Weekend Cookbook Challenge #1: Dig out your oldest cookbook and make something from it.

The night I got the cookbook (December 1995):

(That’s me - seated in the middle. Don’t ask why I’m wearing a shiny shirt! It was the 90s, people!)

My oldest cookbook also happens to be the one that means the most to me, even though I rarely use it. I received it as a gift from my co-workers upon my graduation from U.C.L.A. (GO BRUINS!) In college, my job was planning events for the Student Union.

At my goodbye dinner, my friends all signed the inside of the cookbook with sweet wishes for me as I embarked on my new life as an adult. The messages are dated December 7, 1995 so that means I received this cookbook exactly 10 years and 8 days ago. Holy crap, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I graduated from college!

Check out the kind words from my co-workers:

We went to dinner at Chin-Chin’s in Brentwood to celebrate my graduation. So I pasted the fortune from my chocolate-dipped fortune cookie in the corner of the signed page. It says, “Have patience. It will benefit you.”

I only keep in touch with one of the people who signed my cookbook, but I’ll always treasure the generous thoughts behind the gesture. Also, I think it’s interesting that I was already culinarily-inclined back then considered I’d never cooked a meal in my life at that point. Living in a sorority house certainly kept me spoiled for longer than many college students.

Anyway, my co-workers gave me the Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook a lifestyle choice which, as my husband commented recently, must have seemed quite “avant garde” at the time. As a freshman at U.C.L.A. I gave up eating meat because the food in the dorms scared me. There were rumors that the cafeteria meat was Grade “D” and I believed it. So I pretty much subsisted on Golden Grahams, Coke, and the Salad Bar.

When I moved into my sorority house the food situation improved, but I took my new vegetarian preferences with me. I went at least 5 years without having even a bite of meat and that includes chicken and turkey. I went a full 10 years without having red meat at all. I didn’t miss it, in case you’re wondering. But I prefer how I eat now because I consider my current diet more moderate and flexible.

I used to cook from this book more, but I haven’t made anything from it in about 8 years. So today, as part of the Cookbook Challenge, I made the Middle Eastern Rice with Lentils. It was yummy, but nowadays I would consider it more of a side dish than a main course. I used chicken broth instead of water - so much for eating vegetarian! And I used dried currants instead of raisins because that’s what I had on hand.

Middle Eastern Rice with Lentils
Serves 4

1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 T vegetable oil
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 T tomato paste
2 1/2 cups water (I used chicken broth)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup dry lentils
1 t salt
1/2 cup raisins (I used dried currants)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
Additional water, if needed

In a large saucepan, cook the onion in oil, stirring, until soft, over medium heat. Add the rice and stir for several minutes. Combine the tomato paste with the water or broth and cinnamon. Add to the rice along with the lentils. Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir the salt, raisins, and pine nuts into the rice mixture. The mixture should be a little watery; add 1/4 cup water if it is dry. Place the mixture in a greased 2 1/2 quart baking dish. Cover and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.