Dirty Rice and Beans, and a Rancho Gordo Desert Island Sampler Giveaway!

You know sometimes how you make a recipe and it knocks your socks off? You're puttering along and you think you're making something tasty, and then you take a bite and think Holy Cats? How did those ingredients come together to make this? That happened to me today. Above you see a tester recipe for Robin Robertson's latest cookbook endeavor. It's dirty rice and beans, and it's not just tasty, it's stellar! Also, it really is true, brown food is the best.

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You know that dirty rice and beans recipe up there? The only way it could have been improved would have been if I had used these beans. Today's giveaway comes from Steve Sando and the other lovely people at Rancho Gordo. Have you had these beans? They are the best beans you have ever had, hands down. Today I have for you a very generous giveaway: it's the Desert Island Sampler! The winner will receive a pound each of Steve's beans he couldn't live without: runner cannellini, cranberry, Rio Zape, brown teppary, and Christmas lima beans will all be yours!


To enter, please leave a comment below. Tell me about your favorite legumes, or your favorite human bean (get it?), or anything at all. This giveaway is open to US residents only, but tomorrow's giveaway and others this month will be open to everybody everywhere. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and posted tomorrow below tomorrow's giveaway. If you have won a giveaway from this blog, please consider being kind and not entering further bigger giveaways--I'd love as many people to win something as possible!

The winner of yesterday's Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar giveaway is choirqueer! Congratulations! Please send your name and address to me at miso...@yahoo.com. (Be sure to click on the . . . to get the rest of the email address. Alternatively, you could use your best thinking skills and possibly figure it out.)

Summer Shepherd's Pie, and a Candle 79 Cookbook Giveaway!

You'll have to look at this photo of an adorable puppy-on-the-street instead of at my shepherd's pie. I can't for the life of me photograph it properly correctly. I tried just now to crop a photo and it looked terrifyingly pre-chewed no matter what I did. However, this is a beautiful, delicious semi-recipe, and I hope you will think about making it.

Summer Shepherd's Pie

fava beans, fresh, as many as you would like, maybe a few pounds still in the pod
1 sweet onion
rosemary, say 1 T fresh or 1 t dried
olive oil to taste
1 medium head of cauliflower
Earth Balance to taste, optional
unsweetened non-dairy milk to taste, optional
Tofutti cream cheese to taste, optional
Tofutti sour cream to taste, optional
truffle salt, optional but amazing
white pepper to taste

Prepare your fava beans. Shell them, then blanch them for 30 seconds and remove the skin. Place in a saucepan, fill to top bean level with water, and add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add the rosemary as well. Turn on burner to medium, bring to simmer, and simmer ten minutes. Cool, and drain slightly if you have a lot of liquid.

Dice the onion, saute until tender, and add to the favas.

Break the cauliflower into florets and steam until tender. Puree with optional Earth Balance, non-dairy milk (please don't use sweetened, ew!), cream cheese, and sour cream--you are making mashed potatoes with the cauliflower. Add the white pepper and salt or optional truffle salt.

Preheat the oven to 400. Spread the fava mixture in the bottom of a pie plate. Cover with the cauliflower puree. Bake for half an hour, or until top is golden. Eat even if it falls apart.

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I hope that is a recipe befitting what's coming next, because today's giveaway is special. It's so special you can't even buy it yet. I have for you today a giveaway from the generous proprietors of Candle 79 for the Candle 79 Cookbook. The winner will receive a copy of this book from Candle 79 upon its release November 1!


I don't really think I have to tell you about how amazing this cookbook will be. (Mine is already pre-ordered.) Says Mario Batali: The Candle Cafe defined sustainability and the green movement long before it was hip or even politically correct. More importantly, the Candle team has a track record of making delicious and beautiful food with explosive flavor and the heart and soul of a zen master. The Candle 79 Cookbook has everything anyone I know could want to eat, and each of these easy-to-make recipes drives (nay, cycles) me to the greenmarket again and again for the pure fun and deliciousness of it all. There is a recipe for paella on Amazon.com; go have a look.

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment below. Tell me what you've eaten at Candle 79, or whether you like candles, or anything at all. This giveaway is open to US residents only, but others this month will be open to everybody everywhere. The winner will be chosen by random number generator and posted tomorrow below tomorrow's giveaway. If you win a giveaway on this blog at some point this month, please be kind and don't enter further giveaways--I'd love as many people to win something as possible!

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The giveaway for the Tofu XPress continues here!

The winner of Eat Vegan on $4 a day is supercarrot! Congratulations! Please send your name and address to me at miso...@yahoo.com. (<---make sure to click on the . . . link for the rest of the email address. This is a spam avoidance thing.)