The Hungry Engineer

This weekend I went on sort of a cooking binge. I went grocery shopping on Friday morning and have been cooking like a madwoman ever since. Here’s a rundown with links to the recipes where relevant.

As a general rule, we (here in America anyway) don’t get enough fiber in our diets. Dietary fiber is not a very sexy subject to talk about. Usually it’s thought of only in terms of keeping one’s digestive system … “regular”. But the benefits of adequate fiber consumption are much greater than that.

I am considering a fall garden. Here in Texas we have a narrow window between the sweltering heat of summer and the first winter frost (which is usually very mild) in which we can grow a small garden. Here’s the thing – it probably won’t work, but I think I’m going to try it out anyway.

When I initially reviewed Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, I was honestly intending to use it to help perk up our vegetable and side dish routine. With the recipes I’ve tried so far, I now have faith that I will be able to find plenty of recipes in that book that will provide us with wonderfully flavored vegetable and whole grain dishes. The one thing I was still uncertain of however was how the vegans managed their desserts.

It wasn’t enough to simply acquire more cookbooks than anyone could ever possibly work through. I had to acquire other literature about food. This has taken the form of food memoirs, food reference books, subject specific texts, etc. The latest of these books that I’ve inhaled is The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen by Michael Ruhlman.

Those of us that like to cook often wind up being relentless hoarders of recipes and food information. I have shelves overflowing with cookbooks, huge stacks of clipped and printed out recipes here and there, and piles of magazines all over the house. I currently only maintain three magazine subscriptions, but I am constantly thumbing through others that look interesting as well.

Check this out. I made a loaf of bread, and it is beautiful. In fact, this might very well be my first ~pretty~ loaf of bread. I am ordinarily very bad at choosing favorites. My lists of favorites are often riddled with qualifiers and “beyond this list” commentary. That aside, I can safely say that bread is one of my favorite foods. Simple, I know, but there are nearly infinite variations and when you get a good loaf of bread with wonderful texture and superb flavor, it is difficult to find anything more satisfying.

There’s a little pizza joint in a small shopping center in sort of a fancy-pants part of town. We don’t go there too often because it’s so far away (that was sarcasm – I think it takes less than 20 minutes to drive there). It is a family-owned business called Marye’s Gourmet Pizza, and it is certainly worth the drive.

I know crackers are normally something folks think about buying, not cooking. Heck, you might even need them as an ingredient in something else that you’re cooking. Far be it from me to cook something that might just as well be bought (I’m grinning a little at this). Well, today I baked crackers, and you know what? They were really delicious.

As you may have noticed, last week I wrote up a review of Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook. Yesterday evening we tried our second recipe from the book. Not yet wanting to downplay the stunning success of the first recipe we tried, I chose something fairly nonthreatening for my next effort. Filed in the “One-Pot Meals” section of the cookbook, I found Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stir-Fry.