Vegan Truffles

~ from The Peta Celebrity Cookbook

Verdict: A

Comments: Made these for a work-friend as a birthday present. Very simple recipe but very yummy. Can find a close variation on it HERE (just use 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of their measurements and voila). I've never had NON-vegan truffles before but was told that a seasoned truffle-eater would not be able to tell the difference. If you roll them in cocoa, however, I suggest using a sweetened kind or mixing it with sugar, otherwise they're a tad bit bitter.

Lascivious Lasagna

(This is a pic of the leftovers.)

Verdict: A

Recipe: HERE

Comments: I didn't cook this--E did, because he rocks like that (and it was his weekend to cook). I was impressed by how much the "meat"-concoction actually had the flavor of a spicy italian lasagna-meat. This recipe was *very very good* and I look forward to having it again--the only thing I would do different with it in the future would be to double up the quantites of "ricotta" and "meat." I like me some ooey gooey stuffed-to-the-brim lasagna. =)

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Lots o' fricking cooking this weekend...

~ from Vegan With a Vengeance

Verdict: A

Comments: I initially intended to top these (or sandwich these) with a cream-cheese glaze (that was SO fucking good) from Sinfully Vegan, but after realizing the glaze never actually hardens (isn't that what glazes are supposed to do?) and after trying to thicken it up with flour only to have it taste super-pasty, I canned that idea (which was unfortunate b/c it meant pitching it down the drain since there was nothing else I could use it on). So instead, I ended up cooking half the cookies *without* thumbprints and half with. And instead of adding the jam (or in my case, the raspberry preserves) half-way through the cooking cycle, I did it after they'd cooled. I put it in the thumbprints on half of them and then the other half I made cookie sammiches out of, using two cookies and cementing them together with the preserves. Mmmm mmm fricking good. Definitely aim for raspberry preserves, b/c ain't NOTHING better than chocolate and raspberries. Oh, but be forewarned--the recipe says it yields about two dozen cookies, but I made a double-batch and, even having strictly measured out the cookies with a tablespoon as directed, it only yieleded about 30 (when it should've made 48). They were still good, but keep this in mind if you're hoping to make a ton.