I'm not sure if I told you before but I (finally!) got Hannah Kaminsky new book "Vegan Desserts - Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season" a while ago. The problem is I'm trying to avoid sugar as much as I can (it doesn't mean too much for a sugar tooth person like myself, but I'm doing my best), so it means I'm also avoiding get too close to this delicious book. You know that I'm a huge fan of Hannah's recipes and there are at least 20 recipes in the book I wish I could try as soon as possible!
Considering this, I just made one recipe until now. Shame on me or congrats, Glauce? I really don't know, but this is how things are. And I have to say that it was a partial fail too. Why? First things first, the recipe I've decide to make was the Summer (I love that the recipes are separated by seasons even thinking there's no real summer in Ireland) S'mores Pie.
Sounds delicious, right? Yeah, picture looks amazing in the book too (I also love all that amazing photos in the book and have to remind you that Hannah is an amazing food photographer too). So, where's the problem? My significant issue is called vegan marshmallow topping. I won't reveal the details of the recipe here (buy the book!) but this is kind of obvious. And even considering that I have Dandies marshmallows at home, I decided to follow the recipe step by step and make them from scracth. That was my mistake. Hanna was pretty clear in the beginning of her book that just one brand of egg replacer would work proper. Well, I don't live in the US and I wouldn't find it so I decided to risk everything and use the one that is available here in Dublin. Guess what? It didn't work at all.
But it wasn't the end of the world (well, kind of!) and the rest of the recipe came out pretty good. I didn't use Dandies anyway and decided to eat the pie the way it was. It was delicious, seriously. I wish I could eat more of it, but it was my husband that had most of it.
This experience didn't make me think the book is any worst, I love it and can't wait to try more recipes. Hopefully with no more mistakes (I don't believe on failing, do I?)
While Mellisser's awesome book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life! is sold out in a lot of websites I have to make this post to way that the winner of my giveaway didn't contact me to get her copy. I tried to contact her but nothing. After waiting one month since the post with the winner was published I decided to give the chance to another reader.
So the winner now is dolmadez (Hungry Vegan Traveler)!
Please contact me so I can get your info and ship the book :)
One day in the past I wrote here that I would do another giveaway and this day just arrived. Today is a great day for me (despite the fact that my internet at home is being a total bitch) cause I sent my dissertation proposal for the Master in Journalism I'm doing (and hopefully will be finished after this summer!). It will be about vegetarianism and press coverage in Ireland. I'm not so much excited about the course itself but I have to say that I like my topic and I hope I can do a good job.
Getting back to what really matters here, this giveaway is also important to me. Before the idea of this book came to my knowledge I was a fan of this girl's blog and when she contacted me to be part of the book I couldn't not be more delighted! I answered the questions she made, send a picture and waited for the book to come out. It's out now for a few months but just last week I got my copy. And I decided to buy one extra copy to make the giveaway.
The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by Melisser Elliott, is amazing. It's not a book just for girls but for everybody and it's full of great tips, recipes and stories. I asked Melisser to answer a few questions about the book to this post and, as usual, she was very nice and came back to me with the answers very quickly:
How did the idea of writing a girl's guide come?
I was approached by Skyhorse to write a book and I felt like there were so many amazing cookbooks out there, I wanted to go a different direction. I felt like there needed to be a hip guide to the vegan lifestyle that took an approachable tone, so I decided to write one!
What was the most interesting/funny part of the writing process?
The funniest part for me was, I was on the road for a lot of the time I was allotted to write the book. That means, the book was written all over the world on airplanes, in the back of cars, on trains, and even large parts of it were written on my phone!
You're touring a lot to spread the word about the book. Which are your favourite places/events till now?
NYC is always amazing, both events there were great, plus you can't beat the food. Manchester turned out the be the sleeper hit of the tour. I had SO much fun and the turn out was great. Seattle was also a fun one, as was Philly.
If you could give just one advice to people that are thinking about becoming vegan, what would you say?
As the Morrissey song goes, "Do Your Best and Don't Worry"! Everyone makes mistakes, but going vegan is the best thing you can do for the animals, the environment, and yourself, so strive to make the best choices each day. If you slip up, don't quit, just keep trying to do the very best you can.
Thanks a lot, Melisser!
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The giveaway
The prize: 1 copy of the book The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by Melisser Elliott.
Who can enter the giveaway? It's open to everybody in the world!
How to enter: just leave a comment saying what's the hardest topic on veganism to find information about.
Dates: the entries will be accept from today (February 24th) until March 7th. The winner will be announced on March 8th. If the winner is not a blogger user, please come back here to check the blog post of March 8th and get in touch with me because I will need the winner's email :)
Increase your chances! You can do one or more of the following things, return here and leave a comment saying which one you did (leave a comment for each extra entry so you can have more chances):
a. Tweet about the giveaway and mention @GlaucexVx and @urban_housewife
You can use this text: "All about (vegan) food (@GlaucexVx) is giving away a copy of The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, by @urban_housewife http://bit.ly/dXBWXs
b. "Like" the All about... (vegan) food Facebook page and "like" the wall post about the giveaway. You should also "like" The Urban Housewife page on Facebook (it's not part of the giveaway but it's worth it!).
c. Write about the giveaway in your blog and leave a comment here with the link.
PS. AOS LEITORES BRASILEIROS: mesmo não traduzindo o post, o sorteio do livro vale tambem para o Brasil e para respostas em português! Basta responder à pergunta com um comentário. Para aumentar as chances, basta divulgar no Twiter ou no seu blog (e postar um comentario aqui com os links) e se clicar em "Like" (ou "curtir") na pagina do blog no Facebook e também no post sobre o giveaway (e sempre voltar aqui e deixar outro comentário dizendo que fez isso também!).
