Vegan Gifts for Christmas

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season sharing ideas, catch-up conversations, fun and most of all good eats with family and friends. Being a vegan, I must admit I find the holiday eating part of this stressful at times. On the one hand, I see it as an opportunity to share some tasty vegan choices with others who don't really think of making changes to the menu especially during the holidays. 
 However, even though I offer various vegan delights, I find that most of them don't want to sample them because the more traditional foods are still available. The committed carnivores are more likely to try items like the stuffing I make with Earth Balance instead of butter and in addition to the bread bits, celery, onions, vegetable broth and seasoning my  tasty small bits of apple or sometimes the vegan green bean casserole. 
So even though there are vegan alternatives for me, it still feels like we are eating separate meals, not a true integration. Also, the sights and smells of the turkey prep and serving have become quite repugnant to me and there is occasional kidding about 'vegans' and it just makes me realize that my whole life and patterns of thinking about what I eat have changed in a way that separate me from the committed carnivores among my family and friends. 
Despite all this, I make getting together with those close to me a priority and just continue to set an example of someone who practices what they believe regarding food and will share information with anyone who has sincere curiosity about my choices. And I keep smiling, confidently happy with the vegan path and its many positive impacts especially on animal abuse, human health, and the environment.

 Having said all this, the best part is that I received 3 fantastic vegan cookbooks for Christmas. The first one is "Chloe's Kitchen" by Chloe Coscarelli. My last post told about my visit to Manhattan and her restaurant near Greenwich Village for a great lunch. Many of the recipes for items on her menu are in this book. I have tried some of them already like the Peanutty Perfection Noodles, Thyme for Creamy Scalloped Potatoes and Orange You Glad I Made Crispy Tofu. They are all delicious and very easy to make. Seeing Chloe's smile on the cover and her enthusiasm for vegan cooking represent such a great addition to the vegan food scene

The other 2 I received were both written by Miyoko Schinner and both such a welcome addition to my vegan collection. As a matter of fact, I also received a gift certificate from my daughter to order some nut cheeses from Miyoko's kitchen in California and I am expecting a delivery today. "The Homemade Vegan Pantry - the Art of Making Your Own Staples" is fantastic. I have been trying to eat more 'whole foods' rather than processed vegan foods and this book offers so many ways to create tasty recipes at home. Some of the chapters are 'condiments' like mayo, mustard, dressings; 'dairy-and egg-free goodness' like cashew cream, vegan 'cheeses'; 'the meat of the argument' like real tofu, tempeh and veggie dogs. Can't wait to dive into this. 
The other Miyoko Schinner cookbook is, "Artisan Vegan Cheese from Every Day to Gourmet". I think one of the hardest foods to give up when I became a vegan was cheese - it's melty, sometimes tangy or smelly goodness a comfort food for sure. Miyoko worked to try to duplicate all this with vegan ingredients mostly nuts by understanding the importance of aging and culturing rather than additives. I am definitely motivated to try some of her techniques and interesting recipes. Some that look good to me are Risotto Fritters with roasted red bell pepper sauce, Easy Cheesy Sauce and the real cultured aged cheeses that use rejuvelac, a fermented beverage made from whole grains.