Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles and Almond Pignoli cookies. From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Holiday baking is such a treat – these babies are destined for our friend Leslie. This was my first time baking either recipe – but I’ve learned you can rarely go wrong with this tasty little cookbook. I want to eat the pages, everything looks so amazing. Or, even better, get that machine from Weird Science and feed the pages into that.

Cowgirl Cookies were in order:

The stickers on the back were contributed by Casey.

I’ve been reading Food Revolution by John Robbins. With the exception of this blog, I don’t go didactic about veganism with the people I interact with. I simply do my best in my daily life to eat, shop, and live sustainably and cruelty-free. But this book makes me want to liberate livestock from factory farms, chain myself to old growth trees in endangered-soon-to-be-clearcut rainforests, and pelt the headquarters of U.S. agribusiness giants with their own toxic genetically modified frankenfoods. Which is funny, since Robbins isn’t a rabble-rouser. His writing is quiet, factual, and behind every word is a deeply felt sadness for the state of our planet. Yes, he’s preaching to the choir when vegans read his book (although there’s plenty for vegans to learn to reinforce their commitment to the lifestyle), but everyone has so much to learn from Food Revolution. If I had just one wish, I’d use it to get everyone in the world to read this book and take its lessons to heart.

This is my first ever recipe! That I wrote, that is. And it’s so easy, it practically writes and makes itself. I’m not a sushi expert, but this is how I make it and it’s fun, tasty, and quick. You will need a bamboo 9.5 x 9.5 sushi mat.

Sweetie Roll (Mango-Avocado-Tofu)

Makes 4 rolls

1 cup short-grain (japonica sushi) rice

2 cups water

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1/2 ripe avocado sliced lengthwise

1/2 ripe mango sliced lengthwise

3 oz. Teriyaki baked tofu (I looooove Wildwood) sliced lengthwise

4  sheets nori seaweed (I like Emerald Cove Organic Nori)

Soak and wash the rice until the water is clear. Transfer to saucepan and add 2 cups water. Cook until water is absorbed – rice should be tender and sticky. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the rice vinegar. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Lay 1 sheet of nori on the bamboo mat, making sure the perforations in the nori are lined up horizontally. Use your wooden spoon to spread a thin layer of rice on the nori covering the entire sheet edge to edge.  Make a thin line of sushi fillings an inch from the bottom edge of your nori. Don’t place too many fillings in the roll, or it will be too big and won’t roll nice and tight.

The trick is to use the sushi mat to make your roll nice and round and uniform. Roll from the bottom, going slowly, and tucking the mat in around the nori. As you continue to roll up, use the mat to tuck the roll around itself.

And there you have it! Slice the roll into 6 even pieces, and place on your favorite sushi plate. Garnish with some pickled ginger and a dab of wasabi, and hand out the chopsticks!