Pound Cake and Pesto

One word: Veganomicon. When I saw the goodness Urban Vegan was cooking out of this book, I knew I had to get it. You had me at "Black Bean and Sweet Potato Empanadas." While all the recipes sound fantastic, one in particular caught my eye. Pound Cake. Vegan Pound Cake. This concept had never crossed my brain. Chewy, thick, dense, rich pound cake with a hint of lemon and orange. But with soy yogurt, canola oil and tofu intead of butter and eggs.

The recipe also calls for arrowroot, but I used guar gum. Risky--I know. The recipe is fairly involved, and I didn't want my efforts to be for not. I couldn't find arrowroot at my regualr grocery store, was too lazy to go to Whole Foods. I figured guar gum is a little more powerful than arrowroot, so I cut the amount by half. It worked! Maybe I'm one of those food-chemistry nerds in the making.

Last night I got home from work and was starving after not having a proper lunch. So I whipped up some pesto, cooked some pasta, and threw some mushrooms in a skillet--almost all simultaneously. Make this!
Ingredients for the Pesto:
* two big handfuls baby spinach (preferably organic)
* one big handful fresh flatleaf parsley (don't obsess about getting the stems off)
* a few leaves fresh basil
* pinch of salt
* juice of 1/2 a lemon
* olive oil
Put everything in a blender and blend. It will take a few times of stopping, pushing the herbs down, adding more olive oil, blending, etc. but the sauce will eventually come together. If you are afraid of adding too much oil--get over it--the sauce is rich and delicious.

I used whole wheat Capellini (angel hair) but any pasta will do.

To make the mushrooms (which I call Delicious Savory Pan-Seered Mushrooms):
Clean and de-stem enough mushrooms for however many servings you are making. Cut the mushrooms in half unless they are really tiny. Heat a teaspoon or so of olive oil in a skillet and add the mushrooms. Let them get brown on one side before stirring. Add a little fresh black pepper. Drizzle a tablespoon or so of liquid aminos or soy sauce over the mushrooms. It will sizzle. Toss the mushrooms while they are sizzling to evenly coat them in the soy.

Drain the pasta, toss with desired amount of pesto and pile on the mushrooms. Yum! The mushrooms can also be served as a cute little party appetizer on a toothpick with some garnish like a rolled up basil leaf and a cherry tomato. And of course, pesto has limitless uses.