Thanksgiving Bars

 
I decided we should close out Sweets Week with something that won’t send us all into a diabetic coma just by looking at it: raw bars.

My mother is still trying to watch what she eats and is doing pretty well. She balanced out a big cheesy portion of baked ziti one day with tofu and mixed vegetables over brown rice (her first time ordering brown rice!) the next. And she ate all the fruit and nut bars I made her last week (she liked them so much she was hoping to have more last night and was very disappointed when I told her they’d still be in the fridge, firming up, when she went to bed), so it was time for another go around.

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Birthday Baking

One of the all time best compliments I can get is when someone asks me to bake or cook for them. I know this is really more of a tribute to the person who created the recipe than me for just being able to follow instructions, but it's still exciting that they like what I do so much that they want me to do it again (and are even willing to pay for it, if I allow them to), instead of just asking for the recipe and doing it themselves. So we're continuing Sweets Week with cupcakes that were requested for a coworker's birthday. She asked if I could bring in chocolate mint cupcakes, using the same recipe I used for my birthday cake back in May (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World), so I did.

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Ode to a Chocolate Chip Cookie

The last batch of cookies I made for the people who contributed to our bake sale was the chocolate chip cookies from Isa and Terry's upcoming Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I've made and posted about them too many times to count, so I won't get all redundant about how easy, fast and delicious they are, or about how everyone who's ever tried them has loved these crunchy cookies (once I solved the crumbling issue - make them a wee bit smaller).

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Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

How do I love these cookies? Let me count the ways.

OK, I'm not going to actually count the ways, because if you've been following VeganMoFo at all, you already know how awesome they are. I think at least half the participants have posted about them already. I'm a little late to the posting party, but not to the eating party - I've already made them quite a few times.

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Sweets Week

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s Sweets Week here at SSD HQ. This week’s VeganMoFo posts will feature cupcakes, cookies and maybe some other things to widen your smile and your waistline.

As you can see, Sunday was a very busy day:

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Fruity Friday: Mystery Fruit

Welcome to The Ides of MoFo. In honor of this auspicious occasion, I am pleased to present Fruity Friday.

During the summer, a coworker and I went to Grand Central Market every Friday to treat ourselves to a new fruit. Toward the end, we ran out of things we hadn't tried, but were lucky enough to come across a new fruit elsewhere. One Thursday night, we went to the Vegetarian Dim Sum House in Chinatown and passed a vendor selling fruit neither of us had had before. We didn't even know what it was called (and the signs were in Chinese). So we decided to buy it and eat it the next day for Fruity Friday. Help us discover what it is!

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Mom's Fruit and Nut Bars

My mother and I are on a quest to get her to eat better. After having absolutely no luck getting her to read The China Study, she's currently reading Eat to Live and thinks it makes a lot of sense. I don't think she'll ever go vegan, but in the past month or so, she's definitely become a barelyanymeatatarian, which I think rules (she even ordered her first cheeseless pizza today).

While looking for healthier alternatives to the candy and snacks she usually eats, my mother came across an ad for Mrs. May's Trio Bars and wanted me to order them for her. I refused, saying we can make them better ourselves. I hit the Internet, bookmarked about 473892 different raw bars, figured out what the basic deal was and got to playing with food myself. Thus Mom's Fruit and Nut Bars were born.

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A Night of Improv

The only thing I can think of that could be worse than your oven breaking during VeganMoFo is your oven breaking during VeganMoFo when you have a birthday cake due in about a week*. So far, no one has been able to repair our oven and I have no idea when we'll be getting a new one. Just as I was about to give up hope, I had a brainfart: Try the toaster oven! Improvise!**

So I did:

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I Knew I Forgot Something

Welcome to today's VeganMoFo trip down Memory Lane. Back in 2008, I offered to bake for everyone who sponsored me in that year's AIDS Walk. It ended up taking me ages to make something for everyone and even longer to remember to blog about it. Even longer = until today = over a year. Oops. Sorry, Internet! Better late than never, here's a small sample of what I made to thank the people who contributed.

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Curry Laksa

When it's not too spicy, I love curry and all things curry-related, so it surprised me when I realized I had never cooked with curry paste before, just powder. I remedied that recently, by testing a new recipe for Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming whole foods book: Curry Laksa.

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