People Who Need People

I checked out a whole stack of vegetarian cookbooks from the library yesterday.  As the librarian scanned the books, she asked, "Who is the vegetarian?"

"I am," I answered definitively.  Yeah, that did not last.  "Well, sort of.  I'm trying.  Seeing what works."  My voice trailed off.  Ugh, I sound like a kid trying to explain being late for curfew.

"I've been a vegetarian all my life," the librarian said and smiled.  "My kids, though, you know kids.  They do what they want."

I really wanted to start asking questions.  All your life?  What do eat every night for dinner?  How do you handle parties? What do you do when you go over to someone house?  Don't you get tired of all the thinking about food?

Instead, I made some nonsensical comment about kids and parents, and took my books and left.

I realize I need people.  Books and websites only get you so far.  I need to talk to real people about this.

Caught Between a Wrap and a Pizza Place

My daughter went to a birthday party on Saturday.  It involved some driving for most of the kids going, so the parents of the birthday girl were kind enough to set up an area for the parents.  The food table offered some sandwiches and fruit.  The sandwiches looked lovely and it was lunch time, but not a vegetarian choice to be had.  A little later, they brought out pizza for the kids.  So my choices were: eat nothing, eat a healthy meat-based wrap, or eat unhealthy but vegetarian pizza.  What kind of choice is that?  Sure I could have taken apart a couple of sandwiches and made a new one with the vegetables and cheese, but who does that?  I don't want to be one of those people who makes a scence when they is "nothing they can eat."  I would not insult my hosts that way when they were kind enough to offer anything.  I could just not eat, but it was a long time and I was hungry.

So I ate half a wrap and half a slice of pizza.  The worst of both worlds.

I am suppose to be eating healthier and making better choices with food.  I feel like that is not happening, not yet.  Sure chips & salsa are vegetarian, but some lean turkey has to be the better choice. More things to think about.

Just a Little on the Side

I served a Tex-Mex rice bowl for dinner last night - rice, beans, lots of vegetables and some good spices.  I thought it tasted pretty good, but no one one said anything while they ate.

"What do you think?" I asked.
"It's okay," my daughter answered.  "It needs something."
"It's fine," my husband said.  "It just seems like a side dish; like it should be on the plate with some chicken."
Sarah got excited.  "Yeah, this needs some chicken.  And lime juice."

I have been making a lot of "bowl" food lately - soups, stews, casseroles.  Part of it is the weather (so cold!) but part of it is my lack of creativity.  I don't know how to put together a full plate that will resemble the meat-starch-vegetable plates that we know so well.  I have been hitting the cookbooks and websites, but fake meatballs just don't interest me.

In the meantime, we are having soup tonight.  I am adding fancy grilled cheese sandwiches so we can use some plates.

Chili-Corn Bread Pie

Finally a recipe worth sharing!  This dish is perfect for the weather we are having in the Northeast.  The aleppo pepper adds a gentle, smoky heat.  I am not a big fan of spicy food, but I love this pepper.  If you don't have a specialty spice store near you, try an online retailer like Penzeys Spice.

Chili-Cornbread Pie
serves 4-6

1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 medium celery stalks, diced
1 15 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 T chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp (for mild) - 1/2 tsp (for medium) aleppo pepper
1 8.5 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1/2 c milk
1 egg

Heat oil over medium heat.  Add all the vegetables and saute for 6-8 minutes.  Add tomatoes.  Stir in spices.  Add beans.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by half.

Meanwhile, combine the corn muffin mix, milk and egg.  Do not overmix; some lumps are fine.  Transfer the chili mixture to large baking dish.  Spread the corn muffin mixture over the top of the chili in an even layer.  Leave a little space between the edge of the dish so the corn muffin mixture will not stick to the sides.  It is fine if some of the chili seeps through.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 16 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

I used a 10" x 10" baking dish.  Don't go too far from this size or the corn bread will either be too thin and will burn, or too thick and won't bake through.

What IS That Thing?

Let's play a game!  Can you guess what this is in the bowl?

No guesses?  Okay, multiple choice:

a. material cleaned from a frat house carpet
b. sludge taken from the Elk River
c. toxic results of high school science experiment
d. vegetable soup

Now let's try process of elimination.  It can't be A because a frat house has never been cleaned.  It can't be B because making fun of those suffering, waterless folks in West Virginia would be mean (paper plates for everyone!).  It can't be C, because the students involved would be getting in the shot for a selfie.  So, D?  Seriously?  Yeah.

I tried Mark Bittman's recipe for roasted vegetable soup. It was a lot of work as the results were, to say the least, not appealing.  The flavor was fine, if a little bland, but the consistency was so unappetizing.  Maybe a little overzealous with the blender?  A little light with the salt>  I don't know, I'm just glad I don't have to eat it again.

If You Give a Vegetarian a Roast Beef Sandwich

I have been reading back issues of Vegetarian Times and each issue includes a "Happy Vegiversary" telling the story of a reader who is motivated enough to apply to appear in the magazine.  See, even vegetarians want their 15 minutes, and they come up with stupid words.  The first question is "What motivated you to go veg?"  All the answers seem to be some variation on "I made friends with a duck and never ate meat again."  Really?  NEVER again?  Well, three weeks in, and I ate half a roast beef sandwich.

Sarah brought it home (as I mentioned before, the family is not giving up meat entirely) and left it in the refrigerator.  I could have thrown it out - but how can you throw out a perfectly good sandwich?  Isn't throwing out meat more wasteful than eating it?  I was so hungry and I could not muster the energy to chop or peel or cook or even think of another thing I could eat.  Thin sliced roast beef on fresh chiabatta bread with just a dusting of kosher salt.

Now I am suppose to say that it tasted terrible, or I felt sick to my stomach, or the guilt overwhelmed me, or I will never ever do such a horrible thing again.  Yeah, no.  It tasted so good.

Regardless, I still believe going vegetarian is worth the effort so I will try again.

Here is a picture of a scary goat to remind me of how angry the animals will be with me.  You are worried about the machines taking over?  Planet of the Apes is way scarier than Terminator.

Run!  Save yourself!

Meet the Family

That's our 11-year-old daughter, Sarah.  She is smart, sassy, sensitive and silly.  She is also very skinny.  In the last couple of years, we have had a real problem getting enough calories into her to keep her growing the way she should.  Sarah is an adventurous eater with a taste for the exotic so we have never had to deal with picky eating.  While Sarah is all for this going vegetarian experiment, if there is a choice between not getting enough calories or eating meat, I am going to feed her meat.

I have been married to my husband Matt for 17 years.  He hosts a party every summer he calls "Ribfest."  He owns a smoker and has spent a lot of time perfecting his dry rub mix and homemade barbecue sauce.  His job takes him to some of the meatiest restaurants in New York City, like the Capitol Grill, the 21 Club and Bobby Van's.  He will not be going vegetarian with me.  That said, Matt is willing to eat what I cook even if another chicken never crosses his plate.  "That's okay," he told me, "I don't really like chicken anyway."

What he does like is taking pictures of food - food he cooked, food he ordered, food other people are eating.  Our vacation photos are peppered with plate shots.

A few samples of his cooking:

jambalaya

pulled pork & cole slaw

couscous & Moroccan beef

Speaking of carnivores,

That's our Lucy.  You can tell that this vicious killer is descended from a wolf.  She has a delicate stomach, skin allergies and an anxiety disorder.  I am not changing her food.

Food & I : A Love Story

For this project to make sense, you need to understand my relationship with food.  In Facebook parlance, it is complicated.

I Am Fat
I would not strike fear in the hearts of fellow airline passengers, but by any objective measurement (BMI, weight charts, the fit of my pants), I am overweight.  This has been true since early adolescence. I have been much heavier than I am now and I have been much thinner.  Right now, I need to drop about 20 pounds.  I spend way too much time thinking about my weight instead of doing something about it.

I Am No Food Snob
With a few exceptions.  Sure I love a good goat cheese and fig canape, but I will be just as happy burning the roof of my mouth on an English muffin pizza.  I prefer "real" food to packaged, though I am not above using frozen fruit, canned tomatoes, or dried herbs.  I do not like fast food but if you've got a Wendy's Frosty, I wouldn't mind having a sip.

My one big area of food snobbery?  Italian food.  I grew up with an Italian-American mother who knows how to COOK.  (If you grew up in an Italian-American family, you understand the caps.)  Cheap or poorly made Italian food just makes me so sad.

I Am a Decent Cook
Notice I did not say good, or accomplished, or gourmet.  I am enough of a perfectionist to follow a recipe, but I am not confident in my ability to improvise.  It will be interesting to see if I can get significantly better since I will have to work outside my comfort zone.  You know how all the cooking shows talk about knife skills?  Yeah, I don't have any.

My Sweet Tooth Is Dinosaur Size
I would have dessert with every meal, including breakfast, if it were socially acceptable.  I keep sweets out of them house as much as possible because I  have zero self-control.  Give me a glass of milk and a box of graham crackers, and you won't hear from me for the rest of the afternoon.

Call Me Moderate, or Lazy
Or you could say I have a problem with commitment.  I am not a fan of "always" or "never."  I have never tried to alter my diet so drastically as I am doing with this experiment.

Pictures - I promised pictures!  I am usually the one with the camera, so I don't have a good picture of myself that I am willing to post yet.  Here are some pigs, since I won't be eating these anymore either.

Let's Do This Thing

Can an 40-something housewife rise above her food apathy and change to a vegetarian diet?  I don't know; that's the experiment.

First, defining terms - for me vegetarian will mean no meat or poultry.  Eggs, dairy, and fish are still on the table (literally).  I am not going to worry about things like chicken broth or gelatin when I eat out, at least at first, but I will not use those things at home.

I will be sharing the experiment with my husband, Matt, our daughter, Sarah, and our dog, Lucy.  I will be the only one going totally vegetarian, though their diets will have to change considerably as well since I do the majority of the family food shopping and meal preparation.  Except for Lucy; she gets whatever she wants.

Expect lots of failure and setbacks and maybe a few successes along the way.  And pictures - I love stories with pictures.

Here is a picture of chickens, since I won't be eating them anymore.

 And some pretty flowers, to get me thinking more about plants.

 I feel less carnivorous already.