Sweet Potato-Peanut Soup with Nutmeg-Molasses Cream.

Someday I'll get my family to love sweet potatoes as much as I do. Until then, this soup will have to be shelved. Bummer.

Roasted Eggplant and Spinach Muffuletta Sandwich.

When first flipping through Veganomicon, the picture of this sandwich made me totally want to try it. With it's 70's film and all (seriously needed better photography for this book!). It looked interesting. It looked good. And I really want to like eggplant. 

It wasn't the eggplant that ruined it... it was all the salty olives. I should have listened to their little forward when it said, "Only olive lovers need apply!" I like them. But I surely don't love them. And I even halved them. Still way, way too salty.

I'm tempted to try it again, without all the olives. But it may take me a year. But at least the mashed potatoes were good (they were suppose to be steak fries, but the smashed craving won over).

Veganomicon, page 100

Black Bean and Beer Chili.

So this was suppose to be "the" chili for us since we love just about everything in this recipe: ancho chilies... portobello shrooms... black beans... smoked paprika... and on and on - everything but the beer (we're not beer drinking people). SO, I couldn't wait to cook it up after I'd seen it on the Rachael Ray Show. I did it up just right - everything but the beer... and it was less then stellar. I think I built it up in my mind way too much. Don't get me wrong - it was good - just not amazing and for sure not going into my rotation. Maybe it was all in the missing beer.

And I'm sad to say all that... since it's been a looooong time since a RR recipe disappointed me, remember the Ratatouille? I'm putting it up here just so ya'll do know I have bombs when I cook.