Vegan with a Vengeance

that have been used and loved. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that sometimes these things don’t always love you back. In fact, they may electrocute you. My rule of thumb for buying used kitchen equipment is to avoid all things requiring electricity. Once an adorable waffle iron gave me the shock of my life and you would have thought I’d learned my lesson. But no, I just had to try a used blender, as well. It was from the ’70s and the kind of avocado green that only existed in its pure form in that decade. The motor caught fire and the smoothie I was making flew hither and yon . . . it wasn’t pretty.
    My thrift-store utensils, however, have brought me much happiness. My handheld blender is unmatched in quality and design. I have a spatula that I use when cooking on cast iron. It is perfectly thin and wonderfully flexible, something I can’t seem to find in anything from the box stores nowadays. Spatulas are some of the kitchen products I totally recommend buying used. (If the fact that you don’t know where something has been appalls you, just soak the item in a little bleach and put your worries out of your mind.) The kind of quality that was standard back in the day doesn’t have to cost you today’s prices. Of course, sometimes used items are called “vintage” and cost ten times as much as they should, so I usually shop at the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or stoop and yard sales and avoid thrift stores that are too conscious of their kitsch appeal.

COOKIES AND BARS
    I defy you to show me one person that doesn’t love a cookie. Whenever I want to say thank-you to people I bake them cookies, or I at least think of doing it. Sometimes I bake the cookies and just eat them myself and then send an e-mail with dancing bunnies to thank the people instead.

Sparkled Ginger Cookies
    MAKES 2 DOZEN COOKIES
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    Maybe these chewy, spicy sweet cookies are good any time of the year but I like to save them for the holidays. They make me nostalgic for the snowy winter days at grandma’s cabin, sitting around the fireplace in our flannels singing ... OK, fine, my grandma didn’t have a cabin. There was no fireplace, no flannels, but these cookies sure make me wish there had been.
    4 tablespoons turbinado or demerrara sugar (regular sugar will work as well but coarse is best)
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    Â¼ teaspoon salt
    2½ teaspoons ground ginger
    Â½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
    Â½ teaspoon ground cloves
    Â½ cup canola oil
    Â¼ cup molasses
    Â¼ cup soy milk
    1 cup sugar
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two cookie sheets. Place the turbinado sugar in a small bowl.
    Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, molasses, soy milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and combine well. Roll into 1-inch balls, flatten into a 1½-inch-diameter disk, press the cookie tops into the turbinado sugar and place 1 inch apart sugar side up on a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, let cool on cookie sheets for 3 to 5 minutes, transfer to cooling rack.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
    MAKES 3 DOZEN COOKIES
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    There’s nothing healthy about these. I feel like I have to get that out of the way because sometimes people think vegan translates into healthy and although I usually try to make my cookies a little bit more healthy than your average cookie, I didn’t even bother here. This cookie was made for the sole purpose of proving to someone I work with that my vegan cookies were just as good as his unvegan ones, and it worked!
    1 cup nonhydrogenated margarine, at room temperature
    1¼ cups sugar
    1 tablespoon molasses
    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    2½ cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1 teaspoon salt
    1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips (I looove Tropical Source ones)
    Preheat oven to 350°F.
    Cream together the margarine and sugar until fluffy. Add the molasses and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls spaced a little over 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until ever so slightly browned. Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Maple Walnut Cookies
    MAKES 3 DOZEN COOKIES
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    When I first discovered maple extract you couldn’t stop me from