My parents got me Veganomicon for Christmas. My husband made one recipe from it, which was different and just delicious, and then it disappeared. How you lose a fat white heavy cookbook I dunno. But I cleaned my upstairs office/craft room when my mom came to stay this summer and it reappeared.
For a debate party a couple of weeks ago I made the beanball subs, except I put the beanballs, marinara and pine nut cream on slices of french bread brushed with olive oil and garlic like bruschetta. Oh, my gosh. I was craving that again so bad almost the minute I stopped eating it, but I ran out of french bread and without that it wasn’t the same. (CM, if you go to Costco tomorrow will you bring me some? Don’t make an extra trip though, it’s almost as good on the bread I already have here.)
So I made those again this weekend and we had them for supper last night. DAMN. I’m tempted to go make a couple up for a before bed snack. I know I’d be sorry though. Maybe for breakfast.
Saturday night my poor husband was getting ready to fly out for a work trip at six thirty Sunday morning. He had just gotten home Friday night. Poor guy! He loves artichoke hearts, and we have basil growing in our garden, so I made spinach linguine with basil cilantro pesto and artichoke hearts.
HOLY. COW.
This was an incredible thing.
She says right at the start of the recipe that you’ll be craving it all the time.
It’s a very original, unexpected taste, to say the least. And it is SO. GOOD. So rich and flavorful. The faint nutty sweetness of the almonds, the just right al dente noodles coated in just a little olive oil and sauteed in the basil cilantro pesto with thin slices of red onion… I’ll just be honest. it was better than dammit.
I hate artichoke hearts, so those were all his, but I don’t think it would be as good without at least the whisper of their flavor, even if I did push them all to the side and refuse to even taste one.
I think it’s safe to say that Isa Chandra Moskowitz’ trademark is the unexpected, flavorful, textureful delicious. If there were more like her in the world we’d all be vegan, for no reason other than that it just tastes so damn good!
I worship her, her partners, the lady who does fatfreevegan.com and the lady who does shmooed food and … lots of nameless folks whose recipes are so good and available to me on the internet. Because without them, the food ethics that are so important to me would be nearly impossible for me to put into practice.
Okay, okay, it’s nearly impossible now, but that’s my fault for succumbing to the occasional dairy pizza or Costco cake– but there are so many delicious vegan recipes out there and I am just so thankful because it does mean so much to me. And so does cooking, cooking cooking delicious, wonderful, interesting food! And I have a compulsion, no matter how exhausted I am, to share that food with people. So you want to be my friend. You really do. You do, that is, if you don’t mind things that are, well, different. Let me win you over with the insanely delicious desserts and baked goods. That’s what hooked me in. We’ll go from there.
Then today I spent a good part of the day cooking lentil tacos and the awesome veggie burgers from Vegan with a Vengeance. I was out of dijon mustard though (my husband, in a stunning display of helpfulness, completely cleaned our fridge long enough, and it was out of date so out it went), so couldn’t finish them. Tomorrow maybe.
To top it all off, I made two double layer pumpkin cheesecakes from fatfreevegan.com. That’s why I’m still up, waiting for the last one to finish baking. Who’m I kidding? I’m still up because I am getting old. But Mm. Mm. They will be so good tomorrow. I kick it up a notch though, in my own special way. I’ll let you guess what the secret flavor is. Heh.
For craft night I hope to make at least a half recipe of sweet basil tapenade from Veganomicon, and cannellini bruschetta. I looooove having that basil and rosemary growing fresh in my yard!
Now if I could just figure out how to make a vegan version of the maple-adobo pork chops or barbecued chicken and the rosemary-cheesy-red oniony corn bread that were once one of my signature meals…
I got my Dirty South vegan cookbook and my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World in the mail the other day. I’m afraid to crack them because I know I’ll have to cook from them right away. This, to me, is porn. Or a World of Warcraft quest. It will suck me in. Now I just need Skinny Bitch in the Kitch and the cookbooks I ordered by Elena Zelayeta– I’m thinking I can use her Mexican fried chicken recipe for tofu, mmm, mmm! and I’ll be in business for true.
Yes, my kitchen was a mess. And yes, it is almost completely clean now. Read ‘em and weep.
Read and weep also at what time it is. I’m going to have to force myself to go to bed, because I have to get up early, dammit. That is, I want to get up early so I can have a little me time before I get the baby up and take us off to school and work. The grind begins anew. At least I have yummy food to come home to.
