She's the Cool Neighbor I Wish I Had--UPDATED!

I'm excited to share this jewel of a book with you as the FoodShed Summer Reading Pick of the Week. I first picked up Vegan with a Vengeance at the library, where it seemed to shout out from the stacks as I passed by. Such a hip little book to be hanging out with the likes of some of those other cooking books! I brought it home and fell in love with it. First, Isa Chandra Moskowitz's distinct voice explodes off the page. She's funny, she's charming, she's the cool neighbor I wish I had when I lived on the 5th floor of an old walk-up building on 24th Street in New York City. Instead I got that nurse, Cookie, who played his Teach Your Parakeet to Talk album all day long. "Hel-lo. Hel-lo. Hel-lo."

So I read this whole book like a novel (everything I ever wanted to know about tofu is in here!) before actually cooking any of the recipes. And that's where Vegan with a Vengeance earns its stripes. Wow. The recipes are short, easy and truly inspired. If you only make the lemon corn waffles with blueberry sauce and the corn fritters, you will go to bed a happy person.

I must talk about the corn fritters because they are my One Local Summer meal of the week (under my "something different" category, not to be confused with last night's looked-like-slop-in-the-photo "pasta thing" that was really quite pretty at the table). I used corn from my CSA box and topped the fritters with diced jalapeno from my garden and a salsa of fresh local tomatoes and South Georgia peaches (even though they are not organic and peaches are the number one bad, bad, bad fruit for pesticide residue. Ugh. I don't want to think about that), with a side of steamed, chopped lamb's quarters which has become my new addiction (1) because it tastes like a snazzier spinach, making you cock your head to the side and say, "Hmmm! That's really good!" and (2) because I have a truly overwhelming abundance of it in my garden and I'm thinking someone Up There wants me to eat it. A lot.

So this meal was literally the most delicious meal I've had in months, and I've had some good ones! And so, I am grateful, once again, that after I renewed Vegan with a Vengeance several times at the library, I finally had the foresight to purchase my own copy. Next, I'm thinking of making Isa's spanikopita (spinach pie) recipe. With lamb's quarters, of course.



UPDATE: July 21, 2007

Exchanged some nice emails with Isa Chandra Moskowitz yesterday and wanted to tell you about her new book-in-progress. The book is named Veganomicon. Click here for photos.

She's the Cool Neighbor I Wish I Had--UPDATED!