I cook every day of my life. Most days I do this because I live in a world that doesn't always support my diet. But truth be told, I'd cook even if I wasn't on a strict diet, or had no dietary restrictions at all. I do it because I feel weird if I haven't cooked yet today. If I have a full day off, I spend a lot of it in the kitchen, because that's where I like to spend my days off. I really love cooking. No really, once I said to my mom, "I bet it would be fun to make your own tortellini" while we were out grocery shopping together as she reached for a frozen package of tortellini. She obviously looked at me like I had just gotten a tattoo of Glenn Danzig on my face. Anyways, the point I'm somehow trying to surface is that nobody ever cooks for me. Not that I ask them to, or that I don't go out to dinner with friends, but I can count on one hand the number of times someone has prepared something in their kitchen especially for me that I wasn't paying them for. And I have the most fond an appreciative memories of those times. 

So I went to dinner a couple weeks ago at my friends Naomi and Greg's house and they cooked for me! They made a kickass salad with garlicky croutons and tomatoes and avocados, and you know you have me at avocado, and a Jamaican stew with seitan! It was obviously delicious and I loved every bite. I made a dessert to bring along, and then realized there was no way Alex was eating a pie with 2 of his least favorite ingredients in the title of it. So I made some brownies too. 

Chocolate fudgy brownies with mini chips inside. I topped it with ganache and a sprinkle of mini chips for maximum chocolate-chip impact. Success. They were well received by both coconut and non-coconut-eating parties.

This is my pie. It's beautiful, I know. It's out of Vegan Pie In The Sky and it's called Coconut Lime Cream Pie. It needs no further explanation.

Okay, I know it's gorgeous, but believe it or not, it looks even better in non-phone pic format, which at this time I am unable to achieve.  I also made a Patstichio from Terry's book, an Appleberry pie from my pie book, and a gazillion cupcakes. Basically, I've been breakin' necks and cashin' checks, and by that I mean baking a lot. Pretty cool, huh..