After pairing up with Isa Chandra Moskowitz for several best-selling cookbooks, including Veganomicon, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, Terry Hope Romero has decided to fly solo for her latest cookbook. Released in late April 2010, Terry helps to bring some of that Latin love to your kitchen with Viva Vegan!: 200 Authentic and Fabulous Recipes for Latin Food Lovers.

Getting the best of this cookbook may require a trip to a Latin market (or at the very least, a good once over in the Latin section of your local grocer), but Terry has you covered with a thorough discussion of the "Vegan Latin Pantry" and a detailed shopping list.

Coming to the aid of free-from dieters, Terry provides and references numerous soy-free and/or gluten-free recipes (of course all of the recipes are dairy-free and egg-free). But, if you are seeking a strict diet book, this probably isn't the one. Though there are many nutritious recipes within, Terry doesn't hold back on the indulgence factor for those special cravings. She offers recipes like Buttery Cookies with Dulce de Unleche (Alfajores!) and Crispy Fried Green Plantains.

I can't call the new Cheddar-Style Spreads and Dips from Wayfare Foods cheese, but I can call them delicious. The funny name "We Can't Say It's Cheese" really doesn't do justice to how wonderful this product is. To start, Wayfare uses only simple, whole food ingredients. Their products are relatively low in fat, made with a base of oats (seriously, you would never know), and they are dairy-free, soy-free, wheat-free (the company is working on sourcing certified gluten-free oats), and vegan! They do not make a nut-free claim, because they do use coconut oil, but this ingredient may not be a problem for most nut-free consumers.

While the dips could be likened to sour cream in texture, the spreads rivaled cream cheese in their smooth and thick consistency. Of course, the flavor was quite different … not quite achieving cheese, but heavily cheddar inspired to help address the cheese void in the dairy-free diet. I seriously liked the Cheddar-Style Dips (available in Original and Mexi) from this company, and I LOVED the Spreads (available  in Original and Hickory-Smoked). You can read my full reviews for the Cheddar-Style Dips and for the Cheddar-Style Spreads. Or, if you are a visual person, simply enjoy the pictures of the many meals and recipes that I made with these products ...

May, 2010 – AllergyEats, the fast-growing source for finding allergy-friendly restaurants, has made several improvements to its site, including the addition of 57,000 more establishments to its database, bringing the number of restaurants available for rating by diners to well over 600,000.

The additions come as the AllergyEats website, http://www.allergyeats.com/, celebrates a mere three months in existence. In that short time, the website has garnered over 8,000 unique visitors and 50,000 page views.

“We are very excited about the high level of acceptance the site has earned in just 90 days and are pleased that the food allergy community is using the site to help make more informed dining choices,” said Paul Antico, founder of AllergyEats.

Sweet Sundays: Last month we posted a press release about a new gluten-free cookbook out of Australia, Homestyle Cooking – Biscuits, Slices and Tarts by Ruby M. Brown. This book was produced in conjunction with Orgran, a company with an expansive array of gluten-free foods and ingredients. If you are gluten-free, you have probably heard of Orgran, since they are one of the biggies, and their products are distributed worldwide. If not, you can checkout their selection on Amazon and Navan Foods.

This cookbook is not strictly dairy-free, but I was informed that ... "most recipes (but not all) are dairy free. Where margarine is used in a recipe, we recommend using a dairy free margarine such as Nutalex." In North America, I recommend Earth Balance, since we don't have Nutalex ... but feel free to use your favorite. This includes the food allergy-friendly recipe for Shrewsbury Biscuits that follows.

Ruby's book isn't readily available in North America (you may discover it here soon), but it can be easily found in Australia. Nonetheless, if the following cover recipe entices you, and you are craving some GFDF biscuits and tarts, you can order direct from Orgran via mail order ((03) 9776 9044).