Why you should own Veganomicon

This book is a god-send.  Please bear with me while I rave about it for a minute. Thanks :)

Top 5 reasons why I'm obsessed with this book:
a) Lists recipes by; soy-free, gluten-free, and low fat/ reduced fat
b) Specifies which recipes will take under 45 minutes to prepare- some can even be made in 15 minutes.
c) Explains in detail, how to cook every vegetable imaginable, in every way. Finally maybe I can master the perfect asparagus.
d) Supermarket friendly recipes- meaning the ingredients can be found in any generic store. This comes in handy when Whole Foods closes at 7pm...
e) Handy tips such as "how to stop your cutting board from sliding," and "basic knife skills." I would recommend getting the knife skills before learning how to keep the board from sliding....

It's a tell-all book, where the authors don't expect me to know much about what I'm doing :)  Their humorously blunt way of telling me I'm an idiot, makes me want to prove them wrong.

Not to mention all the delicious vegan food I'm about to make. Bring. It. On.

Hot Sauce- Glazed Tempeh

Recipe #1: Grilled Tempeh (pronounced tem-pay)
What you will need:

1 (8-ounce) package tempeh-  I get mine at Trader Joes
1/2 cup wine
1/4 cup hot sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cayenne

Wisk all ingredients for the sauce into a bowl large enough to cover the tempeh slices once cooked.
Cut tempeh in half, widthwise, then the resulting squares diagonally to get 4 triangles. Drop into boiling water for 10 minutes.  (Note* the tempeh will expand in the boiling water). Immediately place the tempeh into the sauce and let marinade for 1 hour- flipping every now and then to cover with marinade.

There are a few different ways to cook the tempeh- I used a cast-iron grill pan.
Heat pan to medium- high heat. Lightly brush grill with olive oil and grill each side of tempeh for 5 minutes. Re-apply more marinade if desired. During the 5 minutes on each side, pick the pieces up off the grill and re-adjust on the grill, so they don't start sticking to the pan; a) because you want to keep the triangles in-tact and b) it's a bitch to clean the grill when you're done  :)

This was DELICIOUS!!!!!  So far so good- off to a roaring start. The marinade was bursting with flavor and the tempeh was cooked just right.  Feels good to have aced my first recipe!!  YESSSS.  My intentions were to put the tempeh over a fresh salad- but I got too hungry to wait for the tempeh to marinate, and ended up eating the salad by itself (which was probably a good thing, because the tempeh has SO MUCH flavor, the salad would have been superfluous).


**NOTE:  I did not copy and past the EXACT directions from the book... I re-worded and worked in a little knowledge from what I learned by cooking it myself. Mostly because I don't want to plagiarize their book...

Ring in the New Year

2011 is right around the corner!  I've always been a huge fan of the New Year- especially since I loathe and despise Christmas and the "holiday season." I'll be the first to admit I'm a bit of a Scrooge when this time of year rolls around.  However with the new year on the horizon (5 days!!!!!) I can see through the fog to the light at the end of the tunnel. Give it to me already!

Setting new goals and starting over are a great incentive to, well... start over.  If something isn't working change it.  I'm also a huge fan of changing locations and seem to have started a trend of moving once a year.  If it's not working- get out of there, and start fresh.  There is also an underlying obsession of nesting that I have, which makes me oh-so-excited to move into a new place and set up shop- all in the hopes that this new location will bring new positive energy.  I have a new job, a new diet, and I'm hoping things will start to fall naturally into place. (Please please please let my life fall into place!!! )

This year, my least favorite holiday (if you were paying attention- you would know the answer is Christmas), brought me an unexpected excitement- VEGANOMICON. That word looks incredibly daunting when written in all capitals- doesn't it? Daunting it is.

Goal: cook my way through VEGANOMICON.

Obviously I've been influenced by Julie and Julia, only one of my favorite movies in recent years- or year? How long has it been out?  Basically for those of you who haven't brushed up on your chick flick movie titles- Julie and Julia (Amy Adams and Meryl Streep- best actress ever.... MAMA MIA!- oh sorry, did I just break out into song and dance? My bad....)  a movie about a modern day New Yorker who cooks her way through the infamous Julia Child's cookbook- Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

The difference here, is that I would not be able to eat one darn thing in Julia Child's cookbook....  Beef bourguignon, calves feet, and steaming live lobsters aren't exactly my forte....

Veganomicon, obviously a vegan cookbook, will be my new obsession.

I've never been one for originality... Clearly writing a blog about cooking your way through a cookbook, was not my original idea- but its still super cool, right?  Right.....?  Meh....

Unlike in the movie- I will not be setting a date for completion, as my work schedule and minimum $ in the bank, will naturally inhibit my ability to complete this project in a timely matter. So, that being said:

Goal:  cook my way through VEGANOMICON by the end of 2011-  seems reasonable right?? Maybe I should go check to see how many recipes there are in there before I set that goal in stone.... Meh....

Now, all of that being said- I have yet to enlighten you on my cooking "skills"... or lack thereof. So what if I have to look up how to cook a potato, or the best way to cook zucchini....  Lately, I've been trying to master the art of making soup.  As I've read, soup is one of the easiest things you can make- however I've continued to fail multiple times...

Improvisation hasn't seemed to have worked in my favor in the past- so maybe following a specific recipe, with detailed directions, can help me get on track. After all, who wants to admit they're a horrible cook?