Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Cocoa nib salted caramel.

I'm on board with your general philosophy about faux meats. They are basically always inferior to the real thing if they're really trying to mimic it. They work much better when they're being their own thing--like a black bean cake, a falafel, etc.

That said, while I'm never going to praise highly processed foods like this for being great food, they can certainly be convenient in a pinch. As mentioned, when you're the vegetarian at the barbecue they serve a social purpose. They're also handy when you're a vegetarian house guest and want to make it easy on your host when they want to try to accommodate you (of course peanut butter and jelly, pita and carrot sticks and hummus, etc are other options).

I also think that for many meat eaters, there's still a persistent idea that a protein should be at the center of the plate. The "meat and two veg" kind of eating. Most vegetarians don't eat like that. We do much more eating of things like stews, curries, stir fry, soups, pasta with plenty of vegetables, beans and rice, sandwiches/wraps/burritos. Faux meat and two veg (especially, like boiled frozen vegetables and a salad of iceberg lettuce and bottled salad dressing or something) would be a pretty sad way to eat. Luckily there are better options.

In a guilty pleasure way, I have to admit I kinda like the Boca breakfast links. (Surely, they pale in comparison to good sausage, but I'd guess they more or less hold their own against a package of Brown and Serve links if my taste memory of those is remotely accurate--might not be.) Don't think they're vegan though. And, sadly, the organic ones (which may be vegan) have a way inferior texture.

About ten years ago in Umbria I had lunch at a little trattoria where I had my first taste of real truffles shaved onto a pizza baked in a real wood fired oven. I finally figured out what all the fuss was about. Heavenly.

The vegetable enthusiast.

Grant Achatz or Dan Barber or Rick Bayless.

Hopleaf in Chicago

@Liz Gutman: thanks for the alternate technique!

@klw07 I believe it was some sort of bloom from a storage problem (not that it had *never* been properly tempered, only that it wasn't in temper when I got it home b/c isn't bloomed chocolate, by definition, not in temper?). But I didn't believe that bloomed chocolate could be used as a seed, so I was at a loss as to how to remedy the situation. I know fat bloom is basically harmless and fixable, but I didn't actually know a technique for tempering it from that point. Now I do.

The opera cake it took me six hours to make.

almond rhubarb crisp in the spring and peach pie in the summer

Biggest baking disaster might have been a brick-like loaf of brioche that never seemed to come together but that I crossed my finger and baked anyway. All that butter, all those eggs, utterly ruined. I have since made lovely loaves of brioche, but that first one was a sad, sad thing.

I don't remember the name, it was a bottle we were given to replace a nice one that my roommates had drank not realizing that we were saving it for a special occasion. While not the traditional champagne, that bottle of red whatever-it-was that we drank one New Years Eve is still the best glass of wine I've ever had.

Having a well-stocked pantry might be my biggest time saver. Knowing that I have rice or couscous and canned beans or dried lentils and a good variety of dried herbs and spices that can be ready in a half hour or less is nice when I don't want to fuss or make a trip to the grocery store.

I learned the basics from my mother, but when I was ready for more complicated cooking I turned to books and now the internets.