I did not conquer racial division this weekend. In fact, I hardly made it out of my apartment. (Twenty-below-zero temps have that effect on me.) However, I did learn a couple of culinary lessons that people of all races and creeds may find helpful.

1. Quinoa needs to be washed. A lot. The Incas called it “the mother of all grains,” but I call it “the mother of all pains.” It’s incredibly healthy, tastes good (in a very unique way), and has a hip-sounding name, but as far as preparation goes, it is definitely no Minute Rice. (Fortunately, many quinoa companies sell their grains pre-washed.)

2. Granola is fun and easy to make, after all, as long as you don’t burn it. I made about a month’s worth of granola this weekend using these tips from How to Cook Everything author Mark Bittman, who says, “You don’t have to be a hippie to make granola, but it helps…”

I also had a few dreams this MLK weekend, but you really don’t want to hear about those.

Cooking is a basic human activity dating back thousands of years. I’m not a very good cook. So, my major resolution for 2009 is to train myself to become a top vegetarian chef. I’m not looking to head up a restaurant in Beverly Hills or sell a line of overpriced cookbooks or anything like that; becoming great at preparing a wide variety of vegetarian food from a bunch of different cultures will suffice.

Before the new year started, I had the cutesy idea of trying to cook something from a different continent every day of the week. (Get it, seven continents, seven days?) That proved to be an unrealistic goal since the ingredients don’t overlap enough–I’d have wasted way too much leftover quinoa and couscous. Continue reading →