The Gift of Good Food

This past week I was the very lucky recipient of a wonderful gift.

Food.

Not just any food, mind you, but homemade; personal, unique, vegan comfort-food recipes handcrafted with love, care and attention.

Creating and sharing something from your home and hearth (OK, maybe we don't have hearths any more) is a very intimate type of interaction that I think too few people engage in any more.

All of us have received and enjoyed foodie gifts - like the inevitable cookie-plate at the Christmas office potluck - and yes, these are certainly (usually - hopefully) delicious and fun and appreciated; but I think there's something even more meaningful about a gift given for no reason other than you're friends and you want to share something special from your heart and your kitchen. And while we've all heard the admonitions that food doesn't equal love, there's no mistaking that it certainly does hold a warm and cozy place in our hearts.

Which brings me to the point of this post: Wednesday evening I finally met, in person, several friends I'd struck up an acquaintance with through the wonders of the Internet, Facebook, our respective blogs, and Veggieboards online discussion forums.

It seemed rather silly to message back and forth when we lived a mere twenty minutes apart, and I'm SO very glad we finally hooked up.

Heather and Danica are the creative forces behind the amazing-looking recipes and beautiful photography at the vegan foodie blog "Soundly Vegan". Nearly every post has me commenting about how delicious it all looks. So I can't tell you how very touched I was to be greeted with a huge bag of assorted vegan yumminess, including their practically world-famous (in my mind) homemade mushroom-onion-herb tofu. A whole tupperware-encased brick of it!!! Complete with take-out box of rich, slow-cooked gravy and all the spices and ingredients to make up my own "Chicken Fried Tofu".

Why are you still sitting there? Go! Check out their recipe now!!

Let me just say, this Tofu Mom was IN. HEAVEN.!!!

So, without further raving (because I could easily do that all night) enjoy the picture of MY version of their wonderful Chicken Fried Tofu (that I immediately ran home and whipped up). Yes, it's easily as good as it looks. Far, far better in fact. See all the yummy squiggles of mushroom-y, herb-y goodness swirled through the tofu slabs? No bland, squidgy blob here!!

Made all the more special because this was a delicious, AND nutritious dinner I didn't have to sweat and slave over, it was practically done in advance, needing just a few finishing touches and some added veggies to make a meal... And it was made just for me, with as much love and attention to detail as I give the foods that come from my kitchen (when I have the time to pay attention to all those details, which isn't nearly as often as I'd like).

From a busy Mom with a limited budget, limited time, limited space, limited energy after the day is said and done - Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!!!