Obscure Greens

(Double blog post this week because you didn't hear anything from me last week, and also these were both topics worth posting about)

Last Thursday, I received my first graduation gift-- Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian," from my bosses at the art museum. They told me it was the best and most practical thing they could think of for someone about to graduate, and now that I've looked through it, I really think that's true. This book clocks in somewhere around 1000 pages, with the first 50 or so dedicated to telling you, in detail, what sorts of things you should purchase in order to have a basic stock of food and the instruments to cook basic dishes, as well as offering a variety of other tips. Then, there are extensive sections (salads, soups, entrees, etc.), and these also come with extensive guides to preparation and information about ingredients. The section on the different types of salad greens takes up several pages (and Bittman labels some of them "obscure greens," hence the blog post title). Though there are no pictures, there are a lot of illustrations, some more decorative, some instructive (for instance, there's a drawn guide on how to chiffonade herbs, and apparently I haven't been doing it right). I haven't had the chance to read through the whole thing (as previously mentioned, 1000 pages), but so far, most of the recipes are completely doable for someone without much experience, especially with Bittman's extensive guidance. One of the other nice features I've noticed is that many of the recipes include variations- my personal favorite so far is the Walnut, Gorgonzola, and Pear Salad, which is followed by 12 other suggestions of fruits, nuts, and cheeses that pair well together.

This is my first really comprehensive cookbook, and thus far, I would recommend it to anyone else looking for a vegetarian cookbook to start their post-grad life with. In general, I would also generally recommend getting yourself a comprehensive cookbook of some kind when you're about to graduate-- even if everything else in the future looks unclear and scary, at least you'll feel good about what you're going to be eating.