could take it in another direction by adding maybe some chipotle en adobo and cilantro.  The beans and sour cream and garlic are the base, and the herbs, sour (vinegar, lemon, lime), and capers are where I'd play around.  Of course, you could use yogurt instead of sour cream or avocado instead of beans to make an avocado crema, or use red beans or garbanzo beans, or whatever strikes your fancy.  

My version with the capers, dill, and vinegar tasted good.  It's kind of like ranch dressing, but more flavorful and it took all of five seconds to throw together.  Oh yeah, and it doesn't have any weird crap in it.  It seemed to go over well, and people ate it.  

So, the little gathering was a success, and we totally forgot to take out the ice cream a friend brought for dessert.  No one seemed to miss it terribly.  As usual, no one left hungry.  Actually, I felt like I accomplished something because Danny's brother who really doesn't like spicy food seemed to either pretend to enjoy the chicken or genuinely did.  I didn't make it spicy-hot, but I did make it spicy-flavorful.  I feel like I'm doing good things by introducing some newer flavors... :)