One Year Ago Today (Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cookbooks and Me)

It was a Sunday afternoon last July when I brought my laptop over to my husband and said, "I think I want to blog." About what, was the next question. I said, "Food, vegan food." And then I added, "And about my life." He cautioned to not get too broad in my quest, but to try to keep it narrower and more focused. Then he put on his "tech support" badge and like an angel, helped me set this baby up. Well, for any of you who've stumbled across my ditherings, you must have figured out by now--"focus" for me. . . not as easy as it may be for someone else.

First things first. I have had a bucket load of "stuff" hit me since first laying claim to my little place in the blog world a year ago. I won't re-live any of it here again, but just in case you want the Cliff's Notes on the matter--here's a bullet point list:

• Lost my dad
• Lost a friend
• Lost part of my face
• Lost someone to addiction. . . but got them back

There you have it in a nutshell, my past year. A lot of "stuff" happens in a year. It doesn't feel like a year's gone by. (For us Old People, or folks Almost Fifty--time starts to literally fly, trust me young folks out there, just trust me on this one.) The vegan food stuff has been my saving grace through it all. I cannot tell you the amount of relief and distraction (in times of GREAT stress) my kitchen and my blog have been for me. (My husband helps, too--but he also has to leave to go to work). Much of my "pick yourself up by the boot straps" motivation must occur during the ten or so hours he's away. I'm not complaining. I was the one that decided at this stage in my life it was time to step off the corporate role and into a much quieter, homemaker sort of life. I have no regrets, and neither do my gray roots, thank you very much. We have no children on two feet, however, we have many kids on four feet--my posse--they keep me quite busy. My life would be so empty without them.

The impetus for my blog started with a somewhat compulsive collection of cookbooks sitting on my shelves in my kitchen. (And also in the shelves in my basement.) I love cookbooks: old, new, used, borrowed--I just love them. I love their smell, their heft, their typeface, their paper weight, their colorful photos (or not in the case of MOST of my vegan cookbooks--which I think is sad and wrong and if I EVER publish a cookbook, by god, there will be a lot of good looking photos in between its pages). I have never really counted them all. I sort of round up by tens. So last rounding I landed at near two-hundred, but not quite. Though I'm still not sure. I refuse to take accurate inventory. I just know I like the ones I have--be them vegan or not. I donate those that have an "annoying" quality--those that just send me to the moon when I try to cook from them but can't find a blasted thing to even attempt--after about a year of this search and "not find" recipe stuff--a few will end up in the donate-to-the-library pile.

Here's a couple of things you might not know about me yet (again, bullet points for faster reading):

• I've never sent a text message (my cell phone is over ten years old. Our provider has now decided to drop my insurance coverage from our plan owing to the fact that it is such a relic)
• I do not Facebook (okay, I have FB'd a few things but then got caught in the black hole that is Facebook and had to look away for fear I'd turn to salt) 
• I tried to tweet, and I felt ridiculous doing so (I felt ridiculous writing the word "tweet" just now, too)
• I didn't know what "following" meant when I started this blog. . . I am glad I have followers

I have really enjoyed meeting folks on my blog--the regulars out there. (You know who you are.) I think of all the surprises I've had while blogging, the kindness and kindred spirit I feel with those I've met was the biggest surprise of them all. I am a pretty closed off person otherwise. I guess for a blogger, that might be a common trait. Though I am no expert. I do enjoy being alone. (Another trait I suppose folks who write and blog may share.) I am usually typing this in the most quiet part of my day. . . alone. Today that quiet part of the day happens to be in the afternoon. Most of my posts happen during the quiet of the morning, however.

I didn't think comments would matter to me a whole heck of a lot when I started blogging. I didn't get that part early on. I felt sort of like someone was peeking in here on my cooking stuff if they commented. Almost like, Who is this? Where did they come from? How did they get here? I know that sounds weird. But imagine this if you can. After all, I learned "computer" when most of you out there were learning to go potty. And I didn't set out writing about vegan food to get comments. I set out to do this because of the planetary alignment and because it was the right thing to do at the time. Given my age, this is a much faster way to document life and recipes than getting writer's cramp putting it all in my daily journal. But the comments are a nice plus and over.

I'll sometimes leave comments on other blogs. But often I'll get around to reading a post I like and someone else has made the same exclamation I wanted to make. How many ways can a dish be described as "Yummy"? Would I bore the author with yet one more "Yummy"? So I opt out.

I still stick to the principle that honesty is the best policy on my blog. What you see is what you get. Except for that head shot of me--that's a bit "old"--there's a few more gray hairs and few more wrinkles, scars, new haircut, etc.

So I thought it would be appropriate to end my post today with what I started out with a year ago: cookbooks and chocolate chip cookies. My latest, greatest cookbook find is Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole Grain Flours by Kim Boyce. I had seen this cookbook discussed on Heidi Swanson's blog: 101 Cookbooks (more than once). I was intrigued. I came across another discussion of this cookbook recently and decided it was about time it found a home on my shelf. I am so happy it did!

After reading Kim's introduction and first few chapters, I was more than happy with my purchase. True to its title, there are some whole grain flours going on here--but I challenge anyone "whole grain averse" to not fall in love with first, the photos and second, the absolute best pastry cooking I've seen in a long time. Kim's experience as a pastry chef at Spago and Campanile must have been a magical time. (Though I can say with honesty, I have never been to either place.) The recipes she's culled together here are nothing short of fabulous. The cookbook is divided up by "flour types." How brilliant is that! I won't detail it all out here but just add that I spent both Saturday AND Sunday with this cookbook. Sharing with you here some of the delicious-ness I was able to convert to vegan. First up: chocolate chip cookies--made with all whole wheat flour. I was a skeptic stepping into this one. My vegan changes were that I added 1 tablespoon of applesauce per egg in place of two eggs called for and I used unsalted vegan margerine in place of unsalted butter--and I made a half batch. Everyone whose read my cookie and cake recipes knows that I am a huge fan of the Ener-G Egg Replacer. But for some reason, that was not used for either recipe this go around. The applesauce in place of the eggs worked lovely. (It was a mistake to only make half a batch, they are all gone today--though I did share with the neighbor!) We LOVED these cookies! Look at the photo and tell me you don't see a ton of Yum!

Sunday morning I dove in again and decided I'd try something for breakfast. The cookbook is full of breakfast pastry recipes--isn't that what Sunday morning is all about? Pastry? It is in this house. Sunday it was cornmeal and carrot waffles. Just amazing! I made vegan modifications to this recipe as well, and had to omit her "carrot juice" inspiration--opting for 1 shredded carrot and orange juice plus the zest of an orange and pumpkin pie spice to really carry the flavor on. This is a cookbook that will never end up in the library pile (though I should recommend to my library they carry it).

So there's a year of my life. . . here and gone. I will be yet another year closer to fifty shortly. I count my blessings every day. One being that I started this blog. Okay, and two, that I still love to cook as much as I did a year ago. (There's some other stuff I count, but I'm trying to say good night here.)