Sunday, January 13 Paella (Candle 79 Cookbook) Rating: 4.25

I have several different recipes for paella, and I keep meaning to try a different one, but I just love this one so much that I can’t bring myself to do it. I really like the Candle 79 Cookbook because while the recipes are pretty fancy-pants, they’re also generally not all that hard to make. This makes me seem like a much better cook than I actually am. Yay! I haven’t made paella in a while, so I decided we were due. I cheated a little bit since Seth doesn’t like mushrooms (I just leave them out) and since we’re both only lukewarm on cauliflower I bought a small package of pre-chopped. I know, it’s more expensive to do that, but if I buy a whole head, we waste most of it. Anyway, there’s lots of veggie goodness in the paella and I especially love the grilled corn. I just stick it on the metal grate over the burner on the gas stove and turn it so it gets charred. I should explain that you start off with corn on the cob, grill it and then slice it off the cob. It would be hellish to try to grill those little kernels. It also calls for vegan sausage and we normally buy Field Roast brand, but this time I got Tofurky instead, because it’s so much less expensive. I really prefer the Field Roast, but the Tofurky wasn’t bad in this dish since there’s so much else going on there. Since we don’t make this all that often, I generally splurge and buy saffron rather than subbing turmeric for color. Plus, the recipe makes a lot, so there are yummy lunches leftover too and it makes the cost of the saffron seem less indulgent.