I did it all for the....cookies.....

Me and the wife had the hawt date Friday evening indeed, we made a new cookie recipe! You will recall that I am vegan. Yes, take a vegetarian and take it to ELEVEN (if you remember your Spinal Tap). So, no cheese, dairy, no eggs. BUT, living at this point in time and in Moosewood's hometown, it is pretty flippin' easy to be a vegan indeed.

You say "why be vegan? are you some kind of commie pinko America hater?" and what you love about America is that although 97 percent of Americans eat meat, they aren't as mean and insulting to vegetarians and vegans as they could be.

I have been vegetarian since I was 16, 30 years! Yes, there were a few times I was off the wagon, but I am absolutley and entirely disinterested in the stuff. Is it the nausea inspired by imagining slaughterhouses? You betcha, that was why I started, reading Sinclair's THE JUNGLE. And basically, you meat eaters will be alll like "oh, but man was made to eat meat!" and I counter with "people used to eat bugs, and a lot of people still do, does not mean we have to!". Basically, people, rats, dogs, other animals are omnivores, but as humans in modern America we can eat what we feel is healthiest. I choose to eat this way. I would eat dairy but I have an allergy. Fact is, as the book SKINNY BITCH pointed out, vegans are pretty damn trim and healthy.

My own feeling is this: if we still had cute little farms like farmer MacGregor in PETER RABBIT a hundred years ago, you know, a patch of veggies, a cow, a few chickens, etc, farm food would be pretty awesome. What we have now is, to my mind, plastic wrapped junk from filthy factory farms. I am not interested.

Anyway, you eat what you want, that is your business and I could care less what you do.

Back to the cookies. I came across this chocolate chip cookie recipe this week and it turned out so beautifully you should try it! My guests would never know it was anything but rich and delicious. Here is the original link, and below the pics is the recipe.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup dark chocolate chips/chunks (make sure they're vegan!)

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp dark molasses

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips.

- In another bowl, combine the vegetable oil, milk, vanilla, and molasses.

- Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix well with a wooden spoon and your hands to get the mixture well incorporated-it will be crumbly.

- Roll dough into compact balls, place on a parchment paper-lined pan, and squish them down to form saucers.

- Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe yields about 16 cookies.

Am I the only one who remembers and still loves Limp Bizkit? They did it all for the ......