Vegan Smoked Apple Sage Sausage with Asparagus and Leek

Tonight, I sliced two Field Roast Grain Meat Company's apple-sage artisanal vegan sausage into pieces between 1/4" and 1/2" thick, then quartered the pieces. I started sauteeing the sausage over medium-high heat for a few minutes till it started just browning, then I added a carefully cleaned sliced leek. A few minutes later, I added both poblano pepper and sweet red bell pepper, as well as asparagus. I served with a little bit of salt, along with mashed potatoes.

Yesterday was the last of one of my six week series of photography classes (next week a new series begins - this time on Wednesday instead of Thursday nights). We went out to one of our favorite local restaurants, Cafe Trilussa. I enjoy talking with Giovanni, the owner-chef of this lovely, small restaurant. As usual, we asked him to serve us family-style pretty much anything he wants that is vegan, and he brought out quite a few dishes, including risotto, a curried dish, caponata, whole wheat pasta with pesto, and several other ones.

The day before that, my friend Linda Long was in town on a book tour of her new book Great Chefs Cook Vegan (for which I had helped test some recipes). We went to a bookstore talk in Raleigh, and that provided the perfect opportunity to finally take my wife to a good restaurant I've been wanting to introduce her to, Irregardless, run by the longest running area chef, Arthur Gordon and where I organized for Triangle Vegetarian Society two Thanksgivings, in 1997 and 1998. My wife, father-in-law, and I (and baby, I guess, indirectly!) loved the meal. We shared a grilled peach-spinach salad; pirogi, curried cauliflower, and Pad Thai main courses; and a very nice fruit crisp. I love that they label items that are vegan as such.