August 2010: For immediate release
Contact: Edy Henderson
(408) 497-8769,
EdyHenderson@aol.com,
www.veganrecipesfromtheheart.com,
http://veggiefoodandtravel.blogspot.com/

Aptos, California:
What do you serve for Thanksgiving when three of your family are vegetarians, another is vegan, and one goes into shock if he eats nuts?

If you are Edy Henderson, the author of Vegan Recipes from the Heart, you stuff a pumpkin instead of a turkey. Henderson has collected treasured family recipes and converted them into vegan, nut-free dishes. "It takes a lot of fine tuning", she admits, "to get the colors and textures right". When she orders vegetarian dishes in restaurants, her keen sense of taste allows her to reconstruct the entrees in her own kitchen. Then she modifies them to vegan status.

"On a trip to Greece," she recalls, "I ordered such wonderful salads, and most of them contained feta cheese, which I was able to re-create by substituting tofu marinated in vinegar and salt." In Henderson's blog, http://veggiefoodandtravel.blogspot.com/, she describes some of the vegetarian discoveries from her travels, and how she adapts the recipes.

Henderson's daughter Marlene, who inspired the book and the family's eating habits, became a vegan early. At age three, with sardines on her plate, she stared at the nearby tropical fish aquarium, took another glance at the sardines, and announced "Marlene not hungry". By the time she was eleven and observed a neighbor, a hunter who was gutting a deer, she thought that night's steak dinner "tasted like Bambi". She never ate meat again.

Well-meaning friends and relatives predicted that Marlene's growth would be stunted and she would have low energy. Nevertheless, Marlene grew up to become a six feet three inch basketball star.

Some of Marlene's own food creations, such as the Rigatoni and Brussels Sprouts, appear in Vegan Recipes from the Heart. Henderson's friend Charla showed her how to make tamales after moving north from Mexico. Edy's grandmother was famous for her white cake.

Even the most skeptical carnivore may become a vegan convert after tasting the Chocolate Cake. It's perfect! One wouldn't dare change a thing. So go out and purchase ingredients you may have never used before: imitation eggs, soy milk and soy margarine. This reviewer took the cake to a pot-luck dinner and it was the hit of the party! I even dreamed about it afterwards and woke up with my mouth watering.

The book is illustrated with mouth-watering, colorful photos taken by the author.
Vegan Recipes from the Heart, AuthorHouse, 2010. Available from VeganRecipesfromtheHeart.com, AuthorHouse.com, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.