Sunday Omelets, Scrambles, and Benedicts

On a recent shopping excursion Justin and I picked up Vegan Brunch by our favorite vegan Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Isa is seriously our favorite - I mean, really, I have a girl crush on her. Her ability to render recipes for old-time favorites is uncanny.

For my brother's graduation, we invited them over for a Sunday brunch and took the cookbook for test drive. Although my brother, step-father and step-father's girlfriend are fairly open to many different types of food, they tend to be a bit leery of things labeled "vegan" so I knew we'd need to be creative. The menu: Pesto Scrambled Tofu with Grape Tomatoes, Diner Home Fries, and Pain au Chocolat. Everything turned out beautifully and tasted great - my brother and step-father each ate more than one helping. The most comical part - none of them realized that the scramble was tofu and not eggs.

Several weeks later, we tried out the Tofu Benny (we literally bought the book because Justin opened it up to this recipe, took one look at the picture, and said, "I can haz?"). Oh man. This recipe is amazing. Seriously, guys. I learned a valuable lesson as we made this recipe. Actually, it's a lesson I keep trying to learn over and over: READ the recipe ahead of time. Isa instructs you to marinate the tofu for at least an hour or overnight. It was Sunday, late morning, there was no way we were waiting. So we put the tofu in the marinade and then made everything else while it soaked. The sauce for these was incredible and could be used in a myriad of other recipes. Justin took a photo - I'll have to get it from him to upload for you later. They were beautiful and we were super proud :)

This past Sunday we made Tofu Omelets. It was the first time I was actually happy with using Silken. I could not believe how much the tofu resembled an egg omelet. They were some-what tricky to make; the flip timing needed to be just right. We filled them with caramelized onions, crimini mushrooms, and spinach and topped them with Isa's Cheezee Sauce. Below are some crappy cell shots.

In addition to providing great recipes, Isa has some awesome suggestions for serving brunch to company including creating a coffee station, seating ideas, and plating suggestions. The book is filled with her charm and wit (I laughed, making Tofu Omelets, when I read, "Don't use an 8-inch omelet pan or anything like that. Here you'll need at least 12 inches (tee hee).") and the photos are beautiful and accurate - the food you make looks just like the food in her photos. In short, the book is worth the $19.95.

I treasure my Sunday mornings with Justin. Sunday's are the one day we have off work together and we spend almost every morning cooking something special together. It's a wonderful way to enjoy each other's company, to be creative together, and to truly gain appreciation for the food we eat. Get a cooking buddy - it makes your cooking more fun and the food taste better!