Cookbooks New and Old

Readers, I want to share a couple of cookbooks with you. For as much as it may not always be easy to find a vegan meal in a pinch, there certainly is no shortage of vegan cookbooks at your local bookstore. This is really encouraging for a few reasons. For the most part, it is both cheaper and healthier to cook at home rather than going out. You control the ingredients and their quality. It's also a nice gesture to cook for others, since you're using time, energy, and love to prepare nourishing meals to share.

You Won't Believe It's Vegan! is something of a local legend. It's written by Lacey Sher and Gail Doherty, former owners of the now closed Down to Earth restaurant.
This place had great vegan food, amazing juices and desserts, and has a special place in my heart since it's where my husband and I had our first real date way back when. As sad as I was when the restaurant closed, I'm happy to have a little piece of it with this cookbook. The recipes included were served at the restaurant. Besides the great recipes, this cookbook also includes some good reference points including a handy glossary (the different kinds of seaweed and natural thickeners were finally explained clearly!), ideas for home blended spice mixtures, and guidelines for cooking simple basics like grains and greens. This is a great addition to your cookbook collection that you will not get bored with any time soon.

A new addition to my bookshelf is The Candle Cafe Cookbook by Joy Pierson and Bart Potenza.
As you can guess from the title, this cookbook comes to us from the co-owners of the famed Candle Cafe in New York City. I haven't had much of a chance to really dig into this yet, but I am absolutely chomping at the bit based on the table of contents and the little bit of flipping through I've done so far. I'll be sure to include pictures and updates when I try some of these really elegant and delicious looking recipes. This is also motivation to finally get myself to the city and try this place! If the cookbook is this appealing, I can only imagine how great the food is when it's prepared by real chefs!