Alicia C. Simpson - Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations: 150 Great-Tasting Recipes Plus Festive Menus for Vegantastic Holidays and Get-Togethers All Through the Year

THANK YOU TO the two most inspiring and influential people in my life, my parents, John and Linda. Thank you for believing in me and supporting me through all of lifes triumphs and challenges. To my grandmother, Georgianne Little, my number one saleswoman! You are truly irreplaceable and, as the dedication in Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food says, you inspire me. I love you.

Matthew, thank you again for taking this ride with me and helping me churn out not one but two amazing cookbooks. This experience has been beyond a dream come true. To Pauline and all the folks at Neuwirth & Associates, thank you for designing yet another beautiful book.

Thank you to Lori Maffei for producing yet another set of beautiful food photos for this book.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to Rachel Hallows (super tester extraordinaire), Anne Marie Tyler, Jackie Smith, Joan Farkas, Karyn Casper, Amey F. Mathews, Kimberlee Redman, and Luciana Rushing, my phenomenal testers who worked with me at a grueling pace through record-breaking snowstorms, big moves, and major life events to ensure that every recipe was as near perfect as possible. Thank you for consuming more cupcakes than any one person should have to in a lifetime, and for being so patient with my flubs and typos.

Most importantly thank you to all the phenomenal folks who bought my first book, Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food, which has led me to this new adventure. I read all your emails, tweets, messages, and posts, and I appreciate your support more than youll ever know.

Alicia C. Simpson has been cooking since she was tall enough to reach the stove. She is the founder of Licis Sweet Treats Organic Bakery in Atlanta and the creator of the popular Vegan Guinea Pig blog. She has been featured in the documentary Im Vegan. Alicias first book, Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food, was published in 2009. She lives in Atlanta.

www.aliciacsimpson.com

tHERES NOTHING WORSE than being halfway into making a birthday cake or big Thanksgiving feast only to realize that youve completely run out of vanilla extract or that you underestimated the amount of vital wheat gluten you have in the house. The key to avoiding a mad dash to your nearest grocery store in the middle of preparing your celebration is to keep a well-stocked kitchen that is ready for any occasion. Here are some essentials you should keep handy.

ACTIVE DRY YEAST

Yeast is a plantlike microorganism that serves as a catalyst to the fermentation process. This fermentation process is what makes dough rise and gives breads and dough made with yeast their airy texture. Baking and cooking with yeast requires a warm external temperature. In the summertime I usually keep my home around 78F, but even this heat isnt enough to make yeast happy. The closer you can get to 85F the better. There are a couple tricks to keeping your yeast warm enough to rise. The easiest one is to place the bowl with dough inside of it at the highest point in the kitchen, like on top of the refrigerator, where the temperature is warmer. Another great way to get your dough nice and warm is to place it near the oven or stove while youre cooking another dish. Or you can preheat your oven to 375F, turn off the heat, then place your bowl inside, leaving the oven door open (do not do this with a plastic bowl). It usually takes yeast about 1 hour to rise in dough. I like to take this time to prepare the other dishes for my celebration feast (which also keeps the kitchen warm), or you can simply find a nice warm place for your dough to rise and take a nap.

AGAVE NECTAR

Agave is most commonly known as the source of tequila. However, when you taste agave nectar, the last thing youll think of is tequila (although it does make one great margarita). Agave nectar is a real sugar, as opposed to an artificial or nonnutritive sweetener. It has properties similar to many sugars with one important exception: its glycemic index is significantly lower. It can be found in nearly all conventional grocery stores and health food stores in the same aisle as the sugar and other baking supplies.

CARDAMOM PODS

Cardamom comes in lightweight green or black pods that look pretty boring. But never judge a book by its cover. Those little pods are bursting with flavor, and the best part is you need not grind them, toast them, or roast them to get all that flavor out. Just drop them into recipes like Mulled Pomegranate Cider (page ) and let the flavors slowly simmer out. The scent of cardamom is unique yet impossible to describe; however, the second the fragrance of cardamom hits your nose youll be praising these little pods.

CHIPOTLE PEPPERS IN ADOBO SAUCE

Chipotle peppers are smoked jalapeo peppers and adobo sauce is a rich sauce with tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, salt, and a litany of spices. Put the two together and you have a match made in smokey spice heaven. The heat of chipotle peppers is on par with jalapeos, although I find that the adobo sauce smoothes out the flavor a bit, turning down the heat a couple notches. Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce shine in recipes like Chipotle Black Bean Burgers (page ).

COCONUT MILK

For the longest time you could typically only find three types of coconut milk: light, sweetened, and unsweetened. No matter what the flavor, every variety came in a can. However, recently So Delicious has come out with a coconut milk beverage that is sold in cartons right alongside soy and rice milk in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. This new coconut milk drink is perfect for pouring over cereal or even baking with instead of soy milk; however, it is much thinner than canned coconut milk and for this reason I never use it for stovetop cooking. Nothing beats the taste of rich, thick, and creamy canned coconut milk. Canned coconut milk is typically found on the ethnic food aisle at conventional and health food grocery stores.

ENER-G EGG REPLACER

Ener-G Egg Replacer is a quick, easy, and simple option for replacing eggs in baked goods; 1 teaspoons of Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 2 tablespoons warm water equals 1 egg. Ener-G Egg Replacer is also one of the most cost-effective ways to replace eggs in a recipe. One box has over 113 servings in it. It took me three and a half years to finish my first box of Ener-G Egg Replacer.

FIVE-SPICE POWDER

My first trip to find five-spice powder took me over twenty minutes in the grocery store. If youre reading this section, then you will have the distinct advantage of learning from my mistake and making a beeline to the five-spice powder no matter what store youre in. Five-spice powder is not always in the spice aisle, although this is where you should look first. It is typically hiding on the Asian or ethnic food aisle and might be labeled Chinese Five-Spice Powder. As the name implies, it is a blend of five aromatic spices that is a perfect mix of sweet, spicy, pungent, sour, and bitter. Although the recipe changes slightly from brand to brand, the typical spice blend will include ground cinnamon, ginger, star anise, cloves, and cassia buds.

GARAM MASALA

Garam masala literally means hot mixturehowever, the name can be a little bit misleading. Garam masala isnt hot as in spicy but is more of an intense burst of flavor. When cooking Southeast Asian and Indian food, I cant help but throw in a few ) with and without garam masala and youll see what a profound difference just teaspoon of this powerful spice mixture makes.