Spreading the Vegan Love
I'm back! I may have sounded bummed out in my last dispatch, but I'm actually doing really awesome right now. When I focus on the work itself, there's no bandwidth left over for worrying about the stuff that doesn't ultimately matter.
(At right: with Victoria Moran and Char Nolan at Victoria's book launch for THE GOOD KARMA DIET last Wednesday night in NYC. Photo by Carmella Giardina.)
What does matter: speaking my truth and enjoying every minute of it. Recently I had another guest post on the Main Street Vegan blog called "Veganism and Personal Evolution," and it'll give you a taste of future writing projects for sure.
My old pal Neilochka wound up sharing the link on Facebook, which was really nice of him:
Unfortunately, many of Neil's friends who commented didn't appear to have read my piece before replying with things like "I need meat" and "I could never go vegetarian." As you can see above, even Neil had a strong negative reaction to the concept of raw-food veganism. But the whole point of the blog post is breaking free of a fixed mindset! How do you know you're operating under a fixed mindset? When you start sentences with phrases like "I can't" and "I could never." But you're not ready 'til you're ready, and I suppose no amount of irony is going to clue you in.
On a happier note, Bones & All has been getting lots of love from the NYC vegan community. Not only did Victoria Moran give me TWO shoutouts to a standing-room-only audience at her launch, but Dianne Wenz interviewed me and Katie Dawson did a book review for Chic Vegan, Paula Burke gave me a lovely review over at Our Hen House, and Caryn Hartglass interviewed me for REAL Worldwide, her weekly radio show on the Progressive Radio Network. I may be "preaching to the choir" here, but they are more than happy to represent!
Next week I'll be hosting Victoria on the blog—we'll have an excerpt from The Good Karma Diet, a yummy green smoothie recipe, and a book giveaway! I might even include a round of Taza chocolate...
Where Have You Been All My Life?
Here she is, in all her spiffy fire-engine-red glory: my new Vitamix, a present from my mom and sister! People rave about how a Vitamix changes your life (provided you enjoy spending much of your waking time in the kitchen), and I'm here to tell you it's TRUE. There's something sort of magical about throwing whole kale, ice cubes, and a few other things into a blender, flipping a switch, and ending up with a perfectly smooth and refreshing beverage that also happens to be packed with nutrients. Once you start making smoothies at home, grocery products like Bolthouse Farms smoothies taste unpleasantly sweet (and they often have weird additives besides the sugar). The Vitamix is easy to clean, too—you just fill it up partway with water and let it run for a bit longer.But wait! There's more!
1. Non-dairy cheeses. I'm having so much fun with Artisan Vegan Cheese. Post forthcoming.
2. Raw desserts. I'd been looking forward to making Kathy Patalsky's Boston Cream Pie recipe for ages! (Oh all right, two years.) There's also a frozen-dessert setting on the Vitamix: fresh fruit + ice = almost-instant sorbet. Sweeeeeeeeeeet.
3. Nut butters and milks. They say there's absolutely no comparison, that you can never go back to store-bought almond milk once you've made your own. I want to try Kathy's method, which is here.
(There is more, oh so much more!)
I'm also excited at the prospect of no-waste juicing. While I'm not necessarily using the Vitamix to process the pulp to make other foods, I can say that I'm probably not going to be doing green juicing anymore now that I can do a smoothie. I'll just use my juicer for combos like carrot-apple-ginger—and, inspired by the Vitamix offering no more fiber waste, I'm going to use the pulp to make carrot crackers, fruit crumble, and whatever else I can think of.
Here's a quick recipe (if we can even call it that) for banana chai sorbet (I used a spice mix we found at a grocery store in Uganda):
five ripe bananas (chopped and frozen)
1/8 tsp. masala spice (or just cinnamon, cardamom, whatever you like)
1 tbsp. maple syrup
dash of salt
Add all ingredients and process on the frozen dessert setting. (Next time I'll use 1/4 tsp. of spice and a bit less maple syrup.) Yields about three cups. Oh, and Happy Veganversary to me! Four happiest years of my life so far. (ICYMI, here's last year's Veganversary post.)
Transformational Writing + Yoga Retreat!
[Update: This retreat has been rescheduled for May 20th-22nd, 2016. Details here.]I am over-the-moon excited to announce my first-ever writing and yoga retreat! Squam has been a catalyst for me in so many ways, and I've been dreaming about leading a writing retreat to help other people enjoy the same sort of life-changing experience. When I attended a yoga weekend at Bethel Farm in February and met Stephen Bethel, I knew this was the perfect place and the ideal teacher with whom to partner. Stephen is so open and loving and kind, and gives the juiciest dharma talks!
The First-Ever Comet Party Transformational Writing + Yoga Retreat
Thursday, September 10th through Sunday, September 13th, 2015 Bethel Farm, Hillsborough, New HampshireA transformative experience requires three simple factors: time in nature, a diversion from routine, and the intention to surprise yourself. If you've been feeling anxious about growing in a new direction, this is the ideal set up in which to work through your fears and become the person you know you're meant to be. Through a magical combination of writing, yoga, and meditation in a safe and supportive environment, you'll be able to delve deep into unprocessed emotions and ultimately create your own epiphany (or maybe more than one!)We'll begin each day with a Jivamukti yoga class taught by Stephen Bethel. Workshop sessions will include intuitive mind mapping, ego management, and using symbols and archetypes to reframe our challenges, all of which are flexibly designed to make skill and experience levels (happily) irrelevant. You can be someone who doesn't write at all, or you can be an aspiring or published author. You can be an experienced yogi, or you can be making your way to the mat for the very first time. We'll spend time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine, sweat out what no longer serves us in the pond-side sauna, and savor gorgeous vegan meals from the Bethel Farm kitchen. 
Camille is a Boston-based novelist, travel writer, and certified vegan lifestyle coach and educator. She has experienced greatly enhanced creativity and emotional and spiritual well being through her asana and intuitive writing practices, and wants to share that joy with as many people as she can.
About Stephen Bethel
Stephen Bethel is an advanced certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher, who honors his teachers Sharon Gannon and David Life through every class he leads. Ten years ago, he began teaching yoga classes at Bethel Farm, and soon after offered the first day long retreat. Since then, he has overseen the development of a complete yoga farm and retreat center on 50 secluded acres in acres in rural New Hampshire. In addition to hosting the top talent in yoga and the living arts, Bethel leads yoga classes, workshops, and teacher trainings at the Farm, and internationally.
Price, Registration, and More Info
Cost is $415, inclusive of all but travel. I'm really psyched to be able to offer a four-day (three-night) retreat at such an affordable price. Visit the Bethel Farm website to get a feel for the atmosphere!An intimate group is best given the work we'll be doing here, so registration is limited to about 12. Registration link coming soon. In the meantime, you can email me at cometpartyATgmailDOTcom or leave a comment below to let me know you're interested or to ask any questions you might have!
The Vegan-Cannibal Conundrum
Maren keeps a diary with stories and images in an attempt to make sense of who she is.
The first question on everyone's lips when they hear about Bones & All is,
WHY WOULD A VEGAN WRITE A NOVEL ABOUT A BUNCH OF CANNIBALS???
Fortunately, I've had the opportunity to answer this question at every Q&A (in person and online) I've done so far. But I'd like to answer it here in case you're hearing about the novel for the first time and are having a (totally understandable) WTF moment.
When you first start writing a story, you're not thinking about how or why you came up with the idea or what the underlying point of it all is. If I set out to write a novel about something, then it isn't really a piece of art anymore, is it? It's a vehicle for a particular agenda.
But I didn't have an agenda when I started writing Bones & All. In the beginning I was only teasing out a scenario that made me laugh— "cannibals in love!" —which in turn grew into an equally hilarious situation: a vegan writing a story about people who eat other people the way a giant or an ogre or an evil witch does in a fairy tale.
It will surprise no one to hear that unlike my first two published novels, I did not particularly enjoy writing this book. It felt like a story I needed to exorcise more than anything else. I had to write it just so I could move on to happier projects, and it was only during the revision process that my subconscious intention became clear. I was perusing an 18th-century Scottish cookbook with a mind toward veganizing some of the more accessible recipes, when one of the headings in the table of contents stopped me cold:
FLESH.
It hit me then: I used to be a flesh eater. And then: I used to be a predator. A predator by proxy, I suppose, having never hunted or slaughtered with my own hands—but a predator nonetheless.
I can't get used to this idea. It never stops making me shudder. And maybe that's the way it should be, if I want to be an agent for peace in this chaotic world.
Here's the thing about Maren, my anti-heroine: she "does the bad thing" despite her very best intentions. She wants real friends, a real home, real love, but this horrible compulsion traps her in an endless cycle of devouring and remorse. It's our best intention to nourish our families when we sit down to a meal together, and yet we prepare and serve the food with little if any thought given to who that food used to be, whom it was taken from, how many beings had to suffer for your steak, your wings, your macaroni and cheese. You just want to feed your children, right? Well, so do they.
Many reviewers and readers have praised this novel for its metaphorical take on feminine sexuality. I'd be pleased if you wanted to read Bones & All through a feminist lens, although the more you learn about the way animals are treated in the dairy and livestock industries, the more you'll come to understand why we need to develop our consciousness of female oppression regardless of species.
Of course, you can read the novel with no attention to or interest in "the vegan angle." You are perfectly free to read Bones & All like a straight-up horror story, a deliciously perverted coming of age. But folks keep asking, and this is my answer.
The Good Karma Diet
I'm proud to announce that I make a guest appearance in my dear teacher and friend Victoria Moran's forthcoming book, The Good Karma Diet! Sharing our "vegan conversion" stories (as I do in this new book) is very important for helping veganism feel more accessible. It's an honor to have been part of such a useful project.
But the reason I'm blogging about it today is the terrific perk you get if you preorder The Good Karma Diet before its release on May 19th: an interactive teleseminar with Victoria on Sunday, May 17th! (It'll be recorded for anyone who can't participate in real time.) Attending Main Street Vegan Academy was one of the very best decisions I ever made, so I can promise you that this seminar is going to be insightful and inspiring (as with everything Victoria does). Even better, you'll be entered into a drawing to win one of three $100 donations to the charity of your choice!
To sign up, just forward your email receipt to Victoria's lovely assistant Danielle at danielle DOT msv AT gmail DOT com (making a note of your favorite charity to expedite matters in case you win one of the donations). Danielle will send you the full details on the teleseminar. That's it! So awesome!
Preorder links:
Amazon — standard paper or Kindle edition
Amazon — deluxe Kindle edition
Barnes & Noble — standard paper or Nook edition
Barnes & Noble — deluxe Nook edition
or try Indiebound to locate your nearest independent bookseller!
EAT ME! (or, Vegan Cupcakes, part 2)
(Vegan cupcakes, part 1. This post also continued from The Way Your Words Find Each Other.)
Here's the cupcake menu I forgot at home:
Recipe links: lavender chocolate, gingerbread, strawberry, chocolate stout. I also wanted to tell you about the tote bags I screenprinted for the raffle, and the prizes inside. I ordered the bags from Enviro-tote, a wonderful company based in New Hampshire with excellent customer service. (Elizabeth orders her Squam tote bags from Enviro-tote, which is how I found them.) Made in the USA FTW! I wish I had gotten a pic of one of the bags during the event, but we'll have to make do with this one:
(As I mentioned at the launch, I realized after I'd started transferring the design that it looks a lot like the Grub Street logo, but I figure it's okay to use it for inspiration given that I'm not selling these bags. Also, I am pretty sure the red splotch on the Grub Street logo isn't intended to remind you of a blood spatter!)
Along with Taza chocolate and a $25 gift card to Porter Square Books, each tote bag prize had its own theme. You got a ticket and dropped it in the tin of your choice.
The Frankenstein theme: a Penguin hardcover edition of the original novel, a signed copy of MarcyKate Connolly's Monstrous, and a coupon good for a signed pre-order of Mackenzi Lee's This Monstrous Thing.
The vegan theme: signed copies of Victoria Moran's Main Street Vegan, Will Tuttle's The World Peace Diet, and Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Color Me Vegan.
The Jim Henson theme: Imagination Illustrated and a signed copy of Elizabeth Hyde Stevens's Make Art Make Money.
I have two more totes, so I might do another giveaway for all of you lovely people who couldn't make it to the launch. Stay tuned!
p.s.—Jenny of Supernatural Snark "picked my brain in a non-cannibalistic way," and the Q&A is up today.
A friend says, "There were a lot of hot guys at your launch!" Pass this along to your husbands, ladies. #bonesandall#ladycannibals
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) March 18, 2015
The Way Your Words Find Each Other
With Joetta and Amy Lou.
Looking up cannibal jokes in preparation for @cometparty's launch tonight. They're pretty killer.— Porter Square Books (@PorterSqBooks) March 14, 2015
“Happy Book Day!” (dinner at Veggie Galaxy, my mom’s treat)
On Saturday night people gave me cake and flowers and chocolate and Vermont maple syrup and hugs and some of the sweetest compliments I have ever heard. It was a beautiful night and I'm so grateful to Mackenzi, Porter Square Books, my awesome family who traveled for hours to be with me, and all the rest of you lovely souls who came out to celebrate the new novel!
Everything went smoothly—the only thing I forgot was the cupcake menu, so I just clarified which ones were gluten free and told everyone that if they didn't finish every single morsel on the table (cupcakes and lollipops) I would be extremely disappointed in them.
They did not disappoint.
Photo by Aram Comjean.
The raffle was really fun too. There were three themed tote bags with Taza chocolate and Porter Square Books gift cards: Frankenstein, Jim Henson, and veganism. (I'll tell you more about the tote bags in my cupcake post.) In a supreme stroke of irony, the girl who won the vegan tote bag is named Maren, and she is already a vegetarian. Sometimes life is just too hilarious for words.
A friend of a friend came to the event, and at the afters at Five Horses we got to chat a little. He said something to the effect of "I know I don't know you, but hearing you speak about yourself and your work, I felt like I did. I really appreciated the way your words find each other." That was a powerful moment of self actualization for me—having someone I don't really know yet tell me that they see me exactly the way I want to be seen, as someone kind and approachable and enthusiastic about life.
(Of course, having the launch dress and sweater come out TOTALLY AWESOME helped my confidence quite a bit too, haha.)
The other thing I should note: this launch event transpired nine years to the day my lovely agent called me long distance to tell me the good news about Mary Modern. March 14, 2006! I feel so good about what I've written, what I'm writing and all that I have yet to write.
@PorterSqBooks@writersofboston@debkacolson@cometparty book launch Bones and All http://t.co/60iQoMye8Hpic.twitter.com/X9HkXRym8i— Mary Bonina (@reebonina) March 15, 2015
@cometparty holding court. Looking forward to reading "Bones & All" #bookspic.twitter.com/ERxIRyM10q — SpatialH (@SpatialH) March 14, 2015
TONIGHT the incomparable @cometparty is launching her exquisite book BONES & ALL at @PorterSqBooks & if you aren't there we can't be friends — Mackenzi Lee (@themackenzilee) March 14, 2015
After Five Horses we all walked back to the apartment my family had rented and I, too happily exhausted to walk home again in the cold, laid down a bunch of sofa cushions and fell into a blissful sleep under the dining room table. (We did talk about my being quirky during the Q&A. I don't have to try, I just do things and only notice afterward how weird they are.)
More photos coming soon in cupcake, launch dress, and cute lacy cardigan posts!
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
One Halloween several years back my dear friend Kelly B. threw a party at her apartment in Manhattan. She asked me to make the icing for the cupcakes she'd baked, and I completely botched it. Oblivious to the bag of confectioner's sugar waiting on the shelf, I'd used granulated sugar instead, and consequently chewing through the icing was like eating a 50/50 mix of sugar and sand. My poor friend was aggravated (and rightfully so) by my ridiculous lapse of common sense.
I avoided baking cupcakes for a long time after that. Cake baking in general became something of a needless ordeal.
But this is the new CAN-DO ME, remember! So I decided that 2015 should be the year I became a totally confident baker, with the help of my roomie Kelly T.'s much-loved copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
And now would you look at me!:
First I baked two batches for our Winter Solstice party: pumpkin chocolate chip and gluten-free vanilla (with a teaspoon of cardamom thrown in there for a little pizzazz). Hilariously enough, a holiday gift of Babycakes arrived soon afterward from my wonderful agent Kate Garrick.
Then a couple weeks ago I baked a batch of gluten-free carrot cupcakes from a Babycakes recipe for a Writers' Room event and a party with my yoga buds—they were good, but not as delicious as the recipes I'd tried so far from Isa Chandra and Terry Hope Romero. (My tastebuds were probably swayed somewhat by the fact that the whole cupcake-batter-in-a-blender thing totally did not work for me. I'd just received my brand-new Vitamix, so it's not like I was using a toothless old blender! More on the Vitamix soon, btw.)
Then for the yoga and writing workshop Brynne and I hosted last weekend, I baked gingerbread with lemon frosting out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and gluten-free lavender chocolate with agave coconut cream. I'd baked the gingerbread before (to sweeten up the cabin-fevery evening after a snow day), so I knew they'd be totally awesome, but the lavender chocolate was divine in a more subtle and unexpected way. You taste the chocolate first, and then there's a lovely lavender aftertaste. I also appreciated the lightness of the coconut cream icing. (Forgot to get pics during the workshop, but I will take one next time.) I'll be baking these two recipes plus a couple new ones for the big launch event at Porter Square Books this Saturday, so cupcakes part 2 is coming next week. I'll leave you here with a bit of baking advice. Whether or not you are vegan, if you want your baked goods to come out well, you need to do two things:
1. Be precise. (I like to pretend I'm a scientist in my laboratory.)
2. Use the right equipment. You can make icing without a mixer, but it will not turn out anywhere near as fluffy and even.
As always, gaining competence with any skill or endeavor has everything to do with a positive attitude—even if you have to throw your early efforts in the trash!
Out of Time and Time for "Cheese"
I have so much to say and so little time to blog it! It's almost impossible to believe, but Bones & All goes on sale a week from yesterday. For almost two years I've had plenty of time, plenty of time, plenty of time, and suddenly the time is (almost) now. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
I should have slept. But I was reading BONES & ALL (@cometparty) for @fanlit, one page led to another, and now it's 5:15 am. (Not sorry.)— Jana Nyman (@JanaNyman) March 4, 2015
So until next week I'm leaving you with this link—last week's Main Street Vegan radio show, with yours truly as co host and featuring Miyoko Schinner, author of Artisan Vegan Cheese. Big thanks to my dear teacher Victoria Moran for having me on (not to mention bringing me to a lovely cocktail party for the Humane League afterward.) I'll be blogging about my first cheese-making adventure soon!
A Happy Fish is a Swimming Fish
I didn't really think about it. I just took the rod, dropped the line into the water, and almost instantly felt the powerful flailing of a creature fighting for his life. I was horrified when the woman working there tore the hook from the fish's mouth and blood shot out. I never realized that fish had blood, red like ours.
I have a confession to make. Even after I started calling myself a vegetarian in college, I still ate a lot of tunafish sandwiches. It's a common misconception that fish don't suffer as factory-farmed land animals do, that they aren't as sentient. Besideswhich, isn't the ocean teeming with life? Isn't fishing the most natural way of obtaining one's food?
None of this could be further from the truth.
First of all, fish are very smart—check out Fish Feel for plenty of interesting facts, along with this article from PETA. Secondly, the fishing industry is wreaking horrific and irreparable damage to our oceans. There are fish farms, too, did you know that? Farmed fish often swim ("swim") in pens filled with their own feces. Not to mention that salmon flesh is injected with pink dye to give it that "healthy" color you recognize, or that we've polluted our own food with toxic levels of mercury and arsenic. These are all great reasons to leave fish in the sea where they belong. There are plenty of other sources of Omega 3s, like chia, flax, and walnuts.
The thing about making mock tunafish is that, if you use seaweed flakes, you realize that the taste that appeals to you isn't the taste of the fish flesh, it's the taste of the ocean itself. Pretty cool, huh? So whether you use textured vegetable protein, mash up some chickpeas, or try another recipe like the one Victoria offers in Main Street Vegan (page 103), add some dulse flakes to make your sandwich filling even more flavorful.
Here's an unrecipe I came up with last week (served with pea sprouts on toasted sourdough):
can of chickpeas
a healthy dollop of vegan mayo
1/2 an avocado
onion, chopped
celery, chopped
celery seed
dulse flakes
salt
Pour onion and celery into a food processor and process well. Add chickpeas along with mayo and/or avocado to desired consistency. Add seasonings and process again. Don't skimp on the dulse flakes!
Jazzed to be on @victoria_moran's radio show tomorrow with @MiyokoSchinner! Call in after 3pm ET (888-558-6489) & let's talk #vegan cheese!
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) February 24, 2015
A Simple Breakfast
I made pesto with parsley and a bit of cilantro this morning, and it turned out great. Cashews and grapeseed oil were the other essentials, along with a healthy portion of nutritional yeast. It may be a simple breakfast, but there's a good bit of protein hidden in that green spread! 
And a day or two from now I'll use this pesto on some corkscrew pasta made with quinoa and brown rice (from Trader Joe's). I'm also planning to make "meatballs" out of Sharon Gannon's cookbook—I'll let you know how they turn out.
Can-Do Vegan!
I can't remember if I've mentioned this on the blog yet, but I am working on a free ebook I'm calling Can-Do Vegan, and I'm hoping to release it close to the Bones & All pub date on March 10th. As Leonard Bernstein famously said, "To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time."
This is a separate thing from Vegan By the Seat of Your Pants (the kitchen-confidence unrecipe book) and Vegan Cookery & Pastry (18th-century cookbook reboot with fun literary and historical tidbits). Even I get mixed up with all my projects I'm juggling, so I certainly don't expect anyone else to keep them straight!
I've put a little blurb about it on my Learn With Me page [Edit, 2024: content from that page has been folded into my Archive. If you are wondering what happened to this ebook project, check out A Bright Clean Mind]:
Can-Do Vegan will address the most common concerns of the veg-curious, shine a light on cognitive dissonance regarding where your food comes from and who it used to be, and give you all the moral support you need to make a healthy and happy transition to a more compassionate diet.
I may not be a chef or a nutritionist, but I do know a thing or two about creativity and intuition, and I really want to use what I've learned to help other people face the resistance and uncertainty that arises when we begin to question our most cherished cultural assumptions.Here are some of the common protests and rationalizations I'll be addressing in the ebook:
"Vegan food is bland and boring."
"Heart disease runs in my family. I can’t escape it, so I might as well eat what I want."
"They’re razing the rainforest to plant soy crops! It’s better for the environment if I keep chickens in a nice clean coop and shoot my own meat."
"We have to eat something, don’t we? And what if plants have feelings too?"
"I want to change my diet, but my family won’t want to change along with me. Going vegan would be too hard."
I've got an answer for every single one. So get excited! I know I am. ;)
I also wanted to give you a heads-up that I'll be co-hosting my teacher Victoria Moran's Unity online radio show, Main Street Vegan, on Wednesday, February 25th at 3pm ET. (It'll be available as a podcast afterward, so no worries if you don't get to it.)
Eating Well with Allergies
Recently I had a friend over for dinner who has a triple-whammy of food allergies: Jaclyn has to be gluten-, soy-, AND corn-free. It is challenging to cook within those restrictions, but challenges are fun, remember?So here's what I made. 
- Carrot, daikon, and peanut salad (tweaked the beet-and-carrot salad recipe; it was almost as good)
- Potato salad with olive oil mayo
- Mushrooms roasted and marinated with umeboshi and rosemary (unrecipe coming soon—this dish is my new favorite thing!)
- Roasted root vegetables (parsnips, golden beets, carrot, garlic and onion)
- Sauteed kale, bell peppers, and chickpeas with tarragon and a light sprinkling of curry powder
And Jaclyn brought over black bean burritos with a homemade cheezy sauce (using nutritional yeast), topped with guacamole-cum-salsa verde.(If this seems like a ton of food for three people—well, yes, it was, but I love having loads of leftovers since it lets me focus on writing without having to cook for several days. I love to cook, but you know!)A few tips when cooking around food allergies:
1. Of course, read labels carefully as you're shopping. There are lots of foods you might assume are fine for your friend to eat—for instance, I picked up a can of dolmades from Trader Joe's thinking to put them out with the hummus and gluten-free crackers—but when I got home I found soy oil in the ingredients list.
2. It's always better to err on the side of too much food. I had plenty of back-up snacks.
3. Run your meal plan by your friend to double-check that everything is cool. I'm lucky to have no allergies, but the situation is similar when omnivores have me over for dinner: "Can you eat this? And this? How about this?" It's always better to ask.
I'm also finding it helpful to seek out the brands that cater to food allergies. I picked up three varieties of gluten free crackers at the Harvest Co-op, and we really enjoyed both Van's and Mary's Gone Crackers (those are Mary's-brand super-seed crackers on the plate; great for hummus dipping.)I'm definitely going to keep gluten- and soy-free alternatives in mind as I work on my little cookbook projects. Dining in restaurants may often be an exercise in frustration for people with allergies, but that's all the more reason to learn to enjoy cooking at home!
Sneaky-Delicious Potato Salad
It feels like it's been ages since I did a proper vegan post, and I really want to get back into the weekly habit. The cookbook projects I've mentioned over the past several months are still very much on the list of things I'm excited about, and I also want to start cooking and baking more out of the cookbooks that are already on my shelf. Last month I baked my first two batches of cupcakes out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for a holiday party, and they turned out splendidly. I'll blog about that soon.But for now, here's a shot of the shhh-they'll-never-know-it's-not-"real"-mayo potato salad I made for Christmas Eve dinner using the recipe my mom suggested. 
Once the secret was out (I mean, yeah, I was eating this stuff by the bucketful), my cousin half-jokingly started in on that whole "soy gives men boobs" argument (if we can even call it an "argument"), and I triumphantly replied that I'd used soy-free Earth Balance olive oil mayo. Sure, it's not the healthiest thing on your plate o' Christmas feast—or at least it shouldn't be!—but it's still a very satisfying take on a classic comfort food.Here's my vegan version of the original Taste of Home recipe:
1.5 lb. red potatoes1.5 lb. purple potatoes (they add visual interest!)1 medium onion, finely processed3 pickle spears, finely chopped3 ribs of celery, finely chopped1 tsp. celery seed1 tsp. salt (or to taste)1/2 tsp. pepper (or to taste)1/4 cup pickle juice (from the jar)1 1/2 cups Earth Balance vegan mayo (made with olive oil)1/4 cup mustard (I used Dijon)
Boil potatoes for 20-30 minutes until tender, then transfer to a bowl of cold water. Prepare the onion, celery, and pickle and drop in a large mixing bowl, then chop the potatoes into cubes and add them in. I opted to whisk the mayo, pickle juice, mustard, and seasonings separately first. Add the dressing to the pile of vegetables, mix well, and leave to chill in the fridge.If you click on the original recipe, you'll see I used much more mustard than the original recipe calls for—the pickles and pickle juice add to the punch, but the mustard really is the most necessary flavor.
My sis ordered me @sharon_gannon's new cookbook, packages stolen off her doorstep, so here's what I got instead. Ha. pic.twitter.com/o3YlmnyRLm— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) December 25, 2014
Vegan Paradise
Spencer points out a line on page 250: In the morning she poured two bowls of Count Chocula, and we ate on the front steps.Me: "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever eaten Count Chocula."Elliot (?): "I think there's a lot in that book you've never eaten."
Seeing as the classic Middle Eastern dishes of falafel, hummus, and baba ganoush are some of my very favorites, you can just imagine how happy I was eating these foods every day if I wanted to. I think the rest of the gang were a little bit hummus-and-falafel'd out by the last few days, and I may have echoed as much, but I didn't really mean it. Have I mentioned my undying love for falafel? 
I didn't get a photo, but on our first night in Haifa Kate and I split a roasted eggplant (it comes with the stem!) with tahini on top, served with freshly-baked focaccia-type bread. We had tahini served various delicious ways, which I'll talk more about next time. It's a way more versatile dip/spread than I'd ever thought!
Compassionate Holidays
While I was doing research for Petty Magic I came upon the magical German word gemütlich, which means cozy, cheerful belonging. I recognized it at once. After all, you have not truly known a Christmas 'til you've experienced it in the DeAngelis household.
But looking back now on all the meals I've shared with my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, I see a certain falseness lurking under that holiday cheer. We wanted to make each other feel warm, welcomed, safe, and loved, but we never extended that caring toward the animals on our plates. 
Of course, there's no sense disowning those happy memories because of the old cognitive dissonance. The turkey on the table in this first-grade drawing is an ultimately unnecessary detail; the key words are I like...to have my grandparents over.So you replace the old animal-based dishes with compassionate alternatives, and get on with the celebrating!
How to have a compassionate Thanksgiving via @JoyfulVegan! https://t.co/mkwwvAusUF #vegan #thanksgiving— Lauren (@EverydayRevelry) November 14, 2014
Vegan Chocolate Heaven
You guys know of my undying love for Taza Chocolate. Taza HQ is within walking distance of my apartment (!), but it took a visit from an Irish friend (Seanan's brother Fergal) to finally get me to sign up for one of their factory tours. And boy, do I recommend it. Well worth the $6 ticket price. 
Krisha, our tour guide, managed to pack a lot of fascinating information into forty-five minutes. The Taza founders/owners, Alex and Kathleen, loved the taste of traditional Mexican drinking chocolate and simply wanted to share it in solid form. ("Taza" means "cup" in Spanish.) We learned loads of interesting facts about how cocoa beans are grown, harvested, shipped, and processed, most of which have completely leaked out of my brain. Just take the tour! 
A few days after Fergal left, I went back to the factory with Miranda for their annual Day of the Dead celebration, complete with DJ, sugar-skull face painting, food trucks, Slumbrew beer garden, and tons of free samples. 
Taza does dark chocolate only, but lots of other companies (like Raaka and Charm School) are doing non-dairy milk chocolate now. Yet more proof that we vegans never "deprive" ourselves!
Bones & All Q&A + PM/MM giveaway!
Just a quick note to tell you I've got an interview about Bones & All at Peace, Love, Teen Fiction today! It's too soon to be giving away a copy, but you can enter to win either of my first two novels.
Ginger lemonade
I turned in my 2016 novel revision the week before last, but I still don't feel much like blogging lately. Too many new projects jostling for attention!
Here's something on the list for my "uncookbook," though it's so simple I don't even know if I can call it an unrecipe: juice half a dozen (or so) lemons and a few sections of ginger, adding water and maple syrup to taste. (I made a full pitcher's worth.) That's it! 
Fresh lemon and ginger offer awesome health benefits, by the way. I got this locally-grown ginger at the Amherst farmers' market while I was visiting Susa a couple weekends ago. (More on that trip eventually—some potentially life-changing stuff happened!)Some other stuff I've been making: 
Competent Omelet Flipping and Other Noble Endeavors
Last night Faith and I went to see The Hundred-Foot Journey, which (for all its preparation of traditional French and non-Hindu Indian cuisine) got me strangely excited to experiment in the kitchen and expand my competency in areas that have always given me trouble. I will not cook with eggs again, but I still want to learn how to flip an omelet!What? There is such a thing as a vegan omelet? Yes, friends! Check out this amazing recipe by Vegan Richa (it's soy and gluten free to boot). As you can see, my attempt did not come out so neatly... 
Went out to a movie last night for the first time since The Muppets. New Helen Mirren = Slumdog Millionaire + Ratatouille. Good fun.
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) September 17, 2014
The Hundred-Foot Journey follows the rise of a young Indian chef, who studies old French cookbooks every night before bed. It hit me that, while doing things by the seat of one's pants may sometimes result in unexpected deliciousness, if you actually want to learn how to do things correctly you ought to apply a bit more diligence. Even just Googling a particular technique and reading a couple of articles can be the difference between a triumph and a flop. And, y'know, using the right sort of skillet! I need to learn more about equipment too—"the right tools for the job" and all that. 
I've been talking about my "uncookbook" with anyone who asks what I'm currently working on, and the response is always enthusiastic. My amazing time at Squam last week (blog post coming soon!) reinforced for me that the teacher is as much a student as everyone else in the classroom, and I'm excited to expand my competence as I begin setting down what I already know. 