I’m so excited to be able to finally tell you that the second issue of Potluck Mania is here and available for purchase! Yay!

I asked you a week ago which format you would prefer: physical or digital, and boy, you guys came out of the woodwork to voice your opinion about it. I’m so glad that you did, because I had been debating it back and forth for weeks.

I listened to all of your comments and ultimately decided: I should offer both formats. Why not? Those of you who really like to have a professionally-published zine still have that option, and those of you who prefer to spend a little less and keep the zine on your hard drives or print out the recipes as you need them now may do that.

Let me tell you how you can get both formats of both issues of the zine!

• Issue #1: Baby, It’s Cold Outside professionally-printed zine
• Issue #1: Baby, It’s Cold Outside PDF
• Issue #2: Summer Dress Separates You from the Rest professionally-printed zine
• Issue #2: Summer Dress Separates You from the Rest PDF

You might notice that the price of the second issue of the zine is a little lower than the first. Although there are actually 2 more recipes in the second issue, I tried to bring the cost down for you by condensing the zine a little bit more and fitting more recipes per page—the second issue has 16 pages rather than 24 pages.

Speaking of my Etsy store, keep your eyes peeled there over the next couple of weeks. I’m going to be adding listings for (autographed and dedicated) copies of my cookbook, more Yellow Rose gift sets, and possibly even some grab bags.

Thanks again to my testers

Here is a recipe—a tester favorite—from the first issue of my potluck zine, perfect for your New Year’s day celebrations. Serve these any time of day with ketchup, hot sauce, or maybe a roasted red pepper aioli.

Hoppin’ John Cakes
serves 3-4

Be sure to use short grain rice here: the extra starch is essential in the recipe for helping the cakes hold their shape.  If you can’t find short grain brown rice, sushi or arborio rice will do well as a substitute.
1 cup uncooked short grain brown rice
3 cups cooked black eyed peas or drained and rinsed canned
2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeno or 1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
olive or peanut oil for frying

Cook the rice according to the directions on the package and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine black eyed peas, jalapenos or hot sauce, olive oil, salt, and liquid smoke. Use a potato masher or your hands to mash the peas, just until they’re starting to stick together and clump up – about half of the peas should still be whole. Stir in the cooked brown rice, onion, and parsley, and now really get in there with your (clean!) hands and mush everything together until it’s uniform. Be sure to use your hands only — do not under any circumstances use a food processor or other device, as this will turn everything to useless mush.

Finally, stir in the vital wheat gluten and use your hands to mix it in well. This should take the consistency to the point where if you form a patty with your hands, it stays in the patty shape very easily. If it doesn’t do that, work it for another minute or so and it should stick together better.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a large skillet until it is bubbling slightly but not spitting. This will probably be medium-low,  but depending on how heavy your skillet is and which oil you use, it could be lower or higher. Make a 2 sheet  layer of paper towels on a large plate next to the skillet.

Form patties with your hands that are about 1/2″ thick and 3″ across — a little smaller than the the size of your  palm. Lay them gently in the oil, fitting as many patties as you feel comfortable having in the skillet at once. After a few minutes, check one of the patties for color: you want to flip it when it’s uniformly golden brown on the bottom. Use that timing to gauge how long the rest will take to get to the right coloring on both sides of the patties.

When both sides are cooked, transfer to the paper towels to drain. Serve warm.

I really need your help. I’m about to wrap up the second issue of the potluck zine, and I’m not sure if I want to:

• use the print-on-demand service which I used to publish the first issue of the zine, or
• sell the zine as a downloadable PDF, which you could buy for much less (think $3 as opposed to $7) and choose for yourself whether you wanted to print it on your home printer or leave it as a PDF and refer to it on your computer
• or… both?

Please help me decide by leaving a comment here! Thanks!

I just wanted to pop in here and make quick post to make a couple of quick announcements. I won’t take up too much of your time because I’m sure that you have crossword puzzles and mugs of hot chocolate to get back to.

If you come over, be ready to read a book to Milo

The first is that I’ve started a new blog: Is There a Giraffe? I will be reviewing some of Milo’s (and my) favorite children’s books. There will be strong emphasis on vintage and lesser-known titles. I won’t be able to stop myself from singing the praises of the greats now and again—particularly Maurice Sendak and Richard Scarry, two of my favorites—but since they get so much love elsewhere, I’d like to draw attention to a few of the many underappreciated children’s writers out there. Please check it out if you’re so inclined! I’ll be building it out a little more over the hoildays and adding a few entries before the new year.

The second is that I’ve done the layout for the next issue of my zine, and I have a couple of blank pages. For layout purposes, my pagecount needs to be a multiple of 4. Rather than trying to create filler for those pages, I’ve decided to offer it as ad space. The first issue of my zine has already sold over 100 copies and has only been out for a little over a month, so this would be a great way to get exposure for your small business or Etsy store. Quarter-page ads are $15, half-page ads are $25, and full-page ads are $40. Please let me know if you’re interested—include some information about your business, please, as I want to be sure that your business is in line with my ethics so that I’m not unwittingly pimping porn in the back of my zine. I like to wittingly pimp porn, thank you very much.

my vegan Thanksgiving; photo by Katie Jane Marggraf

I had my first vegan Thanksgiving in 2001, and I showed up at my parents’ house armed with recipes I found in dark corners of the internet, recipes I’d never tried before and was just sort of hoping would work. I ended up with a pumpkin soup that tasted like dirt (literally) and a cranberry walnut salad made with store-bought seitan. If I remember correctly, I ended up eating rolls and tossed salad and feeling pretty sorry for myself.

Obviously the options are a lot better now, and because of that, you might find yourself facing the opposite problem: there are so many recipes to choose from, and you’re not sure which will become your “standards,” because there is no way that you can make all of them.

I don’t recommend trying a recipe for the first time on Thanksgiving day—even if it’s from a cookbook author or blogger whom you trust—because that day will be filled with distractions, and multiple people competing for oven and stovetop space, and those conditions aren’t ideal for following a recipe for the first time. The safest bet is to do a test run: make the dish at least once in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, just so that you are familiar with the timing and the steps.

I also don’t recommend using all new recipes this Thanksgiving. If this is your first vegan Thanksgiving, and you’re responsible for the entire meal, it’s probably a better idea to focus on one or two new dishes, and use your standard easy favorites (mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, a tossed salad) to fill out the rest of the meal.

Finally, and most importantly, Thanksgiving isn’t the time to mess with the classics. You heard about some great new mashed potato method and can’t wait to put your nephew in cleats to give it a whirl? Great! Try it another time! If you decide then that it’s better than your current recipe, make it that way a lot in the coming year and then debut it at next year’s Thanksgiving.

Here are the recipes which I’ve used, and with great success:

• any of the recipes from the Thanksgiving section of my zine, Potluck Mania, obviously, but if you only try one for this holiday, make it the Mushroom Dressing;
  
• If you try two, make the Coconut Sweet Potatoes, because they’re crazy delicious and so easy that you can assign all the work to your clueless cousin;
• the Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes from Yellow Rose Recipes is my go-to mashed potato recipe;
• The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole from Fat Free Vegan is always a hit, though I’m sure that the recipe Isa just posted today is also great, I just haven’t made it;
• I like simple vegetables at Thanksgiving, since everything else on the table is usually heavy and calorie-dense, so I make roasted brussel sprouts (brussels tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little paprika and roasted in the oven until crispy) and a green salad with apple slices, dried cranberries, and caramelized walnuts tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette;
• I make a seitan roast which is my standard chicken style seitan recipe, but uses Brian McCarthy’s Vegan Turkey Roast method. I baste it before baking with a basting liquid that is 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon tamari, and 1 teaspoon liquid smoke;
• I don’t usually make dessert at Thanksgiving (someone else always does!), but I’ve happily eaten Smlove Pie and The Millennium Cookbook’s Pecan Pie¹ at vegan thanksgiving potlucks.

Have a happy holiday!

¹It was brought to my attention in a comment that Todd X lifted “his” pecan pie recipe from The Millennium Cookbook. I’ve made the correction.

After a lot of issues with formatting and uploading, the first issue of my zine, Potluck Mania, is finally available. Hooray!

I had originally wanted to have the entire zine completed and ready by now, but as early November crept up on me, I knew that would no longer be possible. The choice was one that a lot of people in my position have faced: sacrifice quality and just slap something together, just to get it out there, or put in the extra hours to make sure that you have a quality product. I opted for the latter! I usually do. I wanted something I could be proud of.

I am very proud of the results. The first issue is a full-size, full-color, 22 page magazine featuring 24 recipes, divided into four potluck themes: Brunch, Pizza Party, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Cookie Swap. The zine is as much fun to read and browse through as it is to cook from!

Buy it now

Remember when I stopped working on my second cookbook halfway through because it had become a sucking void into which all of my joy for cooking had gone? Remember how I promised that I would release the recipes which had been tested so far as a zine, as soon as I moved into my house and life calmed down a little bit?

Well, that time is now! The theme of the zine is Potlucks, which anyone who knows me can tell you is a theme near and dear to my heart. There will be about 50 recipes, divided in categories like Brunch, Pizza Party, Valentine’s Day Dinner Party, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Cookie Swap, to name a few. I will include a few pages about how to throw a successful potluck, as well has how to be an ideal potluck attendee. Of course, this zine isn’t just for those who attend (or aspire to attend) potlucks regularly. All of the recipes taste equally delicious eaten alone or with your family in the comfort of your own home.

I will be fervently working on compiling the zine in September and October so that it can be released in early November and into your hot hands in time for those Thanksgiving recipes, because I know that’s the time of year where everyone (especially new vegans) gets most anxious about cooking for others. I’ll fill you in on the details as I have them. Yay! I’m so happy to be excited about this project again.