Village Baking Co. Baguette

The Lyon

By Kim Cooper

Hungry yet? Just looking at this picture that our dear friend Pam took makes my mouth water! This weekend if you are out and about, swing by the nearest Sprouts store and grab a Village Baking Co. baguette, Plugra butter, deli ham and your favorite cheese and make The Lyon. Our Lyon sandwich was inspired by a little bakery that Clint and I stopped at on our way to a French Chateau right outside of Lyon, France in 2001. This is the most simple yet tasty sandwich....a great fast and easy lunch. We love to eat salt and vinegar chips with this sandwich or it is great with your favorite glass of red wine. You can't get anymore french than this.

Thanks, Pam, for taking these amazing pictures of our breads. http://www.amwzphotography.com/.

Village Baking Co. Caesar Salad

Not just your everyday Caesar Salad
By Kim Cooper


Today will be a very happy day to all of our caesar salad fans. For at last, you won't stop me in the grocery store or yell out your window in the Starbucks line and ask for the recipe! I will never forget how we landed this particular dressing recipe. It was 9:00 at night before we opened our little french bakery cafe in 2004 and Clint decided last minute that we needed to add a caesar salad to the menu. Clint's dad and his friend Alan Sanderson were working on a piece of equipment and Alan yelled across the kitchen in excitment that he had the best caesar salad dressing recipe in the world! He ran to the store, gathered all of the ingredients and made it right there on the spot. He wasn't lying....it was the best caesar salad we had ever tasted! So, thanks to Alan, we had devoted customers who were obsessed and still obsessed after five years of the infamous village baking co. caesar salad. Funny how things just always work out. This salad was one of our best selling lunch items. Enjoy this fresh and healthy alternative to lunch or dinner and add grilled chicken if you prefer.

Dressing:
4 cloves of garlic
1 cups of extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Kosher salt
3 anchovy fillets
1 tbs dijon mustard
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
freshly ground pepper
1 shallot
*add large egg yolk after blending above ingredients
Blend until creamy.
Pour over chopped romain lettuce, add village baking co. croutons and toss. Grilled chicken optional.

Homemade Croutons

Here is our recipe for homemade croutons for your healthy eating this new year. We will post some of our favorite sandwiches and salads later on this month to go along with your delicious croutons. Instead of buying unhealthy snacks for the kids loaded with unnatural ingredients, I give them croutons instead and they eat them up! We also serve them with a "spur-of-the-moment" wine-o'clock with friends! They are handy to have around in a glass container on the counter....looks cool and tastes great! Enjoy.

Ingredients
Day old Village Baking Co. bread of any kind
Olive oil
kosher salt
cayenne & garlic powder to taste

dried parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut bread into cubes and place in a large bowl. Drizzle cubes with olive oil and seasonings. Mix well.
Spread seasoned bread onto a sheet pan and bake for about 15 minutes.