Reading a Cookbook

Veggie Planet

When I get a new cookbook I usually dive right in and start cooking. I glance through it noticing the little side notes but lately I've been reading the book. I've noticed tips about pressing tofu, I prefer to dry fry, cooking spices, how to select produce, and much more.

Small food processor

                                          I am writing this post because of one of my favorite cookbooks, Entertaining for a Vegetarian Planet, has a lot of side notes in it as well as a guide to unusual ingredients. She, Didi Emmons, writes about all sorts of party planning with tidbits about brunches, cakes, cookies that wrappers can be set on fire to create rockets, "snacks in a flash", flavored ice cubes, menu planning, and other items.  One particular note, she calls it a "thumbnail recipe", that I like is a recipe for granola topping that can also be used as a muffin topping or in cake batter. It calls for cranberries, almonds, sugar, and cardamom. You put all the ingredients in a food processor and run it until they are chopped. I have a small food processor so I  stirred in the cardamom after processing the frozen cranberries, almonds, and sugar.

       To the left is a picture of it on granola,  it resembles cranberry sauce in tastes and looks but could probably be changed easily by using different fruit and spices. I think the hard part would be finding a fruit that is able to keep it's shape like the cranberries. For example apples, walnuts, and cinnamon might be a good combo. Or may a stone fruit, like a peach, that isn't too ripe with cardamom and almonds. I think frozen blueberries or raspberries might just make a purée and more of a sauce than a chunky topping.
     One last note she suggest putting milk (i.e. cows, almond, soy) on the granola with the topping. I prefer mine dry.