Salivating

I came home from work this evening to find someone from a publisher had sent me a book. Since I was not asked nor did I ask for it, it was a complete surprise. Even more of a surprise when I opened the padded envelope to find a big cookbook! I do not cook. This is not because I can't, I can cook just fine as long as I have a recipe to follow. I don't cook because I don't like to. For some reason I am always surprised when I am hungry. And when I am hungry I want something to eat right then darn it! I cannot spend a half hour or so cooking a whole meal with my stomach growling. A growling stomach distracts me and I must pay attention to what I am doing when I cook otherwise things don't turn out so well. And since I don't know when I will be hungry I never know when I am going to need to start cooking. When my husband met me I was in grad school and when I wasn't eating in a cafeteria, which was most of the time, my main meals were one of two things, Spaghetti-Os or refried beans with a little Cheez-Whiz stirred in and corn chips on the side. So gourmet. But getting a cookbook in the mail is not necessarily a bad thing. I love reading cookbooks and imagining what the food will taste like and if there are color pictures, all the better. My husband is a good sport if I tell him he has to make a particular something. And if the recipe isn't vegan he is a wizard at substitutions. The cookbook I got in the mail is The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amrita Sondhi. And in case you don't know what dosha you are (air, fire, earth) there are quizzes to help you figure it out. I don't ascribe to the whole ayurvedic thing, but the recipes are all Indian with lots of curries and other spices, vegetables and whole grains. I am salivating especially since while I was flipping through I found recipes for pakoras and a variety of samosas. There are lots of good looking soup recipes in the book too, salads, entrees, breads and grains, desserts and condiments (chutneys!). In the back of the book there are several chai recipes and other tea recipes. But the one I am going to definitely have to try is the one for spicy dark hot chocolate. Oh my. The only bad thing about this cookbook is that there is not a single picture (except for the ones of yoga poses at the end). I am only imagining at the moment what these recipes must taste like since I haven't, I mean my husband hasn't, made any of them yet. The book definitely looks like a keeper though. Now, I'm not saying all these things because I got the book for free and feel obliged to give it a good review. I'm saying these things because the book looks genuinely delicious. If after we try some of the recipes it turns out they are terrible, I will not hesitate to say so. Stay tuned...