what the hell _does_ a vegan eat anyway?

Dinner 1/07

Quesadilla
(onion, garlic, red bell pepper, jalapeno, soy monterey jack cheese, salt, pepper)

Pozole
(mexican style hominy soup with hominy, onion, garlic, chile de arbol, ancho chiles, grilled zucchini, veg stock and fried tofu)

Stuffed Mushrooms
(portobello mushrooms stuffed with roasted poblano, rice, cilantro, soy monterey jack)


The quesadilla's came from the Vegan Family Cookbook, which I recently received for review from the nice folks at Lantern Books -- a very cluetrain* move on their part ;)

The book is clearly geared towards new vegans, their families or people who would like to cook for vegans, but don't always know what to make.

Our son, who is 12, has shown an increasing desire to help in the kitchen, and this book is an ideal intro to basic vegan cooking. The book offers short, concise recipes that rely on items you would find in a well stocked vegan pantry.

So, with that in mind, we gave him the book and asked him what he would want to make. It didn't take long -- right there on page 6 was the recipe for quesadillas -- and he just wanted some dang quesadillas -- Gosh! -- and yes, he loves "Napoleon Dynamite" ;)

He read the recipe to me while I cut the peppers and onions, got the saute pan out and turned on the griddle. After that, it was all up to him on how it went. He read and followed the instructions, shredded the soy cheese, folded the tortillas -- and in the end made some really good quesadillas...

I wish this book had been available when I was 12. ;)

One minor quibble would be the lack of pictures, and use of canned food where fresh might be better (canned green chiles?), but this is family food, not a Thomas Keller coffee table book ;)

now, let's get author and Chef Brian McCarthy blogging!

* I suppose this really a bit of the long tail (you can't really get too more "niche" than vegan food blogs) + hughtrain ("Blogs are a great way to make things happen indirectly") you're seeing here... oh sorry, we've wandered away from this blog, haven't we? ;)