I had the pleasure of having dinner (and drinks!) with Pam Anderson and her daughter Maggy of Three Many Cooks last month, while they were in San Francisco promoting Pam’s latest cookbook, Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals. I’ve been a Pam fan for a long time, through her contributions to Fine Cooking Magazine and her many excellent cookbooks. And Maggy and Sharon are both terrific – I love the Three Many Cooks site.

Assana and Dan joined us for quick weeknight dinner – very bean-centric. The sandwiches have the traditional Cubano elements – pickles, mustard, Swiss cheese – but there’s an easy-to-make bean burger in place of the ham and pork. I used buns on the smallish side, and wish I would have either used larger buns (and made the burgers larger and thinner) or just made additional burgers (again, thinner would have been better). I grilled the finished sandwiches in the panini maker instead of stove-top, and served them with a salad and Cuban-style black beans made in the pressure cooker. And for dessert – a secret in-the-works pie that I’ve nicknamed OccuPie.

The best news is that I’ve got a copy of the book to give away! If you’re looking for ways to easily incorporate more meatless meals into your diet, this book is for you. It’s full of recipes and (even better) foundation techniques that will help you make healthy dishes every day of the week. I can’t wait to try more of the recipes.

To enter the contest for the giveaway, just post a comment here. A winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday, December 20, 2011. Here are contest rules:

• Only U.S. residents can enter, and I will only ship to a U.S. address. You must supply a valid e-mail address so that I can notify you if you are a winner (winners cannot be notified by U.S. mail).
• You must be 18 or over to enter.
• You must type your comment€ entry under the post announcing the contest (this one). Comments will be open until 11:59 PM PST on Sunday, December 19, 2011.
• Only one entry in any single contest is allowed. If you post a comment more than once, you will be disqualified. But you can enter in any or all of my contests over time.
• Winner will be chosen randomly using Random.org.
• Prize is one brand new copy of Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals by Pam Anderson.
• If selected, you will be notified by e-mail and you must respond by December 26, 2011 with a U.S. mailing address so I can ship your prize.

• Meatless Cubans (Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals, p. 162)
• Caesar Salad with Focaccia Croutons (The Conscious Cook, p. 57)
• Pressure-Cooker Cuban Black Beans (The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)
• OccuPie (secret recipe for now)

Wine: Wilamette Valley Vineyards 2009 Barrel Select Pinot Noir (Willamette valley, Oregon). Not only do we have great friends, but they have excellent taste in wine. This is such a good Pinot!