I’ve been cooking out of the Moosewood books for years now: that’s a great recommendation. Also, you might try Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. It’s a tome of a cookbook, enormous, and meant for “everyone” not just vegetarians. As such, it has little sections on unusual ingredients, and nutrition, and cetera.

As for non-soy protein sources: you might try portobello mushrooms, seitan, which is made from wheat gluten, or tempeh, which is made from cultured soy and brown rice, but ends up being exceedingly un-like tofu, and well textured (texture, I find, is most people’s problem with tofu). Make sure you cook your tempeh well though, as it’s got some bitterness that goes away with cooking. You might also try TVP (textured vegetable protein), which approximates ground beef if you re-hydrate it properly. It’s good for chillies and stews and such, but it’s fairly flavourless, so you should use it in thoroughly spiced dishes.

Err… I’m done now.

And they call us humorless feminists who take ourselves too seriously. Go figure.

PS: You’re probably not at all concerned about it but for what it’s worth, the cut doesn’t look so bad; it just needs to be styled like the pros do it. If you can’t or don’t want to style it, then to hell with it. It’ll grow out.

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