What, you ask? Why, this post my friends! Between the holidays and traveling and moving and starting a new job, my world has been hectic to say the least. So in order to get back into the swing of blogging life, I have decided to offer up to all of you a re-cap of the culinary highlight created in my kitchen over the last bit of time. Some come from my head; due to time, most from books; and some are a combination of both... but the main key is that they are all tasty super-vegan winners. So, without further ado...

Celeriac-Apple White Bean Pie
Adapted from Asparagus White Bean Quiche from Veganomicon, subbing celeriac for the vegetable, thyme and sage for spice and adding sliced apple on top. Mmmm Mmmm.

Chickpea Cutlets, Brussels Sprouts and Mashed Turnips with Chickpea Gravy
The vegan version of meat and potatoes, with a side of greens. If you have not made mashed turnips (we used CSA turnips), they are delicious!

Chickpea Pancakes with Cardamom Spiced Cabbage
The cabbage comes from Robin Robertson's Vegan Fire and Spice. Simple, but one of the many tasty options Frank and I discovered this year for our CSA cabbage. The chickpea pancake recipe comes courtesey of the Indian Culinary Institute and is delightful. You can find it here on Not Eating Out in New York, a great blog that, while not completely veggie-minded, offers cost cutting/calculation tips and plenty of adaptable recipes.

Spicy Bolivian Cabbage and Potatoes
The final cabbage dish! A quick and easy recipe from Vegetarian Times that tastes as good as it looks. Use purple potatoes and green cabbage (maybe even a yellow or orange pepper instead of red) for extra color contrast. You can find the recipe here.

Cranberry-Ginger Scones
A beaut of a scone! The basic dough recipe was adapted from Vegan with A Vengeance. I then added in 1 cup of sliced fresh cranberries, subbed brown sugar for regular sugar and used ground ginger in place of the spices. I place non-crystalized candied ginger on top. These were the hit of the weekend when I made them.

Christmas Cookies!
And lastly, a fine way to cap off the holiday season. This is the selection that I sent to Frank's office, on a groovy Cynthia Rowley for Target plate that I bought millions of years ago but still love. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. The majority of these cookies came from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, the latest offering from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Allow me to say, woah! Everything was incredible and once you get into cookie-baking mode, easy to take on for an afternoon. Starting with the second cookie on the left, we have: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows, Linzertorte Thumbprints, Magical Coconut Bars, and Pignoli. The Linzertorte Thumbprints call for hazelnut butter, which I made in my food processor (soon it will be a Vita-Mix!) with a little bit of elbow grease, and it definitely paid off. Frank, his co-workers, and my co-workers all gave these cookies thumbs up. The first cookie on the left is one of my 'staple cookies', a veganized recipe from Better Homes and Gardens called Cardamom Snaps. This cookie pleases everyone from aged 6 - 100, so beware of cookie stalkers knocking on your door at all hours of the nite. You can find that one here.

There you have it! A round-up of the top notch recipes I have made over the last month or so. I highly encourage you all to try these if you have not done so yet, or go back to them if you already have. I tend to find that I make recipes from books only once, but all of these are repeat offenders in the best way possible.