I have explained before that I am a cookbook lover. I have two shelves filled with vegan cookbooks, and a few that are not vegan but are easy to modify. Yet I keep adding more! I just love them! The two new ones to come into the house are:

- "Everything Vegan Coobkook" by Jolinda Hackett

- "Everything Vegetarian Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Amy and Justin Snyder

I purchased the vegan cookbook a month or so back. The other one I checked out of the library. This
 week, on the same evening, I made a dish from each of them for dinner. From the "Everything Vegetarian Slow Cooker Cookbook" I made the stroganoff. The recipe sounded great and the sauce tasted good. However, it is clear that nobody has tested this recipe prior to putting it into th e book. I was a little leary when putting everything into the slow cooker, because it called for four cups of vegetable broth. Now, I make stroganoff on the stove and don't even use a full cup of vegetable broth, so I really wondered why so much. I almost didn't put that much because I really didn't believe it should have four cups. But I decided to follow the recipe exactly as it was printed.

I was right! Four cups is way too much. It produces soup to put over your pasta! I used a whole 13 ounce box of pasta (whole wheat, which absorbs even more) and it was way too much. It was literally like soup. I took half of it and put it in a container to use for another night, and poured half over the bowl of pasta. It was still too much and made for a very drippy sauce. If you do make this recipe, don't follow the directions in using four cups of vegetable broth. Stick with no more than two cups and you will still have more than you need. Tasted good, but the amount is off because using four cups produces way too much sauce and makes it very thin and drippy.

From the "Everything Vegan Cookbook" I made the potatoes "au gratin" casserole. I loved the idea of
these "scalloped" potatoes because it's been a long time since I had something like this. The recipe was easy to follow and we loved it! The casserole came out really well. The consistency was great and they tasted really good. Two thumbs up on these. I am sure I will be making them again! If you used to like the boxed scalloped potatoes and want a vegan version this is it!

There are additional recipes in both that I want to try yet...