VCFE Week One
Back when I was in Law School, Missy and I got into a food rut, and we broke out of it with Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For the Food (2d Ed.) Since Missy's become vegetarian, we kinda fell into another food rut, so she got me Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (2d Ed.)
In the last week, I made three meals out of nine recipes, including sauces and sides. Things that worked: Romesco sauce (or more likely a Salvitxada), frying bread with olive oil (think grilled cheese), homemade quesadillas. Things that didn't: yogurt sauce, bechamel sauce, frying zucchini, parboiling potatoes (they need much more time than similarly constituted root vegetables).
Special mention for the Romesco sauce: her recipe, at least, is like half pesto, half tomato sauce, with just a little chili kick. It can be used as an alternative to but, obviously, not a perfect substitute for marinara, pesto, hummus or salsa.
I don't expect to make this into a series. But I did feel like sharing what feels like a quantum leap in my cooking skill.