The Vegan Diaries, Day 16: Brian's Book Club

I've noticed a certain book that's been making the rounds lately. I went home for Christmas, and my sister was reading it. Several friends I know have just bought it. And my roommate, who has never cooked a home meal in his life, bought it on Sunday and was rubbing it in my face that he had it. I don't know what is going on lately... maybe aliens are sending subliminal messages to everyone to buy this book, and before they know it, they'll be sculpting the Devil's Tower out of their mashed potatoes.

So what is this book, you ask. It's called "Omnivore's Dilemma" and it's written by a fellow named Michael Pollan. For two weeks now, I've tried to check this book out from the library, but all 10 copies have always been out...until today. Today, I found a copy, so now I can finally see what cryptic message the aliens are trying to tell us. The cover has some nice looking grapes, an egg, a mushroom, and possibly some sugar cane on it. It's making me hungry just looking at it. My dilemma is whether or not I'm supposed to read this thing or just eat it.

So now that I finally have this book in my tight clutches, I'm starting my own book club today. If Oprah can have a book club, then so can I. You see, Oprah and I are alike in a lot of ways. She's from Chicago... so am I. She's got a media empire... so do I. She doesn't read her books... neither do I. For all you who want to join my exclusive book club, all you have to do is buy the book, and I'll send you a special "B" sticker to put on the front to signify that you're a member. It's that easy!

Now for Monday, your assignment is to read the first four chapters. We'll be discussing them in detail, so I want to hear a report back from each of you as I sit here sipping wine pretending that I read the book. I just love book clubs.

GRITS UPDATE!!!! Good news, everyone! Grits were found at WinCo today! Real hominy grits! Last week when I checked, there were no grits. I guess there was a run on grits while all the storms were going through last week. I also found "gourmet" grits at Trader Joe's yesterday... they're precooked. I'll be having a "Grit-Off" next week to determine who makes the best grits.

I also tried some new foods out today. For breakfast, I finally got rid of that nightmare "Soy Dream" gag water and opened a box of Trader Joe's Chocolate Soy Milk. It is very tasty! I poured it on my granola this morning and have been drinking the stuff all night like it's liquid candy.

For dinner, I made a vegetarian pizza without cheese. I added some dried tomatoes for the first time, and it really made the taste jump out. Olives and spinach also gave it a great taste. I wanted to use pesto sauce for this pizza, but every pesto sauce I've seen has parmesan cheese in it, which is off-limits for vegans. So I had to settle for tomato sauce instead, which was still fine.

These next few days I'll be in Reno working for the Barack Obama campaign. They want me to help "Get Out the Caucus," which sounds like a bad slogan for Ex-Lax. Anyway, I'm packing up a lot of food like a prospector about to head off into the wild. I don't know what vegan dangers await me in Reno, so I'm coming prepared this time. I'll keep you posted on how things go.