Hello, 2012. It’s so nice to see you. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to meet you…I’ve been in a dysfunctional relationship with 2011, and I’m not sorry to see it go.
Like any good relationship, 2012, this one will start with cookies. I’ve been wracking my brain thinking of the best recipe with which to welcome you into my life.
There are so many cultures that welcome New Years into their lives with food…Almost always, those foods are circular (so cookies were a go). But grapes have been done (in the form of raisins); collard greens, though okay in smoothies, might have been visually unappealing; and sauerkraut? Well, I’m brave, but I’m not that brave.
And then, 2012, I remembered the New Year’s Eve I spent in Austria with one of my best friends and his family. On New Year’s day, they served us little marzipan . And that made me think of the New Year’s ham that had, in the past, graced my step family’s table (kosher we are not). And then my feeble little brain, already overtaxed with visions of sugar plums past, made the almost unimaginable leap to the cookies I made for one of my former roommates as a thank you gift earlier in the year: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Covered Candied Bacon cookies. (Adapted from the ridiculously inspirational How Sweet It Is.)
The thought looked something like this: Bacon. Ham. Pigs……vegan? Yes.
And so, 2012, I took a risk. A leap of faith, if you will. And I ask you to take that leap of faith with me. Because, oh my god, was that little leap worth it:
I give you 100% Vegan Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter “Bacon”* Cookies!
Happy New Year!
Because it looks like bacon...
...and it smells like bacon...
...and it tastes like bacon...
...But it's 100% VEGAN!
Let’s make this relationship a good one, 2012.
Love & Cookies,
KP
*My “bacon” is a recipe adapted from Just the Foods‘s Imitation Bacon Bits and made with Textured Vegetable Protein, which is just a fancy word for defatted soy flour, or, more colloquially, soy crumbles. Sounds kind of not-yummy, I know; you’d be surprised, however, just how ridiculously tasty this fake bacon can be. I’m not a huge fan of “fake meat” when it comes to dinner; I prefer to accept that I’m not eating meat and enjoy the unique tastes of the different vegetable, nut, and legume proteins that I’m adding to my diet. But that said, this fake bacon is really, really, really good. And, somehow, it works when you throw it in a Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie.
KP's Cookies 
can i have the recipe to the vegan peanut butter chocolate chip bacon cookies?