Monday, November 05, 2007

Books, Books and more Books.....

I found a couple of new and really quite fantastic reads over the Fall Holiday, and they go a little something like this:

The Cranks Bible - this is the title that I picked up at Waterstones, but it is a part of a larger empire that started crafting wholesome and vegetarian food way back in the early 1960s in the U.K. I stumbled upon a 1981 version of The Cranks (now out of print) which introduced its virgin vegetarian reader to concepts such as 'Non-Dairy Milk Products', Texturized Vegetable Protein and (the horror) Soy Sauce. The recipes, in both the updated and the dusty and cool looking 1981 version, were not made ALL with vegans in mind (and you should ALL be writing everything with vegans in mind), but there are some amazing recipes that are either vegan or totally adaptable. Including (mom, write these down for when I come home in December): Mushroom Wellington, Algerian CousCous, and Fresh Fig and Port Sorbet. This particular cook book has just been released in smallish size trade paper back and is sorted into the nicest little chapters. I really dig the laid back, and yet totally non-jamie oliver style that the writing seems to have. Something I look forward to tonight's potential meal of: Roasted Veg with Mango....


The other book I found this past week, but seems to be out of stock at Waterstones (if anyone can find it PLEASE let me know) is a great big fat BBC Vegetarian book, written by Delia Smith and is full of a bevy of really fantastically gourmet recipes. Although most of the food concoctions in this book could be easily converted into vegan delights, Delia has provided a nice little index at the end to help us less creative vegans find Vegan Recipes.


In the world of less vegan page turners I was fortunate enough to find a rather good non-fiction title: The Adventure of English (the biography of a language), which was written by Melvyn Bragg. I am also reading: You Are the Earth by David Suzuki.

Lastly...guess what came out this week (in the UK at least), which I am just dying to see: Elizabeth 2. I am a little nervous. All sequels make me feel a bit uneasy (especially after my uber-geek heart was broken by Matrix II), and.....Clive Owen is in it. Yikes. Ah well, worth a trip to the theatre I suppose.

1 comment:

VeganCowGirl said...

I tried the roasted veg with mango last night - it was lacking something. Not sure what. The mango actually stayed in solid form (there was speculation about the prospect of it all going to mush). I served it (on one plate at least) a top some thai rice. It was featured in a lunch reheat today...we'll see how that goes over.....