cookbook

0 February 7, 2019 Cookbook

Cookbook Diary #2

Everyone makes mistakes! They happen at the beginning of projects, during and right on through to the very end. Luckily, our journey in life can be about progress and not perfection.

I usually don’t have issues with spelling. In junior high, I got to skip every other spelling test because I always got a 100%. I had more issues with grammar, passive voice and weird sentence structure. I’ve never considered myself to be a great writer, but spelling was something I was good at. Then I realized I spelled cookbook incorrectly many, many times, especially in my blog title and graphics. Cookbook is all one word, not cook book or Cook Book. So deceptively simple!
I do like the word separated, but I think that is because I like to be different!

It looks like in 2014 when I was first brainstorming about this project, I was spelling cookbook correctly!

We learn, fix our mistakes and move on!

1 January 20, 2019 Cookbook

Cookbook Diary #1

The Cookbook Diary of Chef Veggie - Cristina Carolan

It’s 2019! I’m committing to continue to work on my cookbook dream.

Part of doing that is to make more of a habit to write and to take some of the fear of putting down my ideas in a concrete form instead of having them float around in my head. Ideas into action! More creating instead of trying to learn and consume.

So I thought that if I made more of a public space to do that it would bring more accountability and also a tangible log of what I’ve actually done.
I often times will look so far in to the future and not be aware of what I’ve already accomplished.

I’ve read and listened to a couple bloggers who have documented their cookbook journey and I found them to be both fascinating and humorous.
I read Anna Watson Carl’s Yellow Table and her journey to self-publishing several years ago start to finish. It is an inspiring look into self-publishing.

Jessica Murnane’s The Cookbook Deal was hilarious and REAL. So much happened to her during the process of writing the book. She was super honest about the ups and downs and eventually had a beautiful cookbook!

So here I am, putting myself out there and seeing where this journey takes me! For a preview of my cookbook’s website, check out:
http://www.plantbasedpacific.com

Thanks for reading!
Cristina

0 April 30, 2014 Blog News

Mom’s Visit to the Philippines

My mom recently went to visit the Philippines. Since she went during the school year, I could not go with her.
I have been to the PI several times in my life but not as a vegetarian. The last time I was there was in the late 80’s and I’m sure many things have changed. I remember staying in an open atrium Hyatt hotel in Baguio but this later collapsed with the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

She got me some goodies including ube jam, candied pili nuts, pinipig, filipino coffee & chocolate and various sweets. I would love to go an eat lots of unprocessed tropical food. I think it would be easy to be a raw food vegan in the Philippines! I rarely eat dairy products anymore but I did try some of the sweets like polvoron and pastillas which do have milk as an ingredient. My 95 year young grandma makes polvoron around Christmas time with a spring mounted brass mold that she has used for decades. I am working on some vegan versions of these classic filipino sweets, which brings up some exciting news.

I am devoting much of my time this summer to working on a cookbook that I started 2 years ago. Chef Veggie is taking a break from the personal chef business for June, July and August. The cookbook will be Vegan Filipino Food along with perhaps fusion/Asian/Hawaiian recipes using whole food ingredients. The Filipino community in Hawaii has some interesting dishes that I would like to include. My daughter did a school project about the Nipa Hut (Bahay Kubo) and I will incorporate that into the title. I have a bunch of recipes tested but need better photos and also testers that are not familiar with Filipino food. Let me know if you are interested. I am hoping to have the script and photos done by September!

Here are some recipes that I know will be included so far:

Bulanglang

Achara
Various Adobo dishes
Arroz Caldo
Bulanglang
Tofu Fish Escabeche
Jackfruit Kaldereta
Torta Talong
Sweet Tempeh Longanisa
Siopao
Tinola
Lumpia (3 kinds)
Mongo Soup
Pan De Sal
Pancit (3 kinds)
Putong Puti
Bilo Bilo
Bibingka
Halo Halo
Turon
There will be vegan potluck ideas and also how to have a Kamayan (Hands only!) feast! I will be visiting a Moringa (Malunggay) Farm in June!

I will have an English/Tagalog ingredient list and also resources to find or grow rare items. I’m really looking forward to sharing this and will be posting more recipes soon!