Salad Daze Cookbook By Alex Brown And Evan George

Anarchists and Wal-Mart agree on little.

But judging by stock lists at AK Press and the familiar megastore, Salad Daze ($25; click here to buy), the new vegetarian cookbook from L.A.-based blogging duo Alex Brown and Evan George, is a rare point of consensus.

Brown and George, who blog together as Hot Knives, turn to fall's produce for salad inspiration, expanding the dish's definition far beyond a simple pile of dressed greens.

Rather than simply rehashing old blog posts, the pair started largely from scratch. Vegetables bought during weekly visits to the Saturday Silver Lake farmers' market led to dishes like deliciously charred Blasted Broccoli, and Blood Sausage Mushrooms–braised king oyster mushrooms stained red with beet juice.

Beer and music play a key role in Salad Daze: Each recipe is paired with a song and a brew. The fermented Fennel Kraut (click here for the recipe), for example, is matched with Cuvée René–a Belgian sour ale–and a track from Krautrockers Neu!

Continually drinking the beer for the full week the kraut ferments might not be advisable, but the funk of the finished fennel-cabbage mix is indeed a match for the tart, barnyard-y beer.