Kathy Hester, author of "The Vegan Slow Cooker," has a few upcoming events throughout the Triangle.  Here are the details:

• Hester of Durham is teaching a cooking class at 6 p.m. Jan. 18 at the Savory Spice Shop  in Lafayette Villeage, 8470 Honeycut Road, Raleigh. Reserve a space by calling 900-8291.
• Hester will discuss her book and sign copies from 7-8 p.m. Jan. 31 at The Regulator bookstore, 720 Ninth St., Durham.
• She also will speak at the culinary book club at Durham's Southwest Regional Library at 7 p.m. March 13.

photo courtesy of julia simon

I ran across Julia Simon's blog, no face plate, last week while perusing one of my favorite food blogs, the kitchn, and found some really great vegan and vegetarian recipes.  Julia works as a personal chef in Charlotte doing gluten-free, vegetarian meal planning and prep and she is also working on a cookbook.  She is a vegetarian about eight months out of the year (due to her love of artisanal cheese) and chooses a vegan diet to cleanse the other four months out of the year.  Check out this super creative burrito sushi recipe Julia came up with.  Wow!

A friend recently pointed me to this lovely Canadian food blog, butterfly food, and I asked permission from Ashley Colbourne, the lady behind the beautiful photos and blog, for permission to include her roasted beets recipe.  If you have not seen it, the blog is definitely worth a spin.

Check out this hummus vegetable pizza recipe from one of my favorite design blogs, poppytalk.  The recipe can easily be made vegan by leaving out the ricotta cheese.

I usually don't think about eggnog too often considering that I've been a vegan for years.  However, this holiday season I have been hearing a lot of people raving about eggnog so when I ran across this vegan recipe on Post Punk Kitchen I thought I would share it.  Maybe a little late...or just in time for a New Year's party!

OK. So artisanal tofu may not be an entirely new concept but we may see it tempt eaters on a wider-scale.

Check out this interesting USA Today article about the Hodo Soy Beanery backed by John Scharffenberger.  They haven't hit the East Coast yet but hopefully it will just be a matter of time.

Also, the beanery has an interesting website with tofu recipes!

Tickets are still available for the Triangle Vegetarian Society's annual Thanksgiving for the evening seating at Spice Street in Chapel Hill.

The daytime seating at Durham's Parizade is already fully booked. (I went last year and I have to say the food was delicious.) Go HERE to buy tickets and more information.

The Bull City Vegan Challenge will announce the restaurants with the winning dishes next Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at The Pinhook. The party goes from 5-9 p.m.

Go HERE for more details.

This is the last week to taste the dishes competed as part of the Bull City Vegan Challenge.