Something Borrowed - Part I

We’ve been busy visiting our local library lately. It’s a good way to test out those many raw (un)cookbooks before buying them. Of course, it’s also a good way to support the libraries and the authors.

Since checking out some of these books (I have many more on my list!) I have determined Ani's Raw Food Kitchen and Raw Food Real World are must-haves for me. My birthday is NOT coming up so if you’d like to get me a present… Ha ha! But seriously folks, I think those two cookbooks are great to have. Ani’s book is one that could be used daily as the recipes are pretty simple and casual. The RFRW one is more gourmet (by my standards) and one I wouldn’t use daily but just would love to have on hand. I still want to try the Spicy Peanut Coconut Noodles with Ginger and Lime recipe from that book but what in the world is galangal?! And where do I get it? And if it tastes like ginger can’t I just use more regular ginger the recipe calls for? Anyway, tangent….

The other books I’ve checked out but yet to peruse through are Living Cuisine and Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine. I know they’re good ones, don’t worry! The last book I have is the I Am Grateful book. This is another must-have I think. There are so many recipes in here I want to try.

On Sunday, I made “I Am Relishing pizza crust/buckwheat crackers” (btw, I love all the names of the recipes in this book). As I was making them I wasn’t really sure how they were going to be. I kinda made an oopsie while making this. It asks for veggie pulp – mine had some celery, which means lots o’strings! Next time I’ll be more careful with that. I picked out the obvious bunches of strings. In the end though, I’m not sure it mattered as we’ve been eating these like crazy because they’re so good and neither of us have noticed any celery strings. Whew! So yeah, try these if you can. I made the full recipe not realizing how much batter it makes that I had to do it in batches since my food processor is of normal size, not commercial size, which must be what this recipe is based on.

(the first five trays are the crackers, the last two are corn chips - yum! I'm too lazy to make them chip shapes.)

Hubby could not stop eating these! Seriously. They’re very satisfying I must say and not heavy. I had made them with the intention of using them as crusts, hence the design seen below, but we’ve been eating them as crackers. They seem to have the texture as a Ritz cracker – actually, they remind me of Chicken in a Biskit crackers. Savory, slightly soft with a nice snap. Make sense? Yeah, okay. Moving right along…

The library has become a handy resource for us being fairly new to raw vegan foods because there’s so much to learn and not just recipes either. All of these cookbooks are chock-full (?) of valuable information, tid-bits and helpful hints about the raw lifestyle. I like educational cookbooks!

Well, I think this has been an officially long post! I guess I’m making up for lost time. The next chapter of “Something Borrowed” to follow soon. Ooh! Can't wait huh?