tofu from Horizons: The Cookbook, salad from Veganomicon
Neither of these things was spectacular, but they were both pretty good. My boyfriend stole all of the candied pecans from the salad, because he claimed they tasted like pecan pie. This was despite the fact that my pecans never really set up properly and wanted to stick to each other in a giant toffee-like mass. (I think maybe it was too humid.) The salad as a whole had a nice flavor combo, and used up some of the many, many pears my CSA keeps giving me. (Seriously, if you know what to do with pears, let me know, I love them but I eat maybe one a day.)
The grill marks on the tofu came out nice, and the sauce was very tasty, but it was sort of difficult to create an ideal tofu-sauce-rice ratio in each bite. Maybe I'm just being overly picky. Horizons: The Cookbook has a tendency towards dishes that are either grilled or fried tofu with some sort of sauce, and usually they're very good, and this one was definitely tasty but not mind blowing or anything. There's apparently a new
Horizons Cookbook out, and it is totally on my want list, because it has a creme brulee recipe in it, and the creme brulee in their
restaurant is the most delicious thing ever.
Local: Tofu, pears
from Horizons: The Cookbook
I'm always particularly proud of myself when I make dinners like this once, consisting of three different dishes instead of just one. Of course, the mashed potatoes were kind of lukewarm by the time I finished everything else, but my boyfriend was half an hour late anyway so it didn't really matter. (I swear I just need to start subtracting half an hour from the times I tell him.) This was all from the Horizons cookbook, and it was all really good. It made enough to feed me, my boyfriend, and my roommate, and still have some left over for lunch. I think the big winner on this was the potatoes, but I also really dug the spinach, which had a really simple but still tasty thing going on. The tofu sauce had a slightly bitter thing going on from all the herbs, which I dug but I think other people were less into. Also, you can't see it in this picture, but I got some really gorgeous grill marks going on the tofu. (Second time using the grill pan and I finally get it right.) 
from Horizons: The Cookbook
I made this with Naomi, and it was great. Especially considering making it pretty much consisted of "mix stuff together, stick in oven." The beans turned out great, all kinds of creamy and delicious, and the portabello was nummy as they always are. I subbed dried herbs for all of the "sprig of fresh thyme" business, because who the hell has like ten different fresh herbs lying around? Not me, that's for sure. 
from Horizons: The Cookbook
I must say, I was underwhelmed by this. It just seemed like it was missing something, especially considering it contained a ton of crimini mushrooms and half a tub of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese, and I love both of those things. I think maybe I didn't put enough salt in, as I have the tendency not to with things that say "salt to taste" instead of giving specifics.
I had leftovers of this going on forever, and it did get better as it sat around and the flavors mingled, as these things tend to do. I added some nutritional yeast and flavored salt to most of the leftovers, and that made it taste pretty good. But the other day I got super crazy and added some tofu ricotta and some extra garlic sriracha sauce, and it was really, really good. So I think maybe it just needed some more garlic and a little kick to it. One of the things I did like about it was the strong rosemary flavor it had going on.
Oh, and also after I flung soup all over the kitchen trying to puree this in the blender, my roommate was all "Um, you know we have an immersion blender, right?" Sometimes I am not so smart. 
from Horizons: The Cookbook
I am totally digging this whole pan-seared tofu with sauce approach to tofu cookery. It's super easy and really flavorful. I think the secret is to put a lot of spices on the tofu before pan-searing, I tried it with some other spice blends and sort of wussed out on the amount of spices I rubbed into the tofu, and it turned out a little bland. The avocado sauce was also really good, it's got rum in it and is sort of tropical and piratical.
The rice was tasty, but I don't think quite as good as the Mediterranean Rice from Vive le Vegan. I like that it's got leek in it, though, I'll definitely have to add that the next time I make the Vive le Vegan rice. 
I had dinner at