SuperWeed

Some months ago, Post Punk Kitchen diva Isa Chandra Moskowitz invited me to a virtual dinner date and I promised to return the invitation. Now, it’s about to happen except that it’s real rather than virtual.

That’s right, tonight I actually have to cook for the author of the classic Vegan with a Vengeance and the newly-released Veganomicon. Needless to say, I’m a little nervous.

Isa and I met when she attended a reading of Aftershock in NYC last spring. When I first glimpsed her buying a cup of coffee at the bookstore, I thought for a moment that she was a long-lost comrade whom she actually doesn’t resemble at all. Looking more closely, I thought to myself, “that’s a woman who thinks about things.” Then, when she took her seat for the reading, I nearly cracked her head open by overturning the reading stand in her direction. She forgave me for that and introduced herself. I felt a bit abashed because, while I had often given away VwaV as a gift, I had never actually read it.

I remedied that gap in my education before our next meeting, when Isa interviewed me for Herbivore. I wanted the interview to be more of a conversation than a Q&A and it was but, I have to admit, the best parts were lost when we turned off the recorder and then forgot to turn it on again. Also, I was pretty annoyed by the blatant censorship of Josh at Herbivore, who protected Isa’s reputation by editing out the part where “America’s favorite vegan chef” proved to be unable to get ketchup out of a bottle.

Since then, Isa’s been doing some fund-raising for the Eastern Shore Sanctuary and recently agreed to join our Board of Directors, which we are in the process of expanding in order to reflect the outsized voice that our small sanctuary has had within the movement. So, she’s coming to visit me and the chickens for a week, to familiarize herself with who they are and what we do.

“Can we cook every day?” she asked, and I wondered how else we would eat, since we don’t have the vegan dining options available to those who live in cities. Then my heart started jumping up and down as I realized that Isa Chandra Moskowitz is going to be cooking in my kitchen.

Why am I wasting time typing this when I ought to be organizing my spice rack, getting the gunk off of the muffin tins under the kitchen sink, and buying a decent knife? That’s a really good question. I guess because I want to seize the opportunity to tell you that Isa’s cookbooks have changed my life.

You’ll just have to believe that I’m saying this because it’s true and not because I (obviously) like Isa so much. I am eating so much better ever since getting — and actually reading — Vegan with a Vengeance and Veganomicon. Not so much because of the recipes, although I have made some of them, but because I’ve been inspired to cook again. Or, as Isa said when I tried to articulate this to her, “you’re a better cook as yourself.”

I can cook. I started young, when my working mother started taking night classes and I took over much of the prep work for family dinners. Then, I moved out on my own at 17 and certainly didn’t have the money to eat out. Then, for a while, I had a job at a group home for people with cognitive disabilities that required me to cook for the residents. I’ve never had much money. I’ve often had a garden. All of which is to say I know how to put meals together from whatever happens to be on hand. I’m good at improvisation. I can bake. I can summon up soup out of almost anything.

But, somehow, I forgot all of that. In recent years, I’d been making the same old things over and over again. Since living alone, I’d been even less inspired to make real meals. But all it took was a read-through of the Isa’s recipes and my creativity came back to me. (Plus her books taught me how to cook tofu which I must admit with chagrin I never knew how to do.) I’m eating real meals again and baking up a storm.

All of which is to say that I can and do wholeheartedly recommend both Veganomicon and the more affordable Vegan with a Vengeance for everybody. Besides having great recipes and excellent basic cooking instruction, both books embrace the punk DiY mentality that has to be a part of any real movement for social change. If we’re ever going to get out from under corporate agribusiness and throw-away consumer culture, we’re all going to need to know how to make sustaining and sustainable breakfasts from scratch.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go do something those spices — why do I have four bottles of nutmeg but no cinnamon? — before Isa gets here!

January 13th, 2008 | Category: Books, People I Love, Vegan Bliss | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL