Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is the founder of Compassionate Cooks and is the author of the award-winning cookbook “The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks’ Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets” and the upcoming “The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion.” She is the host of the popular Food for Thought podcast, is a columnist for VegNews Magazine, is a contributor to National Public Radio, and has appeared on The Food Network.   So clearly when Colleen tawks food, we listen, and prepare our Cuisinart for battle.

This is a delicious red pepper spread with walnuts and a hint of spiciness.  Make this the day before serving to allow the flavors of the spices to mix.  The olive oil may separate slightly, so stir well before serving. Makes 1 cup or more.

Ingredients
2 to 3 whole roasted peppers (from jar or roasted yourself)
2/3 cup bread crumbs (see below to make your own)
1 cup walnuts, toasted
4 large garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons clover agave nectar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more for added spice)

Directions
In a blender or food processor, combine the peppers and all the remaining ingredients. Taste, and add more spice or salt as necessary. Serving suggestions and variations
* Garnish with toasted pine nuts
* To toast walnuts, just place them on a toaster oven tray and toast for 5 minutes; watch closely or they will burn.
* Serve with pita triangles, fresh bread, crackers, chips, carrots, mushrooms, cucumber, etc.

To make your own bread crumbs: Place some bread (stale bread works great) in the oven until it’s crispy but not really browned - at 300 degrees). Let it cool, then add it to your food processor until it is reduced to crumbs. Add Italian herbs such as dried oregano, thyme, basil, marjoram, rosemary, black pepper, etc. Enjoy!

To roast your own pepper: Heat the oven to 525 degrees (or use your broiler if you have one). Place peppers on an oiled cookie sheet. Roast on the highest rack for about 30 minutes or until they turn completely black. It’s not necessary to turn them. Remove them from the oven, and put them in a paper bag right away. Let them cool before handling them. The blackened skin will then just peel off after only about 10 minutes in the bag. Roasting peppers over an open flame is also a great way to do it (and you don’t need any oil). Use your gas range or grill. Use tongs and just turn over an open flame for about 10 minutes until charred. Proceed as above.

The Vegan Table is officially due out in June 2009. The cookbook features everything from romantic meals for two to formal dinners, casual gatherings, children’s parties, and holiday feasts. Full of entertaining tips and food lore, The Vegan Table should be on your wish list asap. Sample recipes and information on where to purchase it can be found at www.vegantable.com. For those in the San Francisco Bay Area,  attend the launch party at Numi Tea on June 7th. RSVP at http://vegantable.eventbrite.com/.

With Mother’s Day nipping at your precious heels, we asked Gift Giving Expert Jennifer Pete to share her tricks to buying your Mammazon just what she’s been dreaming of (besides a hot oil massage by Fabio).

When I think of a perfect gift, I think of something that taps into the details of the occasion and recipient. In the same way I don’t prefer cards with someone else’s preprinted sentiment; I don’t enjoy hitting the Him/ Her/ Romance/ Just Because options on a large retailers website. I start asking myself questions that lead to clues, that tops it all off with something super sentimental or unexpected and lots of “How did you know’s”?. It doesn’t even need to be an intimate relationship for me to apply this gift giving method. It works for that first meeting dinner party, or a colleague or the random wedding invite for someone who I haven’t seen since I was 10. Of course, it gets to a whole other level if I have shared time and experiences with this person. Then I can take an actual moment and connect it to some “thing” that I can wrap up in parchment paper tied with a shade of color that suits them best.

How do I do this? Two ways really, being tuned in to what’s happening around me and jotting things down when they pop up. Are those funky tights peaking out from under those sleepy taupe trousers? What was that random mention about imported chocolate? Is that book they are reading new, used, from the library, fiction or not?

Clues can be found everywhere:

• Desks
• Screensavers
• Rearview mirrors
• Accessory choices (or the lack of)
• Colors people chose to wrap themselves in
• Stamps in passports
• Magazines in bathrooms, coffee table contents, night stands accoutrement
• Choice of cocktail consumption
• Certainly in conversations-from deep to passing

The clues keep changing and are always there; you just have to be open to them and refuse to just go through the gift giving motion. One of the next big gift occasions for most of us is Mother’s Day. I’ve put some ideas together to get your juices going. Don’t have a dime to spend this year? No worries, I’ve got that covered too.

For the Hostess With The Mostest Mama

Ice Milk Aprons Heirloom Kit: Each comes with a heritage tag to stitch your initials, a set of recipe cards, custom monogram and either in full length or short apron. These delights can be passed down forever! Available here: www.icemilkaprons.com

No dinner party planning Mom can resist the allure of a really beautiful serving tray.  Like this modern and chic green (both in color and in practice!) serving tray from Urbana Design.  Find it online at www.designpublic.com.

Metaphorical Mom

Limited Edition Binth Prints: Prints often say more without saying anything at all. The gorgeous details in these limited editions can have mom seeking the meaning for many days to come. These arrive matted and cellophane wrapped. Available at www.aplusrstore.com

Mother Earth

Toting Not Tossing: Let’s face it totes can be found everywhere these days. But the line out of this Brooklyn boutique are fun, stylish, and printed both inside & out. Perhaps fill it with homemade vegan muffins. Find at www.kitlili.com

Indulge her in earthly delights from eco-chic line Edun with this universally flattering and elegant sweater featuring asymmetrical geometrical and made from 100% organic cotton. Available on www.nimli.com.

For the Yiddishe Mama

Let her stand up as yo’ Mama loud and proud on this, and all days with this cute tee from Rabbi’s Daughters.  Buy it at www.RabbisDaughters.com

Put It On Paper

No budget? No worries. Grab some paper & pen. Comprise a list of “thank yous’” as far back as you can remember. From the trips to the park in the rain, for the way she made your special toast before school, for not judging while you dated the broke drummer for way too long, or perhaps putting aside a passion or two so you could find your own. If you are feeling super brave, finish the list up with “I’m Sorry For…”. Poke a hole in the corner and tie with ribbon or string. You can’t put a price on that.

Jennifer Pete is the creator of the gift giving service Storiesofgen.com and partner in web based delivery service Zifty.com in Atlanta. Between her two lively companies, she is fantastically distracted by her one year old baby boy Seven, husband Tyler and their three rescue dogs Miles, Carmen and Scout.

GirlieGirl’s resident single gal, Daiva Deupree, looks back at her dating history. You’ll probably relate to much of what she says, or at least have someone fabulous to set her up with (that’s what the comments area is for).

Five different people are trying to set me up right now. I’m being attacked from every possible angle; email, Facebook, voice mails, at cocktail parties where my defenses are at their lowest. You name it, and someone is trying to set me up at it, or through it. And against my better judgment, I’ve decided to take everyone up on their offer, no matter how creepy that guy looks. Because, if nothing else, BAD DATES MAKE FOR GOOD COMEDY, and I am devoted to anything that might make someone laugh. That, and maybe I’ll get a few free drinks out of it.

I’m trying to figure out when all of this happened. When did I become that girl that everyone wants to set up? When did my friends/people I barely know, decide that I am not equipped to meet someone on my own, and reinforcements must be called in STAT? When did I officially become the “eternally-single-wacky-best-friend” in this sitcom? Somewhere along the road I made a horrible wrong turn, got off at the wrong exit, or just plain ran out of gas, and now I’m sitting on the side of the highway waiting for AAA.

My cousin got married a few weeks ago. I spent the whole wedding at a table with my dad, step-mom, and their friends. THE. WHOLE. WEDDING. It was like I was one of them. I have now made it to that place where I’m an adult…with the adults…at the adults’ table. I’ve crossed over. Towards the end of the reception, as the band wound down with the pre-requisite “At Last” my father and I sat and watched the “young” couples dance. That is awkward enough, but then he leaned over and whispered, “Well, I love you, Dave.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I whispered back, and checked my Blackberry. I’m not sure what I was checking it for, but it’s what I do when I get anxious…I check it…all the time.

My father gave up on me settling down a long time ago. Probably when I ran away to Paris to go to mime school. But he didn’t make it official until two years ago. We were having lunch at a little café, and in between spoonfuls of Vichyssoise, he looked at me and furrowed his brow. That’s the first sign that something uncomfortable is coming. The furrowed brow is followed by and short stare and then the rubbing together of his hands. Then there’s a: “So, Dave…?” After this he crosses his legs and sort of rolls his ankle around til he picks just the right words. This is what he picked that day:

“Do you ever feel like maybe you’re just destined to be alone?”

Huh. Destined to be alone. We’re there already. I could tell he had more coming, so I just let him go.

“I mean, you don’t have the greatest track record,” and then he started listing off all the people who had dumped me over the last few years. Counting my failures on his fingers for fear he’d loose track. I could see them very clearly as he listed them. The one who “Memo Dumped” me in an email that he probably wrote while his girlfriend was sleeping, the one who “Shock-and-Awe Dumped” me right before we started our shift at a giant Italian restaurant, and the one that’s STILL dumping me. He dumped me right before this serene-doomsday lunch my father and I were having, and every once in a while, out of nowhere, he sends me an email or a text explaining why he doesn’t want to marry me. I call that one the “Michael Jackson Dump”…just when you think he’s gone for good, he comes back crazier than ever.

Now, my father doesn’t know this, but I’ve even been dumped by someone I wasn’t dating. I did a show with him, and when he decided to move to Europe, the rest of the cast and I threw him a going away party. I had no interest in this man whatsoever. He came over to me, and I thought we were just going to say goodbye, but instead…out of nowhere…he “Ninja Dumped” me.

“I think you’re a really great girl,” he said, “and I know you feel a strong connection to me, but this just isn’t a good time. I’m so sorry to do this to you, because I know you’ve been hurt before, and you’ve got self-esteem issues, but I have to. It’s just not going to work out between us. Maybe in another life.”

I was shocked into silence and looked around to see if anyone was witnessing this…if anyone was going to step in and say, “Dude, WHAT are you doing!?!”

But no one saw it happen, not even the guy I actually was dating (who would later dump me in my apartment by saying, “I think I’m done trying to pursue a sexual relationship with you.” - I haven’t come up with a name for that one yet) nope, not a soul. He walked away, and I sat there stunned on a humiliatingly small barstool.

There are some girls who inspire lavish gift giving from the men they date. I have known these women; I have seen the jewelry they’ve collected over the years. I am not one of these women. I am not a girl who gets flowers or jewelry, I am a girl who gets dumped in a bar on a tiny stool, by a guy she’s never dated.

And so, here I am…accepting friend requests…typing, “He sounds great!”…and signaling for another Jack & Ginger while agreeing to go out with your friend Josh…and at the very least, my Girlies, there’ll be plenty more where this came from…

Love always,

Daiva

Daiva is still currently single.

Daiva Deupree is an actor, writer, and part-time wedding planner who lives in NYC.

Summer feels like it’s here, or is that just wishful thinking?  Either way, it’s time to break out the beach blanket and sit in the park, with a thermos full of Sangria, travel scrabble, and a stack of delicious books to zip through.  And we have the first of your must-reads right here:

FOR THE FAN OF GRIT

Fans of teen angst lit will feel the nostalgia seeping through your converse kicks as you stumble through the pages of Jolene Siana’s teen diaries.  Well, more like letters.  She wrote one (including some really gorgeous drawings) every day of her teen years to “Skinny Puppy’s” Ogre Nivek, and he saved the letters and gave them back to Jolene years later.   “Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock Cutter” will leave you happy you are grown up, but kinda jonesing for a clove cigarette and a door to slam.

Get your paws all up in John Joseph’s revealing, page turning memoir “The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon” STAT.  Fans of the Hardcore scene will remember his band the Cro-Mags, but those who have no idea who they were will still go bonkers for this mind-blowing story that takes you through John’s disturbing and often hilarious childhood, and all the way up to his years terrorizing NYC’s (then mean) Lower East Side streets.  This book will leave you clutching your sides in suspense, wondering what will happen to this genius hoodlum with heart.

FOR THE FAB FEMINIST

Can you get yourself going sans vibrator?  Want to get to the root of your orgasm? “Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm” will take you on Mara Altman’s journey to her pleasure dome, and teach you some tricks n tips about your own va-jay-jay on the way.

Rebecca Walker has long been one of our favorite authors.  Her “Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self” has long been on our favorite book list.  As if we needed more reasons to girl crush her, she just released “One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry,Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love” which perfectly illustrates the changing realities of modern domestic life in 18 fascinating essays.

FOR THE ECO-TRAMP

Love DIY style, but have no sewing skills?  “Sewing Green” by Betz White will give you every lil’ nugget of info you need to make 25 adorable projects from organic and repurposed materials.  Plus tips and resources for earth-friendly crafting!

We regularly recommend “Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World”
by Diane MacEachern to anyone from newbies to old hat environmental activists.  Ladies, think of this as your living green bible.  You’ll learn absolutely everything from how to start wielding your purchasing power for the good of the planet, to the true ramifications of our bad habits.  And we promise, it’s actually a fun read you will want to devour from cover to cover.  As Laurie David (founder of StopGlobalWarming.org and a producer of An Inconvenient Truth) says; “If you take just a few suggestions from Big Green Purse, you will be on your way to being part of the solution instead of part of the problem.”

FOR THE GIRL WITH NO ATTENTION SPAN

“My Little Red Book” by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff provides brief anecdotes (90 in all) about first-time periods  written by a vast array of fine folks. Rachel, a freshman at Yale, has a global mission (women’s health and reproductive rights), and she perfectly pulls together a fun, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes hilarious compilation of “What the heck is that red spot in my drawers?!” stories.

Always wanted to know how to get past the VIP ropes of the hottest club, or the best gear at the Stella McCartney sample sale?  Peg Samuel’s “How To Be A Social Diva” will give you the insider deets you need to live like a jet-setting social climber, if that’s your bag.  Lest we judge, you will also learn some fun and helpful tips like how to fit your life into a clutch bag, which glass to use for which cocktail, and how to shmooze yourself into a fully booked restaurant during prime time hours.

FOR THE PERVY NOVEL LOVER

The hype about Charlotte Roche’s “Wetlands” is all true.  It’s mind-bogglingly disgusting.  Like, you’ll want to barf reading about the Protaganists fluids, odors, and discharges… and, worse, what she likes to do with them.  But it does leave you with questions about our obsessive hygene histeria, and remind you that (for the most part) it’s okay to let yourself just be once in a while.

“Brass” by Helen Walsh is perhaps the hottest, filthiest book we have ever read.  As Publisher’s Weekly says; “Millie’s {the main character} caustic commentary on the electro-charged sexual and intellectual power of postadolescent women heralds the arrival of a promising new voice from the darker fringes of antigirlhood.”  Helen Walsh’s sexy, dark, chick-noir voice will make you want to drink a martini and get spanked by someone wrong for you.

That should get you started!  Expect more reading lists as the warmer months envelope us with long days to read by the lake and dream your little dreams.  Have a recomendation for us?  We love hearing your faves! Share it below.

Princess Superstar is not just a highly in-demand DJ, famous rapper, East Village Legend, and noted Glamazon.  She’s also a raw living expert, who says that her recipe for creamy vegan strawberry mousse is not only sugar free and super sweet, but has made many a man fall madly in love with her after eating it.  Delish, nutrish, AND an aphrodisiac?  Sign us up!

INGREDIENTS:

Note: these ingredients may sound weird and exotic, but they are all easily available at any Health Food Store near you.

• 1 small jar Artisan Coconut Butter
• 1 large carton organic Strawberries
• pinch of Sea Salt
• 2 tbl (non-gmo) organic Soy Lecithin
• 1 tbl Vanilla Extract (get the one without alcohol in a glycerin base)
• 2 cups brewed yogi tea; Vanilla Tahitian Hazelnut Flavor (2 teabags)
• 8 drops Stevia (”I like the flavored stevias by sweet leaf, they are amazing, 0 calories, 0 impact on glycemic index, and is all natural from a fiber”)
• 1 tsp Maca (optional)
• 1 tsp Cinnamon (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make the yogi tea and throw away the teabags, after reading what Yogi Bhajan has to say of course. You can also do it without the tea and just use water but then add more vanilla and more stevia. Careful on the stevia though because too much will make it bitter. I’ve also used Bengal Spice tea by Celestial Seasonings in this recipe and it’s amazing. If you use the tea it will be warm and will help melt the coconut butter so it will blend well.
2. Reserve 6 strawberries, remove their tops, and put all ingredients preferably in a Vitamix but any blender will do. Vitamix and Blendtec blenders make the best consistency, in my opinion.
3. After thoroughly blended up, refrigerate for at least a couple hours, until it gets a thick moussy consistency.
4. Serve in a pretty dish with a strawberry on top. You can substitute bananas or any fruit for the strawberries and make any kind of fruit mousse, yum yum yum!

Princess Superstar and her beloved cockatiel, Patanjali.

Check out Princess Superstar’s gorgeous new site, and read all her healthy living tips while you listen to her dope beats: princesssuperstar.com.