Weekend Cooking; The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer

Breezed through our one and only bookstore in the Cedar Valley to get a gift card for Groovy Girl's birthday sleepover this weekend I couldn't help checking out the front shelf of sale cookbooks.  I left with a gift card and Simon Rimmer's  beautiful looking book The Accidental Vegetarian (2004).  Don't those stuffed pimento peppers look delicious on the front cover?  I thought so.

I glanced through it quickly before I purchased and several recipes caught my attention like the Black bean and eggplant chili, the eggplant tikka masala, and the Lemon grass risotta with lime leaf tapenade. I don't know if I can find lime leaves but I'm going to try.  Even though Simon is English the recipes are written with American measurements (thankfully) and most seem to have easy to find ingredients.

There are six recipe sections, dips and morsels, salads, small platefuls, big platefuls, side dishes, and desserts.  Every few pages a lovely photo illustration is included-nice up close and big so you can really see what the food looks like.  The instructions are easy to follow and numbered.  I'm going to  make the Pumpkin enchiladas with mole sauce when I get home.  I love the idea of making my own mole sauce and that I can use a really beautiful butternut squash sitting on my counter.  There are tons of eggplant recipes which I love and many ethnic-inspired dishes.  The salad section bowled me over with varieties of combinations like Coronation chickpeas and potato salad or the Santa Fe Caesar salad both sound delicious.

As College Boy starts his journey this summer, leaving us for the beautiful Colorado scene, I will be happy to return to more vegetarian cooking.  I won't lose sight of our new enjoyment of local meats but his desire for more meaty meals was what pushed me in that direction in the first place.  Groovy Girl is less about the meat and more about simple meals and she loves sweet potatoes!

I know I am going to love this slender soft cover cookbook-I'm so glad I threw caution to the wind and shelled out $7.00 for this one. Find Simon on Twitter @simonrim

In other cooking news my mom gave me a subscription to bon appetit and I wasn't so sure about it at first but I've loved looking through the last few copies.  I love that they have family friendly recipes and lots of cooking tips.  Thanks mom! This one works.  Monday night I am making a Radish and white bean salad for book club featured in the April edition.

{Handsome Husband}

As I type this I'm sitting in a mediocre hotel near the airport in Green Bay, WI while my husband goes for his two-mile pre-race run.  Tomorrow he runs the GB Marathon and I will meet up with him at certain locations to cheer him on (make sure he is still breathing...).  We've traveled to quite a few U.S. destinations based on marathon races.  Today though we are going out to explore.  We found out that Natural Ovens is not far and we loved their bread when  we lived in Chicago so we are going on a tour and buying spree.   It also sits close to Lake Michigan and I always love being around large bodies of water.  We've also heard a rumor of a local brewery we plan to check out. I also would love to find a great cheese shop.  Much to do, so little time...

 This post is linked with Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme.  Click her link to locate many other wonderful food-related posts. Happy weekend.