Welcome Back Friends

I unpacked more boxes this weekend. As I mentioned in my column two weeks ago, I love my books. I hadn't seen my cookbooks in months so it was lovely to be back in their company. We even have a new book on the shelf. Welcome Baby Cakes!

There's a story behind so many of these. Chantal gave me ExtraVeganZa--some of her dishes are in the photos because it's her friend's book. Klaudia gave me The Compassionate Cook, which contains my all-time favourite chilli recipe. Anyone who knows me has tried it. A Great Bowl of Soup was a birthday gift from Shari--I love the tomato-lentil soup. I found Cooking With the Dead in a used bookstore one summer when I was feeling particularly crunchy. Then, there's my Moosewood Cookbooks: samosas, butternut squash soup, zippy cheese sauce, Moosewood Brownies (oh...my old gluten guzzling days). The famous BUDDHA'S JEWELS can be found between these pages. That's another story.

Mike bought The Joy of Cooking when we first met because he wanted to cook for me.

I'm still waiting.