On today's menu: deliciousness.

Some days I have just the right touch in the kitchen. Not everything I ever make is heavenly, but sometimes I do the ingredients justice, and then not only do I feel satisfied, I feel full. Mmm.

Late this afternoon I realized I needed some type of lunch, so I whipped up a red lentil and brown rice dahl with a little canned diced tomato, spiced simply with green garlic, red onion, brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander, turmeric, ginger, and hot cayenne. I was quite pleased with it and its recipe-less goodness. I had it with a salad that used up my lettuce, red beet, a carrot, and a scallion with some dijon-apple cider vinaigrette.

After 8, Kevin noted that he was hungry again. I was uninspired, but I pulled out my heads of cauliflower and broccoli, a couple carrots, a tomato, and some small round summer squash, chopped them into big hunks, tossed with a little olive oil and seasoned, then roasted them until just slightly browned. Meanwhile, I cooked up a little batch of long-grain brown rice and mixed up some peanut sauce dressing (peanut butter, red curry paste, lemon juice, and a dash each of agave sweetener and soy sauce, thinned with a little water).

Dude. So good. SO good. I mean, go make it right now good. Takes some time because roasting and rice-cooking take about 45 minutes or so, but pretty low effort. You don't need to drench things with the peanut sauce, either; a little goes a long way. Roasted is the way to go with a lot of veggies; adding a tangy sauce and eating it with rice makes it a complete meal.

Of course, Kevin made his own food anyway, despite my near-heroic efforts of kitchenry. More lentils. Weirdo.

Catching more flies with brown rice syrup.

I'm pro-choice. I'm also a vegetarian. In some ways, it feels like pro-lifers and vegetarians have philosophical overlap, and when either side takes that to its dystopic extreme, it seems to do more harm than good to their movement.

At first it might seem unfair to compare the two—though unfair to whom depends on which side you favor. But consider the tactics and imagery used.

Pro-life (anti-abortion activists, really) in its extreme uses blown-up photos of aborted fetuses and the shout the word of their wrathful god to picket abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood offices. Vegetarians—under the auspices of PETA or the Animal Liberation Front—protest with pictures of beakless chickens smothered in overcrowded coops and toss red paint on people wearing fur. Both are doing so in the name of saving lives or ending cruelty to living things. Neither are likely to convince many people to change their beliefs or actions except perhaps in the short term.

I'm the immature person who drives by a Planned Parenthood protest with my middle finger raised, but I haven't got much more respect for the off-putting tactics of PETA/ALF/et al. While I feel the need to respect all their beliefs, I disagree so deeply that it begins to offend me. I don't think it's right to guilt people into major life decisions, be it what god to follow, when to have a child, or what to eat for dinner.

My point here was less to compare and contrast vegetarians and pro-lifers and more to point out what I see as wrong with the vegetarian movement as the public sees it. Maybe it's because my entree into vegetarianism was the environmental aspects (e.g., raising a cow is an inefficient use of resources) and not because I hurt for the poor widdow animals, but I do think people are swayed by the latter too. Just not when people are confronting them about it.

I know a lot of foodies have been changing their meat-eating habits to avoid factory farming and opt for animals raised and slaughtered in more humane, sanitary conditions, and that those meats are more expensive leads some of them to expand their vegetarian repertoire. And, hey, while they're doing that, maybe they discover that there's a hell of a lot you can do without pork, chicken, fish, or beef. Radically changing one's diet is a difficult process and not one that's right for everyone, no matter how many Flash animations you develop featuring sad cows.

For me, vegetarianism is a challenge and an adventure. Sure, it's not adventurous in the sense that you get to eat offal and balut—though I do think people who do eat meat should own that fact and eat all the edible parts of an animal, which is what allows me to enjoy Anthony Bourdain—but in a puzzle sense. How can I make something delicious without using eggs, dairy, or meat?* How can I make it fresh and exciting? What can I learn to do better? What can I learn to make at home that I used to buy at the store (like fakin bacon—homemade tempeh bacon is rad)? Will my non-vegetarian friends think this is as good as I do and ask for the recipe?

That's how it ought to be done: careful personal consideration and a little helpful nudging from those of us on the other side. I'm not trying to convert, I just think that the more reasonable it seems, the more easily people can be won over by the facts. And even then, it's still a big personal decision.

* Note: I am lacto-ovo vegetarian still, but the vast majority of my home cooking is vegan for two reasons: (1) Kevin, (2) even if Kevin doesn't eat the stuff I bake, at least I know it won't be INSANELY unhealthy. Just SORT OF unhealthy, which is good enough for me when I end up eating the whole batch. Of dough. For dinner.

Coffee.

It's my No. 1 vice. Sometimes I think I'd rather give up chocolate than good coffee, and you know I am a chocolate fiend.

Even bad coffee can be enjoyable, but I go out of my way to avoid bad coffee. Starbucks may be ubiquitous but it isn't good; this is fact. I haven't had coffee *at* Peet's, but I have had their beans, and they're good, but I've had better.

Right now my "better" is Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Oh, sure, the cafe itself is a hell of a place to hang out, and the baristas are skilled and knowledgeable and always busting out with wine tasting-esque descriptions of the beans (an ability I totally covet), but the place has "Roasters" in its name for a reason. They don't sell shiny black pellets of evil, they specialize in beans purchased from farms they know and love, roasted to aromatic perfection and intended to be sold that day and brewed within the month.

For awhile I was mail ordering Blue Bottle, but it got too cumbersome (and kind of expensive). Barefoot is still super local, super good, and super convenient. (They even sell it at Whole Foods, but I prefer buying it at the cafe.)

I love that coffee has such complex flavors, that depending on the method of preparation, the grind, the temperature of the water, and the temperature changes as it sits, it can taste completely different, leaving room for error even with a perfectly roasted bean. I like this level of difficulty; it adds a sense of skill to my ritual.

My equipment: a burr grinder, #2 cone, #2 brown paper filters, electric kettle, Brita filter, large mug.
Ingredients: Good goddamn fresh coffee beans.

First I fill my mug to the brim with filtered water and pour it in the kettle. Then I measure out two and a half heaping soup spoons of whole beans and put them in the grinder. The machine is set to grind at level 3, which is fine but still gritty. I turn it on and tap it periodically to ensure all the beans go down through the whirring discs. While it's grinding, I fold the edges of a paper filter and put it in the cone and put that on top of my mug, then plug in the kettle (it won't take long to simmer). After the grinder is done, I have to tap it several more times to get all the powdery beans into their container, then take it out and dump the grounds into my filter cone. I eagerly anticipate the hissing sound of liquid water turning to steam, and when it's bubbling a little but not boiling, I unplug the kettle and inundate the grounds with hot liquid. It takes two to three pours to get all the water through, and it needs to sit for a few minutes before it's at a drinkable temperature.

But when it is, oh man. Intense. The world stops for a minute when I'm drinking a good cup of coffee. Only a minute, though, because the caffeine kicks in and it's back to work for me.

Just a little something I made for lunch.

pasta salad
Originally uploaded by emily ca..

It's warm, I'm hungry, I have a ludicrous amount of vegetables at my disposal. What do I do?

I make this pasta salad. I live on the edge.

Dressing (measures approximate):
-1 tsp. olive oil
-1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
-1 tsp. dijon mustard
-1/4 tsp. maple syrup

Salad:
-3/4 c. dry whole wheat rotini
-3 stalks swiss chard, stalks separated out, chopped into bite size pieces
-1 small head broccoli, separated into small florets
-1/3 c. frozen peas
-1 tsp. dried tarragon
-Greens from 1 large baby onion, sliced thin
-1 red radish, cut into matchsticks
-1 carrot, grated
-Pepper and almond meal, to taste

Cook the pasta in salted water (Trader Joe's brand needs only 5 minutes). Add prepared chard, broccoli, peas, and tarragon about two minutes before the pasta is done cooking. After it's done cooking, drain and run it under cold tap water for a few seconds and drain again.

Add green onion, radish, and carrot to the dressing and mix, then add pasta and vegetables. Mix to coat everything with the dressing, then add pepper and almond meal to taste.

Experiments in cooking documentation #1.

It seems like a common feature of food blogs is the illustrated recipe. Since I am but one girl with a Canon PowerShot POS, this isn't the prettiest attempt, but it seemed worth a shot given the simplicity of the recipe.

If you can call "spaghetti with spinach and garlic" a recipe. Which it isn't, really, so much as an assemblage of edible items I happened to have around when I was hungry for lunch.

First, the ingredients:
-Whole wheat spaghetti
-Olive oil
-Garlic cloves, crushed and chopped, as many as you can handle
-Red pepper flakes
-Baby spinach, loosely chopped
-Freshly grated parmesan
-Almond meal
-Black pepper to taste

Next, the how-you-do:


Remember to salt your pasta water just before it boils. Cook as much and whatever type of pasta as you feel like eating.

The next part is pretty straightforward, really.


If your spinach is wilted before your pasta is done cooking, take it off the heat until it's ready.

The next part might seem a little odd, but I swear it's a useful thing to know: adding cooking water from your pasta to whatever sauce/veggies you're serving it with helps it become... saucier. Moister. Better.


Take the water from the boiling pot after the pasta's been cooking for a few minutes. The starch and salt suspended in the water are what will help your dish come together. The amount you use is variable; I'd set aside about 1/3 cup and use as much as you need.

Now, once your pasta is done, turn the heat back on your spinach and drain the cooked pasta. Next thing you know, you'll be dumping your drained pasta into the pan with your spinach and garlic.



Now you could add your cheese and mix it all up in the pan, but that just makes the pan harder to clean. That distracts from the "lazy" aspect of this so-called recipe. Instead, you can dump the contents of your saute pan into a bowl and add your pepper, almond meal (adds protein, crunch, flavor--try it!), and cheese.

Freshest meal of the day.

almond quinoa muffin
Originally uploaded by emily ca..

I have some standard breakfasts, you know. I'm sure everyone who actually eats breakfast does (and you people who don't kind of weird me out). There's the nonfat plain yogurt with maple syrup and Trader Joe's fat-free blueberry muesli stirred in, there's toasted peanut butter and jam (a post unto itself), applesauce pancakes with any number of fillings...

But some days, you want more. Yogurt sounds cold; oatmeal sounds bland; you had PB&J for dinner last night. Some days, you want a muffin.

Yes, a beautiful muffin, fresh from the oven and striking a perfect balance between healthy and delicious. Store-bought muffins are neither healthy nor fresh, and homemade isn't actually that hard. Why not bake?

Today's recipe, almond quinoa muffins, is from Veganomicon, and it is everything you could want in a muffin. I didn't manipulate the recipe much so I won't plagiarize -- you should buy the cookbook. Really.

My only alteration was to use frozen raspberries instead of the recipe's suggested apricots or currants, because raspberries taste awesome with almonds. (It is a killer pairing in my usual pancakes, too, but again, another post.) They're more healthy than your average bran muffin, lacking in processed sugar altogether, and high in protein from the almonds and the quinoa.

And they're so damn tasty, I've eaten three.

I (heart) strawberries.

first strawberries of 2008
Originally uploaded by emily ca..

I never buy strawberries anymore -- I wait for the ones from my farm share. And it's always worth the wait.

Come June/July, it'll be even better. Last year we made it to the farm's annual summer solstice party and ate berries straight out of the patch. Sun-warmed, perfectly sweet strawberries, perched atop a hill with a view of other farms and, in the distance, the foggy California coastline -- it's enough to make you believe in a higher power.

How to use up half your CSA veggies without trying.

rainbow slaw
Originally uploaded by emily ca..

I pride myself on my ability to make up halfway decent food using whatever I have around. This is an especially important skill during our CSA season.

I made this rainbow slaw:

-Green tops of one young onion*
-Chantenay carrot, sliced into matchsticks*
-Red radishes, sliced into matchsticks*
-Purple cabbage, shredded*
-Juice from one meyer lemon
-Apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste

Just mix and let sit for a little bit.

The slaw was meant to go with this soup:

-Young onion, everything but the green tops, sliced thinly*
-Green garlic, sliced thinly*
-Spices: dried oregano, ground coriander, cumin, red pepper flakes or spicy ground cayenne
-Can of black beans, drained and rinsed
-1/2 c. organic sweet corn
-Some canned fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained
-A little vegetable bouillon and water
-Red kale, stemmed and loosely chopped*
-Broccoli, stems and florets, chopped into bite-size pieces*
-Salt and pepper to taste

This is pretty basic. Saute the onion and garlic in a little oil, add spices and season a bit, add the canned/frozen ingredients and stir, pour in broth, bring to a boil. Check seasoning, then add the kale and broccoli and cook until tender. Then it should be ready to serve with long-grain brown rice or, perhaps, tortilla chips (homemade baked ones would be a nice alternative) and the rainbow slaw on top.

Check LocalHarvest.org for CSA farms near you if you want to improvise your own meals and eat with the seasons.

* indicates something from our share.

Yeah, I fell off the face of the Earth.

I do that periodically.

So I turned 25 a week ago Monday. Kevin was sick with a nasty cold all weekend, so nothing exceptionally fun happened. I had to cancel Friday dinner, but I did bring the curry over to their house on Saturday instead, and we had a nice little dinner. I also baked a ton of cookies AND a gingerbread apple pie.

Sunday, after much ado about Kevin's well-being, we went to Santa Cruz for some low-key family birthday co-celebrating. First up was his mom, where we had the pie, hung out, and exchanged a few gifts. Kevin conspired with his mom and gave me a really sweet Canon PowerShot, dudes! So my poor Panasonic Lumix with the burnt-out LCD backlight has been eclipsed. (I do still want to get that puppy fixed, if the price is right, and possibly pass it along to my mom.) He also gave me a Gorillapod, which is an articulated tripod, and his mom gave me a nice, simple case for the camera. Actually, I think today is her birthday, so happy birthday to Kevin's mom. Next, we went to his dad's for dinner and some more presents. His dad's girlfriend is another December birthday. Dinner was dahl, mixed vegetables, and rice, yum. I can't say no to anything with lentils (provided it's vegetarian). Then the three birthday people blew out candles on a pecan tart and opened more presents. I received a silicon baster (since they knew I didn't have anything to brush, say, butter on bread for cooking) and a 2GB camera memory card. Sweet!

Monday was my actual birthday and of course I had to work. In order to avoid having cake and candles and singing, I brought in a big tray of my delicious, vegan, homemade cookies (and some of the really awesome Thai sweet and spicy nuts) for everyone and told HR not to make a thing of it. My boss took me out to lunch, my choice, so I chose Rico's for being one of two restaurants we both actually like. (Even for my birthday, it wouldn't be nice to drag my boss to a Middle Eastern or Thai restaurant when I know she'd order the blandest thing and have to pick half of the accoutrements off, anyway. That's just sad.) After work, with Kevin still sick, the Editor and his fiancee took me out for dinner -- I'm a cheap date, I just wanted falafel and a lemonade at Yiassoo -- and a movie, so we all finally saw For Your Consideration. It sucked about as much as all the reviewers said, but as Christopher Guest fans, we felt content having seen it at all.

Tuesday I lucked out with another birthday lunch, this time courtesy of one of my coworkers, from Just Laziz, a really cool Lebanese bakery that specializes in phenomenal manakeesh (like pizza, Middle Eastern-style) and where my coworkers are obsessed with the baba ganoush. In the evening, Kevin's dad was in town, so we took him to our favorite Thai restaurant. He was suitably impressed. We also found Kevin a suit at Burlington Coat Factory so he could attend my company's Christmas party in something other than holey slacks. But that's another goddamn story and I'm going in chronological order. Anyway.

Wednesday I wanted to kill my boyfriend because he had buyer's remorse and wanted to beg off the fancy dinner, and I let him do it. So after work I went and finally saw Borat and was generally in a bad mood despite that. Also I had to cook for my company's potluck lunch the next day -- the Ethiopian spiced lentil dish I think I've linked to in a previous post.

Thursday was the company potluck. It was really a fantastic spread this year. A lot of home cooking, excellent home cooking. My lentils were awesome, of course, but another coworker friend (the one who likes coming to the Campbell farmers' market) made butternut squash penne and cheese, which was amazing. The gift exchange had a number of hilarious moments. My secret santa recipient really enjoyed her favorite bottle of wine and selection of four dark chocolate bars, and I was given a pair of Century movie ticket gift certificates and $10 for La Pizzeria, yum! In the evening I watched the 1-hour The Office and pondered the similarities between Michael Scott and our own CEO. You know, your typical "water cooler"-type viewing.

Friday I was totally coming down with Kevin's nasty cold. I had a half day of work and spent most of the afternoon napping, then preparing for the party. The party was good, but afterwards, I went to bed and practically did not get up for the rest of the weekend. The cold was just that bad. I did have to cat-sit, but Kevin had to cover for me on Sunday.

This week has been just plain work and avoiding doing the dishes due to stubborness and laziness. I'm leaving for Portland/Seaside/Seattle on Saturday afternoon. Christmas shopping is pretty much done. Just have to pack now.

Happy birthday to Kevin! And also more food.

Today is Kevin's birthday! He is 111 years old.

I have been cooking-obsessed this week. It's awesome. On Sunday, I made the quinoa and black-eyed pea croquettes from Vegan with a Vengeance again, this time with the accompanying mushroom sauce. These turned out really well (as opposed to last time, when they were dry and not all that flavorful), probably in part because I actually had more of the correct ingredients this time and in part because half the quinoa allotment was actually bulghur. I also make Sicilian-style broccoli from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, which is pan-steamed with red pepper flakes, garlic, and crushed capers, and a nice side of barley and wild rice pilaf. Monday night featured some lightly creative reworking of the previous night's meal, mostly in the form of the mushroom sauce over whote wheat rotini, which was a nice combination.

Tuesday I felt ambitious and made the Lebanese stuffed swiss chard that was abandoned from my Thanksgiving menu due to its complexity. It was the right decision, but damn, the dish was tasty. Like a more tender dolma with fresher, brighter flavors, surrounded by a nice broth. For protein, I accompanied it with a simple lentil soup (green lentils, browned onion, cumin).

Last night I tested this Ethiopian lentil stew recipe with a few minor adjustments -- I used red lentils and cooked them with the sauce, and instead of 10 plum tomatoes and tomato paste, I used a big can of whole fire-roasted tomatoes, both liquid and fruit, chopping the tomatoes before adding them. It turned out pretty well indeed, so I think it will be my office potluck contribution next week. But I am not so ambitious as to make injera; no, I stuck with a simple polenta (made according to Cook's Illustrated). The potluckers will get basmati rice, though. Polenta is a pain in the ass and doesn't really travel well.

Friday night the Editor and his fiancee are coming over for dinner, hooray! So you know I'm going to be a menu-planning freak about it. Real Vegetarian Thai had a "winter menu" suggestion that sounded ideal, considering I already bought some of the main ingredients at the farmers' market. It's a Burmese-style red curry (no coconut milk) with ginger, yams, and button mushrooms with a side of vegetables (in this case, I think red cabbage and orange cauliflower) sauteed in vegetarian "oyster" (a.k.a. shiitake mushroom) sauce and garlic, brown jasmine rice, and sweet and spicy nuts for dessert. I think I'll also make a very simple tofu and greens soup. The curry has to be made the night before (with curry paste I made last night) to let the flavors fully develop.

It's 8 a.m. and I am writing about food. Good lord.

Speaking of, time to go make breakfast. What says "happy birthday, now seriously, get up and go to work before noon" more than a hot bowl of dubiously prepared amaranth porridge, sliced apple, and spearmint tea?

Farmers' market haul and ideas.

I don't always go shopping with a particular recipe in mind. Especially at the farmers' market, I prefer to see what looks good and what has a good price. Most things I get are organic unless otherwise noted (*); then they're said to be no-spray. Kevin requested avocados, but creepy avocado guy wasn't there this week, so that's too bad.

This week, it was:
-Butter lettuce, $1/head
-Dinosaur kale, $1.25/bunch
-Cilantro and Italian parsley, each $1/bunch
-Sweet potatoes, $2/lb (I'm not actually sure if that's the real price)
-Broccoli and orange cauliflower, $1.50/pound
-Beefsteak tomatoes, $2/pound
-Yellow and red onions, $2/pound
-Button mushrooms, $3/pound
-Granny smith apples, $1/pound*
-Meyer lemons, $2/pound* (and yes, I could just get these from Kevin's mom, but we haven't been down there in awhile)

Now I just have to figure out what I want to do with all of it.

Well, I plan on making a gingerbread apple pie with half of the four pounds of apples I bought. I could even make another batch of those apple crumb cake muffins that turned out so well. Tomatoes and onions are infinitely useful in myriad recipes, so that's easy. There are quite a few potentially new and interesting ways to use sweet potatoes, as well as a few old hat recipes that stood up to scrutiny. I like to make salads to bring to work, so there goes the butter lettuce; mushrooms come in handy often enough. I can pretty much always find some use for good greens (the dinosaur kale) and broccoli, and cauliflower is perfect in Indian-type foods. Plus I still have a little red cabbage left from last week. I was hoping to find organic russet potatoes, but had no such luck, so another trip to Whole Foods may be in my future should I want to do something potatoey.

Addtionally, I've been working on holiday cookies. There are three packets of dough in my freezer now, and one batch of test cookies on my stovetop. The test cookies were a Lebanese recipe involving fine semolina (instead of flour), rose water and orange blossom water, and pistachios. They are basically a butter cookie with a very different texture. I think they're interesting. The doughs are for ginger cookies (I like to put a spicy candied pecan on top), chocolate raspberry thumbprints, and lemon-orange butter cookies.

I'm also the sicko who finished ordering Christmas presents by the end of November this year, though. Don't mind me.

I did promise cooking obsession, didn't I?

Because I wouldn't want to disappoint, at least not right away.

Tonight I felt a little creative. Like I have probably mentioned before, it's my experience that Kevin likes the stuff I cook more often when I don't use a recipe, so I'm trying to do more of that. It requires more creativity, regardless, so it's a little more fun sometimes.

I was cooking some chickpeas, anyway, so I went ahead and made a simple (if underseasoned) basmati rice pilaf with vegetable broth, shallots, and garlic, with chickpeas, ground coriander, and ground ginger added towards the end of cooking. I served it with a sprinkling of lightly chopped cilantro and sour heirloom tomato wedges all around, salted. I'd definitely add more of a kick to this if I made it again--cayenne, more coriander, perhaps more ginger, perhaps some cumin. Cumin is my spice crutch, though, so I'm trying to experiment.

As a side dish, I made a dish with red cabbage and shredded carrot. First I fried about a half teaspoon of fennel seeds in a splash of olive oil, then I added the carrot and cabbage and turned the heat up high and tossed it all around until the cabbage seemed just barely cooked, then turned off the heat and added about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, which sizzled in the hot pan. To this I added more cilantro and about two tablespoons of toasted and chopped pistachios. This dish turned out really well; both Kevin and I enjoyed it.

Someday in the future I might have a working digital camera. If I had one now, I would've posted pictures, because these dishes looked very pretty. Especially the cabbage.

I'm thinking tomorrow I'll do a (purple!) cauliflower and potato dry fry with cumin seeds and cilantro, backed up with simple channa masala (hey, I cooked a lot of chickpeas) and plain basmati rice.

The farmers' market is still selling me fresh and beautiful organic tomatoes for $2 a pound. The next time someone gives me shit about living in California, at least I'll have a good answer.

As requested, some recipes.

Or more accurately, where to get some recipes, because they're copyrighted or whatever and I liked the cookbooks.

Lebanese Cuisine by Anissa Helou was the source of my fish recipe (p. 109-110). The recipe calls for one 3 lb. fish, scaled and gutted, but we used about 3.5 lb. of tilapia filets, halved and rolled up, stuffed, and tied with twine. I haven't made a ton of things out of this book, but it does serve as a pretty good reference for what flavors belong in this type of cooking without reading too obscure.

Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is the source for my sweet potato pie with maple nut topping (p. 234-235). If you like vegan comfort food, I can't recommend this book enough, although oddly my actually vegan boyfriend hasn't been too impressed with the things I've made with this book. Too bad; I am! He did cop to liking the pie, at least. He is human, after all.

High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking by Steven Raichlen has the recipe for the Armenian pomegranate pate (p. 6). I've only made one or two other things from this book, but it has lovely, glossy pictures and somewhat inspiring recipes that, apparently, I never have all the ingredients to make. It's a little odd that way. Also, the dude who wrote this has a barbecue cooking show on PBS.

Invitation to Mediterranean Cooking by Claudia Roden has a couple minor recipes used in my Thanksgiving dinner (eggplant puree, traditional variation, p. 30; bulghur pilaf with raisins and pine nuts, p. 84) as well as a broad overview of recipes from several Mediterranean countries (not just European).

The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein is a vegan cookbook with a commendable goal: to avoid using substitutions to make something vegan, but still having a recipe based in reality/tradition. Want to make pesto without the cheese? Some people couldn't afford cheese, so they did without. I really like this cookbook, the type of cuisine it focuses on, and its attitude, so even when I don't really like a recipe, I still keep it in mind. It's definitely not gathering dust. This was the source for mashed potatoes (though I added about six cloves of raw garlic to the cooked product), butternut squash gratin, and pesto-stuffed mushroom caps.

Today I cooked without the aid of cookbooks, using up some of my Thanksgiving herb leftovers to make a basil-mint hummus (omit garlic and olive oil; add tons of fresh basil and about 6-8 sprigs of mint) and items freshly acquired at the farmers' market to make potato-leek soup with ground coriander for a most excellent kick. I also had tea with homemade mixed nut scones (Vengeance, above) and raspberry preserves for breakfast.

Also? I suggest adding fresh orange zest, dried cranberries, and a dash of cinnamon to your pancakes.

The obsessive cooking phase is back in effect, guys. At least for now.

Your daily dose of mapley goodness.

would you like some nuts with that pie?, originally uploaded by emily ca..

The pie. The dinner. The legend.

Okay, no legend. But it was tasty and my mom has a little photographic evidence to that end.