A veggie list

Today marks the "official" beginning of the holiday-shopping season. Here are a few items that might be good for the vegetarians on your gift list -- or that you might want to put on your own list for Santa!

A wok: Stir-frying is a low-fat, quick way to cook. Chop up some veggies and stir-fry with some seitan and sauce, and voila! A carbon-steel wok seems to be the most-preferred kind. And make sure it's a flat-bottom one.

A vegetable steamer: Either an electric one, a bamboo one that can be used with a wok, or a steamer basket that goes inside a large pot. Great for cooking vegetables in a low-fat way. A bamboo steamer is perfect for making steamed, filled dumplings.

A subscription to Vegetarian Times or VegNews.

Cookbooks: I have a confession to make: I'm a cookbook-aholic. I own far more cookbooks than is necessary, but I'm of the mind that you can never have too many cookbooks -- unless you run out of shelf space, as I have done! Here are a few suggestions:
*Any of the 11 cookbooks put out by Moosewood Restaurant, a restaurant in Ithaca, N.Y., known for its healthy, natural-food cuisine. I have (and use a lot) Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites, which won a James Beard Award in 1997.
*Another cookbook I use a lot (and which was a gift from my co-blogger, Julie) is Passionate Vegetarian, by the interestingly-named Crescent Dragonwagon.
*The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein. I haven't bought this one yet, but I have my eye on it. I love Mediterrean cooking, so I really do need a cookbook devoted to it. Plus, the Mediterranean diet is a very healthy one.

The Bountiful Container, by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey. This is one of my favorite gardening books, and even though its focus is on container gardening, it has a lot of really good general information. There are pages devoted to individual vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers, detailing different varieties and how to plant and harvest them. It also includes some intriguing recipes for using up your bounty. (Who knew you could make Begonia Sorbet?)

A fun T-shirt that advertises the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, such as Don't Have a Cow, Man, Seitan Worshipper or I :Heart: Tofu.

Do you have any good gift ideas for vegetarians, or is there something veggie-related you're hoping to get?