Maybe Meatless

I've flirted with being a vegetarian. I can almost make it, but then someone fries bacon near me and I'm off the wagon (and no, veggie bacon doesn't cut it).

Elaine Louie writes a column for The New York Times that is targeted at people like me, titled "The Temporary Vegetarian." And now she has written a cookbook that follows the same idea.
The Occasional Vegetarian has 100 meatless recipes, all cleverly arranged in alphabetical order by the main vegetable (asparagus, beet, carrot, etc.).
Each dish focuses on clean, fresh flavors that enhance (rather than cover up) the taste of the vegetable.
Among my favorites - Bok Choy and Braised Chinese Mushrooms, Soybeans with Garlic and Dill, and Leek Potato Zucchini Hotcakes. I love love love bok choy.
I do have one problem with this book, though, and that's the lack of photos. I'm sorry, but I do like a bit of food porn to entice me into the kitchen.
And I confess that I made one brussel sprout recipe with bacon. But then, what isn't better with bacon?
(2011 - Hyperion)

Plant-Eating Dinosaurs

Quick Vegetarian Pleasures

by Jeanne Lemlin
When my daughter was 5, she infamously came into the kitchen where I was cooking dinner and informed that she was now a plant-eating dinosaur, not a meat-eating dinosaur. This was in her dinosaur-crazed era, obviously, and I took that to mean that we were role-playing.
I didn't realize that she had made a decision, right then and there, to be a complete vegetarian for four years. But that is exactly what she meant.
She stuck to it until she was 9. Imagine the fun in our house as I cooked for a cave-man-like carnivore husband and a meat-snubbing kid. And imagine the further fun as I searched for options to get protein into my growing child.
Now remember, this was before the all-cooking TV channels and the more mainstream discussions about being a vegetarian. As I do in times of crisis (okay...mini-crisis), I turned to the bookstore, where I discovered Quick Vegetarian Meals.
What made me choose this book above others? I'll be honest, it was the word "quick" and the word "vegetarian." The James Beard Award sticker on the front didn't hurt. I may not have had the Food Network, but I knew who he was.
I perhaps made a snap decision in the purchase, but over the years I have used this cookbook more than almost any other in my collection. I even scanned the battered and stained cover in all its glory so you could see just how much I love it.
The wonderful Jeanne Lemlin soothed my fears and introduced me to tempeh and tofu. She made me love to bake fresh loaves of quick bread and to use chickpeas in pasta and stews. Her eggless Best Chocolate Cake recipe is still the one I pull out for big events and the Fruit Juice Muffins will always remind me of Saturday mornings with my daughter.
I was worried before I wrote this item that perhaps this cookbook would no longer be in print. I should have known better. Far from being a dinosaur, it's still for sale and, in fact, if you Google the book's name you'll find many legions of fans. (1992 - Random House Publishing)