There are so many exciting things going on today, I can hardly contain myself.
First, I’m happy to reveal the official Canadian cover of my cookbook at long last!
What do you think? As you may know, I have a long, passionate history with parfaits so I think it’s quite fitting. I love how fresh, healthy, and colourful the cover is. The U.S. cover, while super fresh and colourful too, is completely different. I’ll be showing you that cover in a future post.
Some fun facts about the book:
- More than 100 vegan recipes – including over 95 gluten-free recipes!
- Around 100 full-colour, full-page photos
- 8×10 inch trim size
- Very nice paper quality and thickness
- A huge vegan pantry section detailing all of the main ingredients I use
- 10 recipe chapters: Breakfast; Smoothies, Juices, and Tea; Appetizers; Salads; Soup; Entrees; Sides; Power Snacks, Desserts, and Homemade Staples
For more info on the book and where you can pre-order online, please see this page. I’ll be updating it with other retailers soon!
A little story for you – this cover photo wasn’t the original parfait photo. When my editor told me that they were selecting my parfait photo for the cover, I panicked a little. You see, when I shot the photo I wasn’t planning on it being the actual cover photo and even though I liked the shot, I would’ve spent more time styling it had I been shooting for a cover. It’s like your significant other telling you that you are going out to a nice restaurant and then you find out you are actually going to dine with the Royals. No matter what you had on, you probably still feel underdressed. You feel me? So, I persuaded my editor to let me reshoot the cover, even though I knew they were in a big time crunch. Promising it would be back by the end of the day, I raced around town to assemble my props and ingredients, baked the granola, meticulously styled the parfait, and spent a long time trying to get the perfect angle I needed for the cover.
I had a laptop tethered to my camera so I could see the incoming shots and another laptop next to that one with the original parfait photo on the screen. If it wasn’t the perfect angle with the right amount of space for the title (after being cropped to 8×10” trim), I knew it wouldn’t be accepted. I also took the same shots with about 4 different spoons because I couldn’t decide which one looked best. Some things never change!
Thankfully, we all ended up loving this photo more than the original so it was worth the extra effort.
This concludes my Canadian cover story. :)
As it turned out, I ended up re-shooting tons of recipes in the book, especially the photos that I shot early in 2012. My photos have changed a lot in a year so the ones I shot in 2012 stuck out like a sore thumb and were driving me crazy. If I write another book, I’ll try to shoot the photos as close together as possible (probably near the end since I ended up re-testing many recipes anyway) so my style doesn’t change too much.
5 Years
Today also marks this blog’s 5th birthday! Oh how they grow up so fast. My very first post, Boo, was written on October 31, 2008. Here is the very first thing I said on my blog 5 years ago:
“Am I ever glad it’s FRIDAY!!! What a long and exhausting week.”
and then I talked about the weather. Oh boy. Some things never change.
It’s hard to believe I’ve shared almost 500 vegan recipes since then. I’m often asked by friends and family if I’m ever sick of creating recipes and taking pictures, but if anything, delving into something so much has only increased my interest for it. Sure, some days I want nothing to do with it, but thankfully that’s rare. I can honestly say that I love what I do and you, my lovely readers, are a huge reason why. It’s been really fun to get to know many of you and be a part of this community. Even if we’ve never met, I hope that some day we do.
Each year, I feel like I can trust my instincts in the kitchen more. This is something I rarely did when I started out. Everything felt much more rigid and intimidating, but I’ve noticed a real shift in recent months. I thank the cookbook for really pushing me out of my comfort zone. It’s starting to feel more enjoyable, especially with photography. I’m learning to trust myself (and the food) and this doesn’t just apply to the kitchen, but in many areas of my life. So my advice is not to get discouraged if you are new to cooking (or photography) and feeling overwhelmed, it takes time to feel comfortable!
Eric and I have many fun things planned for the future of this blog, starting with our very first vegan recipe app that will be launching soon. Eric is building it on his own and I am helping with the design work and recipe uploading. It’s going to feature the popular recipes from this site as well as totally new recipes you won’t find on this blog. We’re hoping to release it by the holidays, but I won’t make any promises yet!
Aside from some new projects, I want to keep growing as a writer, recipe developer, and food photographer. The saying, the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know, rings true. And that’s exactly why I don’t get bored with it. Most of all, I want this blog to continue to be a place of inspiration for a compassionate plant-based lifestyle. Every time I hear from a reader who has fallen in love with a recipe or got their meat-and-potatoes dad hooked on veggie burgers, it really makes me feel like I’m on the right path doing what I should be doing. Who knows what I’ll be doing in 10 or 20 years down the road, but for now this feels right and I couldn’t be happier to be here.
I’ll leave you with this…
We decided to go with a cat theme this year. Sadly, I can only take credit for the gut-scooping. Eric is the master carver (and crazy cat man, obviously).
If you are looking for last-minute Halloween recipes, see this page. I have lots of recipes from vegan candy (think homemade Twix, Rolos, etc) to dips, soups, and everything in between!
Happy Haunting!
Hi Angela,
I’ve been following your blog since the summer and what a great find.
And even though I’m a relatively new follower there’s heaps of back reading to keep me happy and of course occupied with by attempting the recipes, which have all been successful. Your dedication to detail whilst being consistently creative shines through.
Is there a plan for releasing the book in the UK? If not I’ll guess it’s a case of ordering plus shipping costs.
Stunning stuff and thank you.
Hi Janet,
Thank you for the note, this means so much to me. I do expect the book will be sold to an overseas publisher, however I probably won’t know that info for a while. I will be sure to follow up with my editor to see how that process works and when it usually happens! Thanks so much for your interest in the book!
Happy Blogiversary!! You were the first blog I discovered when I switched over to a vegan diet, so you have been a HUGE inspiration to me. Because of your blog, I was encouraged to try different flavor and food combinations that I never would have considered before. My cooking has come a loooong way and now I have a blog and vegan related business of my own. I’m still pretty small potatoes, but I’m glad you inspired me to at least give it a try :)
BTW, your book cover is gorgeous and I loved the “behind the scenes” shot!
Awesome. Pre-ordering!
Congratulations! I’ve been following you for years now (you’ve been such a great inspiration in my own eating/cooking/blogging path), and the Cookbook is the best news yet! It was such a natural progression, but with years your pictures & recipes have gotten more and more beautiful / mouthwatering – it’s just the perfect timing.
The cover looks so fresh & natural, I can’t believe it wasn’t taken outside!
Thanks so much Matea. I’m off to check out your blog!
Hi Angela,
I just wanted to say that I’ve been reading your blog for a little over two years now and I LOVE it. It is hands down my favorite vegan blog (and I read a lot, maybe even too many :)) Your pictures are gorgeous and your recipes are always delicious and inspiring! And something else that I really admire about your recipes is that you really keep health in mind, which I’ve noticed some vegan bloggers do not. I’m currently getting a masters in nutrition and last weekend my class went to a health expo and I can’t begin to tell you how many women asked us for ideas for healthy recipes and I told many of them to check out your site. Anyways, I absolutely cannot wait for your cookbook and thank you so much for doing what you do!!
Congratulations! I’m so excited for your cookbook. I love that it will have lots of photos. Nothing irritates me more than flipping through a cookbook devoid of pictures. I would find it odd if your cookbook didn’t have so many photos given what beautiful photos you take of your creations.
What wonderful milestones! Congrats on both your gorgeous cookbook cover (can’t WAIT to get it!) and 5 years of blogging. Your photos and recipes are always a great inspiration to me.
P.S. I accidentally posted this comment on your first post…haha :)
No pressure or anything with that cover shot, eh? :) And why does it always go down with books like this…you have months and months of nothing to do with a certain task and then all of a sudden, the editor needs something THAT DAY and it’s mission critical and everything else in life has to be stopped to meet that deadline. Yeah, been there. But thankfully not with the cover shots! You did a great job with the photo (obviously you know that) but I love the play of the textures and the colors that pop!
And 5 years later…I know I have read every post you’ve written since early 2009 because that’s when I started my blog and felt like your blog was already so huge and magnificent :) The more we learn, the less we know. Isn’t that the truth.
Congrats on such an amazing 5 yrs!!!!
Congratulations on 5 years! The book cover looks fabulous, I wish I had one of those parfaits for lunch today. I can’t wait to see the entire book.
Happy blog anniversary Angela! I found your blog about two years ago and instantly fell in love with it. Your blog has a warm inviting feel that makes you want to come back every day. I introduced my mom to your blog and she fell in love with it also. Every time we talk on the phone we always say “ did you see Angela’s new post, doesn’t it look SO good!” lol Thank you for the great tasty/looking recipes!
Love the Canadian book cover! Can’t wait to buy it
Have a great day!
Sarah
It is beyond beautiful, Angela. Bright, clean, fresh, inviting, happy. Just like you. xo
Happy Cat-a-ween! Happy anniversary! Happy cookbook cover! I’ve pretty much migrated to an 80/10/10 diet but I still am totally going to buy this! I can’t wait. I’m so proud of you and truly appreciate you sharing yourself, your life, and your delicious recipes for the past several years.
This is SO exciting! I’ve been reading your blog since 2009, when I discovered you through Weight Watchers message boards and “The Green Monster.” You are the reason I even know blogs existed and helped me find my love for green smoothies and healthy, real foods! I can’t wait to purchase your book. I live in the US but I love love the parfait picture and wish I could have that book! (I know, I’m weird) Is there a big difference between the Canadian version and the US version? I do love the carrots cover too, though! Congrats!! You deserve the best :)
Yay! I’m excited about the book! Congratulations and the cover looks great. I love the spoon, by the way. It’s the first thing I noticed. I can’t wait to get my copy and try out the recipes :)
Congratulations Angela, on your 5th anniversary and your new cookbook. Can’t wait to get it!
I hope you realize how many people you’ve inspired over the last five years. I’m one who is relatively new to your site (About a year) and I check in to see what’s cooking every day! You must really love what you do because it is reflected in your writing and your generous spirit in sharing all these wonderful recipes with us.
Gorgeous cover. Your attention to detail is inspiring :o)
Congratulations on 5 years – you have accomplished so much, it is amazing to see. Thank you for being such an inspiration. I really love every single one of your posts!!
I am beyond excited for this, Angela! If you’re doing a virtual book tour; sign me up! This is already on my christmas wish list and has been for months!!
Congratulations, happy anniversary and Thank you for all that you have give to your readers! Question…will there be a digital version of the cookbook on the horizon???
Yay for your book! The cover looks gorgeous, I must say — and it’s great to know that all that hard work paid off. :)
And, with that, happy Blogiversary (or however you spell it)! OSG is one of my favorite places on the Interwebz, and I’m so very glad that things worked out for you the way they did. Here’s to many more years of blogging fabulousness!
Congrats! I can’t wait to purchase your book! I have loved everything I have made from your site so far and I am looking forward to having more recipes in hard copy