Kate's Holiday Tips Part II

I shall begin with a tangent. Remember waking up early just to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings? Well, waking up to sell books is almost as sassifying. Almost.

Anyway...

We started carrying Taza chocolates and things have changed in my life since. I have lost 30 lbs, I can now complete a full leg split, and suddenly... I can speak Polish. The chocolates are that good. This particular brand is a local company in Somerville, and we are having a free tasting on Dec 18th. This chocolate tastes unlike any chocolate I have had, and now every other chocolate tastes of wax and plastics in comparison.



On to my tip of the week!

In efforts to maintain a healthy BMI do NOT have more than one serving of fiber one's 90 calorie chocolate peanut butter bars. If you don't believe me, then try having 2 before bed. Let me know how you're feeling in the morning. My email is kate@brooklinebooksmith.com The experience was reminiscent of my 2002 foray into the world of olestra. I'll leave it at that. Classy.

What I'm saying is, instead of having a substitute for the real thing, have the damn thing. Forget O'doul's, and waxy chocolates and have the dogfish head and Taza. You'll need less and be a happier person all around.

If you read this far, thank you...and yes I am seeing a professional.

turn your clocks ahead

Twice a year I am forced to wrestle with the non-sequitorial nature of the time-space continuum. I get all-thoughtsie around the time we decide-- collectively to change our clocks. It's usually this time of year you can find me skimming several books in the self help section of the store...as I have what I can only describe as a reverse seasonal affect disorder.To console myself....I start thinking about outdoorsie stuff I know I will eventually want to do, once I have enough vitamin D metabolized to lift my spirits...some of these things are-

-the produce is on its way back to affordability, and the farmers market is marching towards us...and I usually start thinking about changing my diet to something kinder...

-trips to New Hampshire (we have lots of great local travel/hiking books) This year I think I'd like to hike Lafayette.

-grabbing a few used books and going to the park (Lars Anderson )

-cleaning out my bookshelves and selling back all my good intentions to the UBC (Wed-Sat 10-4) to make room and resources available for new good intentions

-reading an inspirational yet non-taxing adventure/ sports book ("Born to Run" comes to mind)

Mostly I think this is the real time for resolutions, as it at least lines up with nature...isn't there a literary term coined by John Ruskin for that? There is...I almost forgot it's called "pathetic fallacy"(It's not what it sounds like) ...It's just the idea of anthropomorphizing animals, weather events...yada yada


Mostly for me, this is the time to really take inventory, clean up....and get outside.

Nom nom nom nom

Snatched up a copy of Vegan Planet in the Used Book Cellar. The spine is severely bent in one place and there's a little splattering on those pages (that is part of the charm I THINK.) I am doing some amateur forensics, trying to determine which recipe it is. Little orangey... so surveying the ingredients, I believe it's the Butternut Squash & Wild Mushroom Lasagna. All those hours watching CSI paid off at last.

And many pages are dog-eared. That's another cool thing about used books - these marks might lead you to the best parts of the book right away. Or not. One of the dog-eared recipes is cilantro heavy and I am one of those people that thinks cilantro tastes like soap. So maybe I will avoid those dog-eared pages. Or you can pass judgment on the previous owner which is fulfilling for about a minute.

Speaking of cookbooks, here are some shoddy pictures of the best and most perfect chocolate chip cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking (1 of my 2 current staff recs).

Don't ya just feel the diabetes settling in?

Underbake them by a minute or two and throw them in the freezer and, bam, you in vegan valhalla. I also recently made the Blueberry Orange Bundt cake and my boyfriend and I ate it in under two hours. I am not sure if that's a testament to how indulgent we are or how tasty the recipe is. The texture was great - so fluffy and moist - something I've missed when I've attempted baking before.

You might be like, but how do you do that with no eggs? Oh, but did you know that when food was rationed during WWII that bakers had to get creative with binders, so a lot of subs are not just blindly chosen by some tasteless hippie wizard? That is a great fact you will find in The Joy of Vegan Baking.

Plus, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau also clears up the best applications of non-animal-based moisture-givers and binders. Which is useful when you are way more of an, uh, artistic cook. Baking requires so much precision that I had been bad at. Now I think I get it.

Hooray cookbooks!