viva espana! (and a bunch of other places)

There are so many things to love about Veganomicon - probably too many to count.  For one thing, it's huge and full of just about any recipe you could imagine wanting, as well as several that never occurred to you until someone else said "blueberry brownies" and you thought back to that dark chocolate bar with dried blueberries your darling husband gave you as a gift on some random Monday.  Another great thing about this book is the center section where they keep all the slobber-inducing photographs of amazing looking, cruelty-free food (unless, of course, you take into account the inexcusable cruelty that those pictures don't pop out to create those very meals all by themselves on your dining table).  And of course, there are the sarcastic, wry recipe intros, such as:

If these chickpeas could talk, they'd probably be a little fresh and need at least a PG-13 rating due to extreme sauciness.  (On the other hand, if chickpeas could talk they probably wouldn't be vegan anymore.)

 In addition to all that awesomeness, there's one more thing: the incredible multi-ethnicity our authors bring to the proverbial table.  Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a Jewish girl from Brooklyn with an Indian name and a penchant for chickpeas, and Terry Hope Romero, a lovely latina married to a man so Greek, his mother brought her fresh oregano from Greece (way to go, Terry!).   The way all of these cultures mix and marry and rebound off of one another culminates in some of the most innovative and tastebud-challenging dishes I've had the pleasure of making and eating.

Tonight, I finished our recent tour of Veganomicon by making Chickpeas Romesco on Garlic Saffron Rice.  In case you're super curious by now, since every time the past 10 days that I've mentioned this recipe I've crossed out the Saffron, Mister and I are not big fans, so I leave it out, to no detriment that I've noticed.  I've made this before and I think I thought "Romesco" was a made-up word (not that Isa would ever do that), but this time around my curiosity got to me, so I checked it out.  Turns out Romesco sauce is a real thing!  Appropriately enough, it was born in Spain - for some reason, I had gotten the impression that this recipe came from Terry's mind, which makes sense (if it's true), since she has recently released her own solo cookbook, Viva Vegan!

After filling up on dinner, Mister decided to invade Angst's personal space by lying down on the floor to digest.

As long as Mister was willing to pet him, he didn't mind so much. 

Mister?  Where ya goin'?

In other news, I chopped up an Anaheim chili to saute with the shallots and garlic and I really thought it would pack a little more heat than it did.  I am quite a bit trepidatious to put this out there, but I might just be willing to start experimenting with jalapenos again sometime in the nearer future (heck, I've taken an 18 year break, why not?).  If I find that courage hiding somewhere in my purse or the back of a cupboard, I'll let you all know how it turns out!