With one-dollar boxes of dried pasta available at just about every grocery store in the country, it's not often that I think, "Wow, I need to do something more labor intensive than just boil water and make this stuff from scratch." It's not often, but it does happen from time to time.

Over the last couple of years, I've come a long way in my attempts at fresh pasta. I started out by trying to mix and roll out the dough on my baker's rack, which is only about 12 inches wide, with a water bottle acting as a rolling pin! Needless to say, that was slightly difficult. I've since moved on to combining the ingredients in a stand mixer—and on a normal-size counter—but I'm still rolling out the dough by hand.

There are an endless number of ways to shape pasta after it has been rolled out, so I won't go into detail with that. I will say that the last time I made fresh pasta, the plan was to make tagliatelle based on the video instructions on Chow.com. It was an easy cut, but my dough was a little too thick. Next time, I will roll and roll and roll some more until the dough seems paper thin.

As for the recipe, I've tested several, and so far this is the best I've found. A friend who is a chef passed this along to me, and I'll admit that I was hesitant at first when I saw annatto on the list of ingredients. I tend to avoid recipes that call for ingredients I don't know how to use. However, I found annatto at the major grocery-store chain near me, and it cost less than a dollar, so I quickly came around to the little seed.

You can try making this basic dough recipe by hand or in a mixer, rolled out by hand or using a machine, and cut into any shape you'd like. Enjoy!

Grilling season is officially here, and I couldn't be happier. We just set up a new grill outside this weekend and have already used it about five times.

The great thing about grilling is that little preparation is required for most of the foods you might throw on the grill. Most veggies can get just a quick coat of olive oil and salt, and then they're ready for the flames. You can add frozen veggie burgers and some veggie hot dogs for a quick meal, or even tofu. Marinated and seasoned pieces of tofu cut into card-deck-size pieces hold up surprisingly well on most grills.

The one vegetable I was most excited about grilling up this year is asparagus. I love cooking it for only about four minutes, making sure it's not overdone. This allows it to retain a bit of its crispiness and keeps the spears from getting stringy when you bite into them.

Over the last couple of months, I've noticed lots of vegan food mentions popping up all over the mainstream media. It has become increasingly common to see vegan recipes and books presented in a positive light, right alongside those that feature meat, dairy products, and eggs. Here are just a few recent vegan mentions I've noticed:

•Vegan Sashimi Wins on Top Chef: In the "Quickfire Challenge" judged by Daniel Boulud, Dale won with vegan sashimi that showcased his knife skills.

•Epicurious Tours Moby's Kitchen: In a short video series, Moby gives a tour of his kitchen, talks about his favorite kitchen equipment, and makes vegan blueberry pancakes.

•'Knit Night' Cupcakes on Martha Stewart: VeganYumYum is without a doubt one of the best food blogs out there, and its creator was even invited to make her "Knit Night" cupcakes on The Martha Stewart Show back in February.

•Heather Mills to Host Vegan Cooking Show: Also announced in February is that Heather Mills, ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney, has landed her own cooking show, and it will be all vegan. I don't know when or where it will air, but you can read a few more details here.

This is just a short list of recent vegan food news, and of course, it doesn't include the recent James Beard nomination for a vegetarian cookbook, which I told you about last week, or the vegetarian recipes that pop up in Gourmet magazine often.

Please let me know if you have other veg food news items to add to the list!

This post is going to be short and simple, because today's recipe is not. The recipe from Chow.com for Black Beans With Mexican Beer, also called frijoles borrachos, may seem a little complicated with its long list of ingredients, but it is definitely worth the effort.

The peppers, spices, and herbs combined perfectly with beer to make one of the most flavorful black-bean dishes I've ever had. I must admit that the extent of my black-bean-making experiences include opening a can and maybe adding some cumin and garlic—so it's no surprise that with this recipe, I was in for a special treat.

Enjoy!

Adding healthy ingredients to almost any dessert somehow makes it feel slightly less sinful and indulgent. I'm not saying it's OK to eat an entire vegan cheesecake if the crust contains a few flaxseeds thrown into the mix, but I would feel slightly less guilty about having a piece—or two.

With this recipe for Warm Cinnamon Bananas Over Soy Ice Cream, I feel like a regular health nut because it calls for five whole bananas—never mind the sugar and the margarine and the ice cream and the sherry.

The combination of the cold ice cream covered with warm glazed bananas leaves you with a simple yet yummy dessert. It was just a little on the sweet side for me, so consider reducing the amount of brown sugar if you also suspect that the bananas and ice cream might be enough to please your sweet tooth. Enjoy.

Last week I kicked off grilling season with an almost daily use of my new little grill, and this week I've definitely kept up the pace. It's only Thursday, and the grill has already been used three times. I'm pretty sure the neighbors are getting jealous.

Eager to move away from the veggies and frozen burgers that have been gracing the racks, I decided to try out grilled tofu this week. I also decided to throw in a bit of my Cajun heritage by adding a blackened seasoning to the mix.

As I mentioned in last week's post about grilling, tofu works wonderfully with this method of preparation and, in my opinion, achieves its best texture this way—a firm or crunchy crust with a juicy interior. I first soaked the tofu in a soy sauce marinade to add a little more depth to the flavor, and the marinade acted as a way to hold the seasoning onto the tofu. You can use the recipe below for blackened seasoning or buy it already mixed from the store. Either works just fine. I went with a rather light dusting of seasoning—being afraid it might be too spicy for me—but if you really pile it on, you'll be left with a thicker, crunchier crust.

The finished tofu pieces looked a lot like pieces of grilled fish and had a wonderful flavor. Honestly, even I was surprised that it turned out so good. Because of the results, I'll even venture to say that I would serve this to nonvegetarians. Normally I would think long and hard before serving meat-eaters a hunk of tofu, but this preparation made the tofu so yummy that I wouldn't even hesitate.

I think the opposite is clearly a bit closer to the truth if you look at this quotation from chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain:

"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food."

Don't get me wrong—I like Anthony Bourdain as much as any vegan really can. I read Kitchen Confidential, and I enjoy No Reservations and his bad attitude in general—just not when it's directed at me.

In reaction to ole Tony's disdain for those of us who avoid animal products, a blog appropriately titled Hezbollah Tofu has started up to prove that there's nothing lacking about vegan recipes, even when they're based on Bourdain's own recipes.

But wait! It gets even better. Now we can see how these veganized versions are stacking up against Tony's originals. Endless Simmer lets visitors vote in its regular "Who Cooked It Better?" series, and this time it is Bourdain's French onion soup vs. Hezbollah Tofu's veganized version.

I'm not sure when the polls close, so hurry and vote now!

Thanks go out to Brendan for the tip on this great story.

To me, exploring a new farmers' market is like going to Disney World. There are a seemingly endless number of new and exciting things to explore, every twist and turn fills me with childlike excitement, and some of the smells can be just as scary as an adult sporting an oversized mouse costume.

This weekend, I discovered a farmers' market that was predominantly divided between Hispanic and Asian cuisine—with some African, Jamaican, and American food thrown in. I was in complete awe of the freshly made tortillas, packaged and handed to me while still warm. I smelled, poked, and inspected each of the almost 20 different types of tofu offered, including one made in-house. Avoiding their freshly made soy milk was not an option. I purchased a half gallon that has an extremely nutty flavor and complements my morning coffee perfectly.

The true "score" of the trip was the abundance of fresh produce. I was immediately inspired to make grilled vegetable tacos, filled with nopalitos, king oyster mushrooms, and poblanos and, of course, topped off with fresh salsa.

I'll spare you another grilling recipe—for now, anyway—and treat you to the tomatillo salsa recipe I tried out this weekend. Enjoy!

Do you miss your favorite childhood meal because you're not quite sure how to veganize the recipe? Have you tried a delicious vegan dessert that you're dying to know how to make? Well, now's your chance to have me do the dirty work and find the best recipe for the food you're craving.

That's right, I'm letting you decide one (or more) of my upcoming posts. Just leave a comment below telling me which recipe you want to see on the blog. You can suggest something vegan or not, and I'll figure out the best way to make the recipe sans animal products. I will choose the most intriguing, the most hunger-pain-inducing suggestion and feature it here. Please leave your comment by April 25.

I'm willing to bet my arm that I'll get a few outrageously difficult suggestions as a test, of sorts, but that's OK because it's your chance to write the menu—and I welcome the challenge.

VegCooking is now holding a contest where you can win free copies of Robin Robertson cookbooks, including Vegan Fire & Spice, so I decided to take a few recipes from the book for a little test drive.

One of the best that I tested was the Jamaican Jerk-Spiced Tempeh Nuggets. The recipe calls for boiling the tempeh for 30 minutes, which really helps soften the tempeh and make it slightly less nutty. I must warn that if you've never tried tempeh, you shouldn't expect this to taste like tofu or frozen faux chicken nuggets you buy from the supermarket. Tempeh has a very unique taste that you may need to learn to love.

After boiling, you then brown the tempeh in a skillet until there's a nice golden color on all sides. Next you're supposed to toss the tempeh with the jerk seasoning, but I feared the nuggets might be a little dry for my taste, so I added another tablespoon of oil and then the seasoning. Perfect.

I'll stop giving you the play-by-play of my tempeh nugget experience so that you can head on over to enter the contest. Hurry and enter now because the contest ends on April 30! Good luck!

Whole wheat pasta is one alternative to white pasta, but with more nutrients and more flavor, in my opinion. I know that some people are afraid of trying the denser, grainier, healthier, and browner pasta, but if you don't expect it to taste just like the white stuff, then you'll be one step closer to enjoying it.

Whole wheat pasta should be appreciated for its own unique qualities and paired with appropriate flavors. That's exactly why I chose to couple it with a mushroom "cream" sauce in this easy yet rich dish.

The mushrooms complement the earthiness of the pasta and add the umami flavor essential in any savory dish. The "cream" sauce adds contrast, and then it's finished with parsley and lemon to lighten things up just enough to keep the dish from becoming too heavy and monotonous. Enjoy!

Spring and summer are the perfect time to load up on healthy salads. Sure, fresh produce is plentiful and there's that whole heat thing that keeps us from craving, oh, let's say, a stew, but I will fess up that just a teeny part of my motivation for leaning toward salads does come from a little thing called a swimsuit.

Getting in shape for the summer and swimsuit season is something I always strive for—and only sometimes accomplish. I find that having a few healthy salads in my menu rotation helps get me in shape faster, and variations of the chickpea salad below show up very often.

I broke out of the "salad must contain lettuce" mind-frame a long time ago, and now I like to center my salads around beans because they are both filling and healthy. You can try salads with chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, or black-eyed peas—they're all delicious. However, it is important to remember that beans have way more calories than iceberg lettuce, so check out that nutritional information on the back of the can if you are trying to slim down. Also, remember that salad is no longer a health food if you top it with an entire bottle (or anywhere close to that amount) of vegan ranch dressing, so use it sparingly!

I know this recipe looks long, but it really doesn't contain that many ingredients, nor is it all that difficult. Sushi recipes just require a bit of instruction for newbies before they, too, can be rolling up a storm.

The great thing about making sushi at home is that it's easy. It really is—I promise. I know it seems intimidating, but all you have to do is prep your rice and veggies in advance, then start rolling! You can even skip the bamboo mat—which I did in this recipe—and still achieve a tight, well-sealed roll.

And the fun thing about making sushi at home is that you can try any filling you like. The tofu-shiitake-carrot-avocado blend below was used in only a couple of my rolls. I also opted for a teriyaki-eggplant filling, which only required a few minutes in a sauté pan before it was ready to go.

I would love to hear about any unique fillings that you guys like to work with—the weirder, the better.

Many of you already know I'm completely obsessed with Gourmet magazine, which is why so many of its recipes show up here. Today's is no exception. I was trolling Epicurious for a summery salad to complement today's beautiful weather, and this couscous salad with raisins, roasted red peppers, pine nuts, and more jumped out at me. I then realized that it is, of course, from Gourmet.

The salad is described as an African-Sicilian hybrid—the couscous is a typical North African ingredient, and the raisins, garlic, olives, capers, peppers, and pine nuts are typical Sicilian ingredients. I've never had the pleasure of visiting Sicily myself, so until then I'll be forced to experience the Italian island through its cuisine.

It was a pleasure to "visit" Sicily through this salad because in addition to the rich flavors from the olives, capers, and garlic, it was easy to make. The salad took no time at all to prepare because very little cooking is required—perfect for these beautiful long days when I'd rather spend more time outside than behind a stove.