That’s me holding a Martha-esque fancy-schmancy asparagus and lump crabmeat quiche! When sliced, each piece features an asparagus spear running down the center. Nice. I prepared it for a video I shot in Maryland two weeks ago. The Maryland Egg Council is participating in a “What’s For Dinner” advertising campaign with four local CBS Radio affiliates, and the quiche was one of nine recipes I prepared for the campaign. Radio listeners are encouraged to visit the station’s website to view my recipe demonstration video!

In addition to the Maryland Egg Council, the advertising campaign includes the Department of Agriculture’s “Maryland’s Best” (a program promoting local fresh fruits and vegetables), Whole Foods and Liberatore’s, a local restaurant chain. As you can imagine, all of the recipes I made focused on fresh produce, eggs of course, and local ingredients. The taping was done in the Culinary Center of a brand new Whole Foods supermarket in Annapolis Town Center.

Working with fresh lump crabmeat was a treat since I’m always so aware of the cost of ingredients in my dishes. It was very luxurious! In addition to the crab and asparagus quiche, I used crabmeat in a frittata recipe in which the base was eggs (of course) and also ramen noodles. Kinda’ contradictory – less than 50-cents worth of eggs, less than 25-cents worth of ramen noodles, and about 5-dollars worth of lump crabmeat! I added some diced red and green bell peppers for color and ended up with the most delicious frittata I have ever made!

I also demonstrated a garden egg burrito using all manner of diced fresh vegetables, a garden  “confetti” omelet (where the vegetables were embedded in the egg so their colors showed through) and a French filled omelet with more Maryland fresh vegetables. Since Maryland produces terrific fresh sweet corn, I also made New England Johnny Cakes (egg rich cornmeal pancakes) from kernels I stripped from leftover ears of cooked corn. Using fresh Maryland spinach, I whipped up some spinach soup with a poached egg floating on top. And Maryland’s abundant apple crop inspired an omelet with fresh apples that I peeled, sliced and sauteed in butter and brown sugar, plus sharp cheddar cheese, bacon, pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup on top. Finally, I made everyone’s favorite, deviled eggs!

All in all, it took only 3 hours to prepare the nine dishes that I made on camera! What a perfect example of the ease and speed of cooking with eggs. The fact that all of the dishes were filmed without having to go back and fix anything further attests to eggs’ user-friendliness. I LOVE EGGS! Period. As if you didn’t know.

The video demos will be featured on the CBS radio “What’s For Dinner” website from now through September: Be sure to check ‘em out at: http://whatsfordinner.vertasource.com!