2 tester recipes, 2 gifts

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Tonight's post is yet another opportunity to use VeganMoFo to catch up! And when I say catch up, I mean some of the food photos I'm about to show you are from September! But they are all fresh in my mind, and in fact I look forward to making these again.

I love testing recipes (which I'm currently doing for 3 wonderful vegans) - not only do you contribute to the creation of a book, but it makes meal planning so easy! Each week, I look at the available recipes, and pick at least one or two that I'm going to test. So far, this has worked out really well for us.

Without further ado, here are two test recipes:

Melody's green goddess dressing. You know those recipes where you think you can guess what the end result will taste like? Well this recipe turned out to be so much more than what I expected- it was simultaneously green, fresh, thick, and creamy. The many different herbs played off of each other really well. The first night, I served the dressing as Melody suggested- on a bed of greens (escarole), with some brown rice and lentils, topped with a few caramelized onions. Both Daiku and I loved this, and there was enough dressing for us to play with for the next few days.

Here's a tester for Joni's upcoming book, which will feature 101 (!!) vegan burger recipes, plus all the necessary buns, condiments, and toppings to go with them. She will have sections for gluten-free, soy-free, and high-protein burgers, in addition to regular recipes, and I look forward to testing many more. Here you see some sweet potato chipotle burgers, served on a whole wheat bun with some lettuce. I kept the toppings simple because this burger was packed with flavor! The chipotle heat was a bit intense for me, but that didn't stop me from going back for more!

And now, I want to share two vegan food gifts that I have received from fellow bloggers recently- definitely a huge perk, if you ask me!

Here, we have these delicious chocolate/strawberry pinwheels from Susie (Susie Tofu Monster for those on the PPK). She is a seriously talented chef! If you haven't checked out her new blog, Parsnip Parsimony, I recommend that you get over there, stat. Two words should suffice: vegan. challah. 'Nuff said.

And here we have some cookies from the always lovely Celine. Imagine my surprise on a cold day to look at my front door and see a box of cookies sitting there- the perfect reward after a punishing day of library research. Celine sent oreo cookie cookies and pistachio-rosewater cookies, which were so good, Daiku and I may have fought over them a little. Daiku ended up taking half to work with him, to be sure I didn't finish them all in one day! (I put the rose-colored crane next to the rosewater cookie, and the chocolate crane next to the oreo cookie one, for ease of identification!)

To all the bloggers out there who make life just a little more delicious by giving me new recipes to test, or by sending me sweet surprises in the mail, THANK YOU!
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2 tester recipes, 2 gifts