Must-Own Cookbooks: Vegan Soul Kitchen

We have a confession. With all of our pork talk, we are simultaneously reading and testing recipes from a vegan cookbook. Gasp! We’re not afraid to go beyond the pig, the cow, the chicken and get back our herbivorous roots. And we could not have asked for a better guide than Bryant Terry and his masterful cookbook Vegan Soul Kitchen, which holds 150 creative, and oh-so-healthy interpretations of African and Caribbean cuisine. Not only can you find mouthwatering recipes for double mustard greens, roasted yam soup and sweet cornmeal-coconut butter drop biscuits, Terry has orchestrated the entire experience for each recipe, with suggested books, poems, films and tunes.

Bryant Terry is an Oakland based eco-chef and food justice activist, meaning he has “used cooking as a tool to illuminate the intersections between poverty, structural racism, and food insecurity,” as stated by his website. Projects like the Southern Organic Project, Black and Green Food Justice Fund, and his collaboration with Oakland’s People’s Grocery to form People’s Grub Parties, position Terry as a positive, powerful voice of change. He shows just how important it is to erase boundaries in the culinary world by connecting real, fresh organic food to real people. He thanks his grandparents back in Memphis for inspiring his appreciation and passion for cooking, farming, and community health. If being a vegan is this good, we have got some serious decisions to make!

La Caja China

Pigs. There seems to be a cultural and culinary revolution happening around our farm friends these days. A new product comes out every week. Bacon-themed wallets, bacon-flavored chocolate, and festivals celebrating heritage breeds. Then, there's the challenge of roasting an entire pig, which few brave souls actually attempt. The roasting process is a true art, mastered in various forms by various cultures across the globe. Living up to that tradition is a culinary feat! And in the darkest days of winter, one can't help but think about trying (or at least mustering up a winter BBQ). If you happen to be in this camp, one Miami-based company has shared its secret in the form of a box, La Caja China. This excuses you from digging a pit in your backyard, by the way. Developed for everyday use by Cuban American Roberto Guerra, La Caja China emulates the old world street food of Havana. It’s simply a large roasting box with the heat source on top (for easy additions of charcoal) and a grease trap on the bottom. Because the box is metal-lined, cooking times are generally cut in half. Don't let its simplicity fool you, the box was crafted with scientific precision to produce the right amount of heat in the right amount of space for the right amount of meat. Call a farmer, call a butcher, call some friends and get started. Oh, and let us know how it goes.

Featured Website: 101 Cookbooks

We’re jealous of Heidi Swanson. Photographer, food writer, cookbook author, and prolific blogger, she lives the life we all dream of – wrapped in the cool culinary blanket that is the San Francisco food scene. Did we mention that her particular culinary niche is healthy, natural cooking? When we have a hankering for delicious recipes that feature ingredients like mushrooms, beans, tofu – or insert your favorite veggie here – we turn to her site, 101 Cookbooks for inspiration. In addition to eclectic, flavorful dishes, her photography is striking. There is a exquisite image to accompany her daily featured recipe, which just feeds the inspiration to get cooking ASAP. Her writing and photographs have been featured in The Washington Post, Vegetarian Times, Whole Foods Markets, and on NPR. Projects (past and present) have been highlighted in many national and local publications including the Wall Street Journal, LIFE, Shape Magazine, Vegetarian Times, USA Today, Fast Company, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies are to die for, and a perfect compliment to warm, cozy holiday festivities.

Pathfinder Chef Challenge Spotlight: Tim Kirker

Though the French were the fourth largest group of immigrants to Peru (thanks wikipedia!), and both French and Peruvian cuisine are among the world's best, I’m not sure if French-Peruvian cuisine has really taken hold internationally. But depending on how thing shape up for Tim Kirker, he could end up as the ambassador of a new culinary movement. The head chef of Bistro Zinc on State Street in Chicago’s beautiful Near North Side, Kirker is a master of traditional French cuisine the likes of croque monsieur, escargot, profiteroles, and assiette de charcuterie. But, no stranger to the outdoors, he's also "done quite a bit of hiking and biking cooking in the outback," not to mention preparing straight-from-the-river fish over an open campfire in Alaska. With those kind of Top Chef meets Man vs Wild credentials, can the Brandade Stuffed Rocoto Pepper, or Ceviche Confit be far off? Check out all the great chef videos at our YouTube page.

If you’d like a chance to perfect your own Peruvian hybrid cuisine, make a 60-second of yourself showing why you should be our guest chef, and go here to upload it and learn more about the contest! And if you're not a chef, you can enter to be the lucky Pathfinder for which our winning chef will be whipping up those exquisite meals! Enter here.

Culinary Skills via Couch

We're obsessed with food, cooking, travel and well, even watching people cook. A guilty pleasure is tuning in to follow the poor aspiring chefs getting thrashed by Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen every week. But at the end of the day, would we have the skills to perform under the wicked-smart-high-stress instruction of Chef Ramsay. Hmmm. Maybe time to leap into the depths of a virtual Hell's Kitchen. You can always turn it off. The game is complete with Ramsay's tirades and high-intensity coaching, with a chance to unlock real recipes from the restaurant to test at home (the real perk). Who knows, you may even learn something. If throwing yourself into a virtual pressure-cooker doesn't sound appealing (yet), try your hand at Order Up from Wii: a game of virtual restaurant kitchens, cuisine education, and culinary prep. As with anything Wii cooks up, this rendezvous into the culinary world is engaging and humorous, testing players on everything from preparation to presentation, in burger joints to gourmet restaurants. Rising stars will make their way through the culinary ranks, with chances to be chef/owner and create recipes...all while being tested by food critics, demanding customers and the high stress kitchen environment. An excuse to sit on the couch and learn something? Take it while you can!