Tuesday, March 17, 2009

best played on random

my husband makes mixed cd's that are usually best played on random. when it comes to recipes, i get into a rut sometimes and make a rotation of the same shit: mujadara, hummus, babaganoush, a pasta dish, etc. well--i'm challenging myself by trying to make more new stuff and put those cookbooks of mine to good use, so i'm playing my cookbooks on random.

this is the asparagus quiche with tarragon from veganomicon. i picked it by closing my eyes and flipping to a page. unlike most vegan quiches that use nooch and tofu, this one is made of white beans, asparagus, and walnuts. lemme tell y'all, i was excited about finding another use for asparagus and beans. the flavors were nice and savory, but it wasn't anything i'd shout to the rooftops about. i didn't really pay attention to the prep/cooking time and spent the said hour and 2o minutes preparing this dish. if i made this in the future, i would have made the crust way in advance and prepped my ingredients to save time in the kitchen. yeah, wouldn't it be awesome to have time to do that? my fellow foodie moms-(esp. ones with toddlers) should know what i'm talkin' about.

do any of you get frustrated with getting really rad cookbooks, then another one comes out and you haven't even used the ones you have? i'm kind of on a cookbook ban of sorts for a while until i use the ones i have. then there' s the internet. there are a metric buttload of vegan recipes and others that are dying to be veganized. i get overwhelmed easily.

i'll end this on some random good news: vin bought me a kosher for passover cake mix that is vegan if you don't make it with butter, eggs, and milk. this gets a little tricky b/c soy is prohibited during passover if you follow ashkenazic tradition. i do choose to follow that, so i think i'll use ground flax seeds as my egg and a nice home made-(commercial nut milks have soy in them) nut milk for the milk. i'll sub the butter for canola oil and it should be good.

8 comments:

Gina said...

I have so many cookbooks and I rarely use them. I've sort of put myself on cookbook ban also. Not to mention that I just haven't been cooking too much in general. Ah well.

nora said...

i know exactly what you mean! i have 10-15 cookbooks, but there are SO many coming out in the near future that I want/need to buy, like the Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, terry and isa's vegan cookie book, i think dreena's working on a new one, oh, and the best one...VEGAN BRUNCH! so excited :) it's frustrating for me bc im in college using a dining hall so i can only cook when i'm home for breaks, which gives me even fewer opportunities to use my books! i've only been home 4 days and i've already made like 15 things!

the quiche looks delicious, i feel like veganomicon is so large that i forget what's in it until a fellow blogger makes something from it!

Laura said...

i have the same problem!! i guess we have it pretty lucky if there are just TOO many good recipes to try!!

Chris said...

I tried to do the same with Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, but decided that my time at home was too precious to be making random recipes :P But now I feel like I should pick of a copy of V'con...

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

I'm the same. I hardly ever use my cookbooks. Then I see great food porn and think I must dig that out!!

I go through times when I just sit there and read through them for inspiration, when i'm stuck in a food rut!

Bianca said...

I have the same problem! I have sooo many cookbooks and a couple huge binders of printed out Internet recipes. I have a long wish list that I keep on my fridge. But I know I'll never make everything I want to before I die. Oh well. It's overwhelming though. What sucks is I'm so busy trying to make new recipes that I often never repeat the good ones.

Anonymous said...

The asparagus quiche looks good! I have to start thinking about passover too. We'll be a little late this year, flying back from London. I may let my mom do the big dinner this year :)

Anonymous said...

Wow that looks good! Needs to dig my V'con back out, again :) How can they make so many good things?