Sarah Ahn has presented us with a wonderful insight into her mother’s kitchen. It happens to be a Korean kitchen with exciting dishes and techniques that can be duplicated in your home kitchen. I learned all about new flavors and techniques. I am going back to recipes a second and third time with excitement. And I am exploring websites where I can find appropriate products. What a wonderful way to learn about a culture. And I am inspired to add new flavors to my own table.

You probably know Sarah from America’s Test Kitchen. She shares a lot with us in this book, so we need to honor that work. Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Do you cook for yourself or your family every day? Do you love food and cooking blogs, and tips to make your food prep more efficient and more fun? We talk to the down-to-earth, Jessica Merchant, about her blog, her books, her methods and her practical approach to good cooking. She is a popcorn machine of ideas. Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Ellen Kanner has written a terrific book full of wonderful, flavorful recipes that are all vegan. She writes for the person who is using some prepared or canned food. This makes the book perfect for those putting a toe in the vegan waters. And for those who have eaten a vegan diet for some time, it offers new recipes with available ingredients that can pull you out of the dinner doldrums.

Ellen Kanner

Vegan Pimento Cheese (from Miami Vegan, with permission)

8 ounces raw cashews soaked overnight*

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

2 pimentos—canned or jarred workfine—plus a little of their juice

a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (about a teaspoon)

sea salt and fresh ground pepper totaste

optional adds:◊splash of hot sauce or pinch cayenne

1/2 teaspoon white miso◊

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

•Drain and rinse cashews. Pour into a food processor and whiz or pulse until you’ve got a thick paste.

•Add remaining ingredients: nutritional yeast for cheesiness, apple cider vinegar for the littlest bit of acidic edge, paprika to deepen flavor, turmeric for a little bit of earthy funk and to nail that adorable pale orange shade, pimento—you cannot make pimento cheese without pimento

•Blitz it all together for 3–5 minutes or until it’s luscious, totally smooth with no graininess from the nuts, and you’ve achieved that particular pimento cheese shade

.•Squeeze in fresh lemon juice and taste. Add any optional ingredients—the miso, hot sauce, and/or garlic powder. Season with sea salt and fresh pepper, and taste again for balance

.•Serves 4 to 6

* Got nut allergies? Substitute 1/2 cup sunflower seeds and 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds for the cashews