Saturday, February 16, 2008

Luvy-Duvy Cookies

Cupid drew back that bow, and struck my Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies this week:


I made cookies for our older girl's Valentine's Day party at school. I reduced the size a tad, and tripled the batch. There was a definite request for making the cookies look "special" for V-Day. I am no decorating diva. First to admit it. I think I'm too fast-paced and in 'multi-task' mode that intricate decorating irks me. I appreciate and enjoy seeing others do it... just don't want to do it myself!

So, I melted dark chocolate, let it cool down to just warm, then poured it into a small ziploc bag and squeezed it into the corner of the bag. Snipped the tiniest edge of the corner, and used that to pipe heart shapes on the cookies. That was fun, easy to do, and our daughter loved seeing them all finished!

Of course, I couldn't forget Mr. Man, so I used a large heart-shaped cookie cutter to form the batter of this cookie, and then piped on my V-Day message. I snuck it into his lunch in a ziploc container, so he would get the surprise at work!


So, I was feeling quite good about my cookie decorating day. "Not bad, not bad!" (I'm thinking of that line from Notting Hill.... the roommate that's looking at his butt clad in his grey boxer briefs in the mirror and saying "not bad, not bad at all... chicks dig grey". Loved that butt, er bit, in the movie). hee.

Anyhow, I was feeling proud as a peacock, and then I get this photo from Angela:

Now, isn't THAT gorgeous? THAT is decorating! Plus, not only did Angela decorate this cookie from scratch, and make the batter from scratch... she also used the gluten-free version of my cookies from ed&bv (the "Gluten-Be Gone Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies") to make this big ol' cookie! Who says gluten-free AND vegan can't be deliciously fabulous? Obviously her daughter was thrilled (and ahem, I didn't show this photo to our daughter -ha!)

What fun. Plus, a couple of days before Valentine's, I received a Vegan Love Letter. No... not *that* kind of love letter. No romantic or flirtatious intent. It was a vegan foodie love letter, for my cookie recipes. I don't know if you want your name mentioned, so I simply thank you again. That was a most special V-Day treat. :) I would dearly love to write a vegan book just for cookies... maybe someday... the words 'another cookbook' are the equivalent of four-letter words in this household right now - ha!

So, it was a luvy-duvy day all around. Though, I miss the days of Valentine's when we exchanged little cards at school, sometimes homemade ones, and that was it. Not little cards with a Hershey kiss attached. Or gummy worms. Or lollipops. Or gum or candy or sweethearts, etc, etc. I know the parents are well-intentioned and want to do something extra-special. It's just so overdone now. I remember the preciousness of simply bringing home my envelope of Valentine's and just enjoying going through them over and over. Don't you? No candy was needed - and that's from the biggest sweet tooth of all time! Though, my daughter received a tiny stuffie from a friend in lieu of a chocolate treat, and let me tell you, that has been with her every moment since V-Day!

One more luvy-duvy vibe before I sign off. Most of you know that Urban Vegan was featured in a NY Times story, along with her husband 'omniman'. Congratulations, Dynise! You are a big bright light in our lil' vegan world. Thank you for giving some good press to being vegan. "Yeah... props baby, vegan props!"

17 comments:

Billy said...

Mmm, I want a vegan cookie now!

Peace, Love and Veganism said...

I completely agree with you about the kids' valentines! As a teacher, I see all the sugar that goes into their gifts and it makes me nauseous. In fact, one kid said his mom threw out the valentines but he kept the candy! So sad. Quick question- any idea for making a bake sale more earth friendly? I love to bake for my school's sale, but it breaks my heart with all the plastic ziploc baggies they use! Also, I have a hard time finding a recipe that makes a ton of treats in short time.

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

cute cookies

Anonymous said...

O my, a cookie cookbook from you, the cookie queen! I'll be... well, really really, really fat. ;-)

How long do you put those cookies in the oven when you reduce the size? I want to make some snack sized cookies for my graduation Friday...

Dreena said...

Peace, love - coincidentally, I have our school's bake sale coming up, so this will be my first time contributing baked goods. I haven't seen how they are typically packaged/served, but, I have some of those metallic pie plates from when I've bought the 'Wholly Wholesome' pie shells. So, I'll use those along with some plastic wrap to tote the cookies to school, but I don't know if the school then puts them in ziploc bags to sell to the kiddies - is that what normally happens? Yikes, that *is* a lot of plastic baggies.

Arine, when I make the cookies smaller, I usually bake them for 10 mins. If you were to make them very, very small - say like cookies bites, I'd go about 9 mins'. I made these using about 1 tbsp of the batter, so 10 min's worked well. As usual, they'll appear unfinished when you pull them out of the oven, but then after the minute cooling on the sheet, and finishing cooling, they'll be JUST right! :)

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

those cookies are BEYOND gorgeous!! luvy-duvy indeed :0)

definitely nice to see Dynise in the NY Times - just wish that the article was fully truthful and that the comments left on the article weren't so nasty!

Carrie™ said...

Ahhhh, Dreena. The cookies are adorable and your husband's cookie is so nice. Was he surprised? I remember doing Valentine cards in grade school. One year, the icky boy in the class gave me valentine with that "foxy Robin Hood" from Disney's Robin Hood cartoon on it. I forget what it said, probably something about stealing my heart. I was mortified! Imagine! The icky boy giving me a Valentine card. Isn't it funny what one remembers? We never had candy. Maybe a few cinnamon hearts or like your daughter's school, someone's mom would make cookies. Everyting now is so complicated, limos for grade 8 graduations and things like that. Overboard on everything and the big stuff doesn't seem as exciting anymore. And everyone is so sensitive about everything. Geez! Anyhow, glad to hear you had a nice Valentine's day and I think your decorating job was fantastic! XO

Ashasarala said...

Those cookies look yummy and sweet. I'm not too good at decorating, myself, but I do want to learn. It helps not having any kids around to find the time to do it. This year I tried some Petit Fours. The inside? Delicious. The outside? Looked like candle wax...

It's on my blog if ya wanna have a laugh. ;)

Glad your day was fun and special. Happy Belated Valentines!

Dreena said...

Veggiegirl, I agree there was some typical vegan bunk in the article... they always have to throw that silliness in there. At least Dynise portrayed that veganims is 'do-able', and that you can live an otherwise normal life. As for the nasty comments... those folks are just plain ignorant. Or idiots. Or both.

Carrie, that's so sweet taking me down your V-Day memory lane. Yes, certain childhood moments last in our minds forever... bit scary as a parent actually - yikes!! :) Mr. Man was quite surprised to see the cookie, and he sent me a note straight away to thank me. I made that cookie pretty big, and I thought he might bring some home to finish later - ha, was I misjudging HIS sweet tooth! I couldn't agree more about everthing being overdone. And I mean everything. Bday parties, every holiday and festive occasion. It can be a bit exhausting to even think about as a parent!

Anonymous said...

What are your plans for arts & crafts for Easter (decorating "eggs"), etc? We're going to do some next week with The Pea's cousins. Looking for ideas but nothing over the top. I would love to decorate eggs but the vegan ideas seem like a lot of work. Can one purchase Easter (vegan) eggs to decorate?

The Veggie Vixen

Dreena said...

Hiya veg vixen... well, I'm not the craftiest person, but I'm thinking that a large craft supplies store (we have 'Michael's' in BC) would have some wooden or other material eggs that could then be painted. They have all kinds of wooden shapes for paint projects, so they should have some egg-shaped ones, wouldn't you think? They'd be cute and fun to work with I think. I'll have to check with my crafty friend about what her ideas are!!

Anonymous said...

I saw a lady at Michael's buying a whole bunch of wooden egg-shaped thingies a couple of weeks ago. I wondered what she was doing but I didn't clue in. Maybe that's it. Good idea.

Anonymous said...

The above msg was me. The Veggie Vixen

Anonymous said...

I made the coconut-lime cookies from Vive today. Fabulous!!

Not sure why it took so long for me to make them. I will be making them more often.

Angie

urban vegan said...

Aw...thanks Dreena!

And I *luv* all these cookies. Your cookie recipes are always spot on. I know you're known for your healthy, savory stuff but I luv your cookies best of all.

The Little Mama said...

I agree with Dynise....you're cookies always keep me coming back for more!
My sweet hubby went for a job interview in Vancouver this morning, and before he left, he made me a batch of your chocolate chip cookies! Yum! It's so hard to practice restraint... there are hardly any left! Haha!

Anonymous said...

Awesome, awesome cookies. One of the best gifts.