My vegan boyfriend and I went a little bit nuts at our local bookstore yesterday, and picked up a few new cookbooks.

For the record, I’m not a full-fledge vegan. I do consume dairy products here and there. Since I moved out at the age of 19, I have been buying almond, rice or soy beverages for my breakfast cereal in the a.m. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t indulged in a fancy cheese from Spain, or creme brulee, or some other fancy sounding food while out on the town with friends.

I am *trying* my best to cut out dairy products as much as possible.

Which brings me to the cookbook issue. If you’re a vegan, you really need vegan cookbooks, not just vegetarian ones. I was doing just fine with my copy of The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook until falling for the vegan dude.

So we got some new literature. And I’m psyched to try some of these recipes.

The first book we got is called Vegan with a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a Brooklynite with an awesome blog and her own cooking show called ‘Post Punk Kitchen’. Here is an episode of her show where they make tamales. I first tried tamales in September at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. I’ve been dreaming about them ever since.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-7015760434820806105]

The next book we bought is called ExtraVeganZa by Laura Matthias, featuring recipes from Phoenix Organic Farm, located not in Phoenix but in Victoria, B.C. It’s a bed & breakfast run by the author.

In this book, I was drawn in by the glossy full-colour photographs of dishes like this one:

Sweet Pepper Coconut Corn Chowder

She also has a whole section on pie crusts. I think it’s time to try it. For a flaky pie crust, she uses coconut oil.

Finally, this summer while also browsing at a bookstore, I noticed a new book by Barbara Kingsolver. I’ve read a few of her fiction books, but this book was one on locally grown foods and how her family survived for a year by growing and preserving their own food:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

It’s a fascinating account that really shows a love for food. It also instilled in me how much time it would take to live like that. Her family planted and grew most of their own food, and only purchased a small number of things that they couldn’t manage themselves (like flour for their homemade breads). They also went without food that was out-of-season or not grown locally, like avocados and bananas.

Her argument is that in our modern culture, the next generation (and my generation included) doesn’t know much about agriculture and farming. That whole industry is looked down upon, while academic or commercial pursuits are lauded by parents who want their children to become business owners, doctors, lawyers.

But it’s such an important industry, no? People need food to eat, and there are over 6 billion of us.

Does the younger generation know when tomatoes are in season, or when they aren’t and need to be shipped to the grocery store from miles and miles away?

Okay, there’s my ‘food’ for thought. I’m going to make a sandwich.