I've been reading the Julia Child book and am feeling inspired to make sole meunière....

I have a couple of questions for the crowd:

First, can anyone recommend a good, basic vegetarian cookbook and some good recipe websites? My online searches yield so many results that I don't know where to begin. We are trying to scale back on our meat consumption, and I'd like to find recipes for food that is healthy, but still hearty enough to actually fill up my 6'5 bf.

Second, is there a good substitution for mushrooms in a recipe? I am finding a lot of vegetarian recipes that rely on mushrooms not only for flavor, but also for texture, bulk, etc. Sadly, I can't stand mushrooms, but haven't found a good alternative.

Thanks!

J,

I would recommend any cookbooks by Madhur Jaffrey for vegetarian recipes. These recipes are Indian and Middle Eastern.

I would also recommend Thai and Chinese cookbooks as they involve interesting and unusual ingredients which can make a vegetarian dish exciting.

I recommend Heidi Swanson's blog:

http://www.101cookbooks.com

Some additional online recipe sources:

http://www.epicurious.com
http://www.leitesculinaria.com
http://splendidtable.publicradio.org
http://www.allrecipes.com

As for weekend cooking, I'm making a birthday cake for a dear friend. I'm making a strawberry cream cake, using a recipe from Cook's Illustrated (and blogged about by Elise of Simply Recipes here). I've never cut layers into a cake before and am a bit nervous about it. :)

The strawberry cream cake sounds divine - good luck with that horizontal slicing move, it looks tricky! We've got friends visiting our house for the first time tonight. Since our friend used to live in Italy, I'm making a balsamic roasted chicken from Lynne Rosetto Kaspar's Italian Country Table cookbook. I'm hoping I can do all the prep work this morning, so I can just pop it in the oven when they get here!

It's been cold and I've had a tough week. I'm planning to make a spaghetti alla carbonara - the ultimate comfort food - alla this recipe:
http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/carbonara.html

For the question about vegetarian cookbooks--the Moosewood Cookbooks are good, particularly Moosewood Cooks at Home and Low-Fat Favorites. I second the recommendation for 101 Cookbooks, but you can also check out www.vegetariantimes.com.

MoMont -- Sole Meuniere is amazing and incredibly easy to cook. I tackled it over the summer and was floored by how easy it was, except for the flipping. The flipping is hard. But if your fish breaks, it's still going to taste amazing. Enjoy! So delicious!

About a vegetarian cookbook--I bought Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone for the same reason, J, and I've been using it at least a couple of times a week since, and always with great results.

Sunday's my day to get a couple of things on the stove--a beef stew to eat for the next couple of days, some chicken stock to replenish my supply, some bread...

I am making pork side ribs in the slow cooker and have been making baby food purees this weekend.

Tonight I have to get that reading done! Tomorrow is book club day!

Chiming in on the book: it's been addictively good reading!

J,

Try Bittman's new book - "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian". I also love the Deborah Madison books.

ann -- sadly didn't get a chance to make sole meunière this weekend, but I'm encouraged by your testimony of its ease of preparation. Perhaps a bunch of us book clubbers should all make it....

With it being coffee week, would it be sacrilege to bring up a tea question?

I have just discovered the joys of loose teas, including mixing my own blend to suit myself. It is wonderful at home, but much less convenient at work. I need to get an infuser and did a little hunting at Amazon. I read reviews for what seemed like fifty different kinds and am feeling rather overwhelmed by the mixed reviews.

Does anyone here have any suggestions for an infuser that is office friendly and sturdy enough to last?

About cutting layers in a cake: the easiest way to do it is with a long piece of thread (hold one end in each hand and gently pull the thread through the cake). Much faster and more even than with a knife.

Thanks, everyone, for the cookbook recommendations! While I will definitely splurge on one or two, I am excited to say that this weekend I just bit the bullet and created two of my own vegetarian recipes: sweet potato soyrizo chili (pretty basic), and winter root vegetable and seitan stew (a bit more involved). Even more exciting to me is that they turned out to be yummy as well as filling.

Aldyth, not sure if this is a particularly office friendly suggestion, but... Awhile back, I bought a little iron teapot and several palm-sized cups (like the sets in Chinese restaurants) from an Asian goods store in SF. The teapot is equipped with an infuser basket, and since the pot is quite dainty it doesn't take up much room. Plus, it's sturdy as all heck. If your office has a hot water dispenser and a sink where you can rinse the pot and infuser out at the end of the day, it might work. Or just get one for home if you are into loose tea. I love this set, and have found that I actually drink more tea with those little cups (I go through a pot or two at a time). In fact, I used to have several tea pots and cups and have abandoned them all in favor of my little iron set.