Raw Giveaway

My partner, housemate and I all decided to adopt a high raw food diet for the next three weeks. What better way to get my blogging habit back in business than to have delicious recipes, pictures of yummy food and maybe, just maybe, a one week trip to a raw vegan B&B to start it all off?

uncooking101 is giving away a week's stay at a raw B&B - the drawing is minutes away, so if you're reading this immediately after posting, click here and go comment to enter. If you missed the drawing, like them on Facebook to get recipes and raw conversation as a part of your daily fuel.

Stay tuned for more on my raw vegan adventure!

Domestic Goddess

I got home late...again.

This happens surprisingly often, but sometimes, on my good days, things are just flowing at the office and it's easy to keep going. The hours fly by and then it's 7 o'clock before I'm leaving for home. Tonight, A surprised me by having dinner in the make when I arrived. As I was finishing up a conversation on my phone, he set the table and when I hung up, it was hello, sit down and here's a beautiful salad and chick'n cordon bleu (not real chicken) with peaches for dessert.

I feel pretty lucky at the moment. And well-fed. Smart man, very smart man.

Stiching Bitch

I am a goddess of domesticity. Picked up this months Vegetarian Times magazine and discovered some great recipes from culinary students. I decided on a very Julie/Julia whim to make all of them. So far I've made the bruschetta, the green beans and tonight, the soup. All delicious and I think the best is yet to come in a wild mushroom ravioli in browned butter and sage sauce. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

So, after making a fresh soup and cleaning up the kitchen, I threw the laundry in and started pressing my sewing project. Yes, I said sewing project. At long last, I am sewing. Just a couple of car garbage bags to start with, but still, sewing. With my new computerized sewing machine that I got for Christmas. And it was so easy. Granted, I wasn't doing anything too complicated, I wasn't quilting or embroidering or anything like that, just a couple simple straight lines to close up the straps for the bag, but I feel so very accomplished.

If I was a housewife/homemaker, I would be the Queen of Suburbia. I might already be the Queen of Suburbia because I do a lot (read: IT ALL!) while owning and running my own business. Basically, I kick ass. And I do it with only the tiniest resentment that my partner isn't very domestic (domesticated?)...but I guess I do like my men wild.

OMG, I love Veganomicon

I don't even know where to start this story...at VegFest where I did NOT buy VCon? With the other soup I made from VCon? Or perhaps with my New Year New Food Planning Plan? Since A awaits me below with a video (free video day from RedBox - holla!), I'll be brief.

I have a New Year New Food Planning Plan. Part of that plan is to make a specifically vegan dinner one night of the week...actually, now that I think of it, tonight was soup night...and tomorrow's planned meal covers multiple categories, too...okay, let me explain. The Productivity Pro's mom had 31 meals that she made every month. I thought this was brilliant, but couldn't think of even 7 recipes/meals that I knew how to make and wanted to repeat.

My alternative is to select 7 categories of meals and make 1 from each category each week. Ala Julie/Julia (I confess I just read the book and watched the movie), but with a little more leeway. So my categories are: vegan, raw, soup, rice/beans, pasta, Indian and take out/date night, because come on, let's be realistic.

So for dinner tonight, soup night (not vegan night after all, but since VCon is in action, it turns out to be), I made VCon's Broccoli-Potato Soup with Fresh Herbs. I made A stop by the market for mint on the way home and it was totally worth it. I had salad ready for us when he come home - that and the baguette he picked up held us over until the soup was ready. I almost wish I had more room for soup tonight, but on the other hand, I can't wait for leftovers tomorrow!

Tomorrow's plan: Pumpkin Saag - Indian and vegan!

Christmas Came Early this Year

I got a Vita Mix blender for Christmas. A tried to tell me I'd have to wait until Christmas to open it, but I wheedled and whined until he relented. I'm actually finding myself a little intimidated by it, but am starting to find my way. This blender is amazingly powerful and much more of a machine than it's brothers by Oster. I watched the intro DVD and can't wait to put it through all of it's paces, although I must confess I'm not sure I'm ever really going to "cook" soup in it (yes, the blades create enough friction that you can actually cook in it!).

So far, I've made smoothies, pudding and ice cream in it and couldn't be happier. As I work on my weight loss goals, I'm happy to have this tool on my side. I make a smoothie every morning for A and I and we end up feeling full and nourished until lunch time. And when dessert is just yogurt + frozen berries (basic frozen yogurt recipe) or a pudding made of banana, berries, avocado and even greens, there is nothing to feel guilty about. I even told A that I've been putting greens into the smoothies and he didn't bat an eye!

Thanks Santa A - I love my Christmas gift and won't be sad when I don't have anything to open on Xmas day!

Hot and Heavy

A friend on FB said, "Today is a coffe day." To that I reply, which day isn't? But I do agree - it's a cold, cloudy morning, perfect for a cup of creamy, dark bittersweet perfection which I picked up at Dutch Brother's this am. After a few tries, I learned how to properly order my drink of choice:

medium 1/2 decaf vanilla soy latte - no foam

And when they handed me my drink, I made a comment akin to the old, "I like my men/women like I like my coffee..." when I said, "ooh, it's just how I like it: hot and heavy."

Funny, eh?

This Week From The CSA

This week's CSA bag includes:

• lettuce
• green beans
• a fresh-cut herb - if we're lucky enough for this to be basil, I'll be making B's Basil Balsamic Mashed Potatoes with that and the Yukon Gold's below - they're just so good, you have to try them!
• summer squash - probably eat these shredded with a little cheese or nut cheese again or maybe grilled in our new grill wok
• cucumber - mmm...sliced with some tomatoes and beans, a little rice vinegar...refreshing
• Yukon Gold and/or Red Chieftan potatoes - whatever doesn't get mashed, I'd like to roast in the grill wok with some rosemary
• leeks - might try a raw Cream of Leek soup - looks pretty good
• blueberries - always good raw for breakfast

We haven't used much from the last bag, except we ate the fruit fresh right away. I'm hoping to make some Scrumptious Green Beans tonight from my Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Recipe Book maybe with last week and this weeks green beans. We'll definitely do a big salad each tonight, too to finish off the lettuce from last week. Seems we're always playing catch up with the food from the week before. It's too hot to cook much, so as much as I can do raw, we'll do raw. Hoping to clean the kitchen, make some food and take the dog to the dog park tonight before going to a social outing at the local roadhouse pub. Ambitious schedule, but I feel pretty energetic after a morning taiji session and a 16 ounce double shot latte.

This Week From The CSA: Thank God, it's FRUIT!

Went nuts cleaning out the fridge last night - we ate salad with garlic roasted fava beans, zucchini hummus with pita and loads of pea pods raw. Delicious and just in time for another bagful of produce from our CSA. I'm really not keeping up, but I'm doing my best. This morning I made us a savory veggie tofu scramble (including cabbage, carrots, onion and zucchini from the CSA) which we both enjoyed. It was weird eating it with toast, but somehow it worked.

This weeks bag includes:

• lettuce - salad, maybe taco tonight?
• a legume of our choice (pea pods or green beans) - probably cleaned and eaten raw as snacks again - they travel well and are delicious
• fava beans - will be roasted with garlic again, they were yummy.
• blueberries - yum!
• Kotata blackberries or gooseberry or jostaberry - yum!
• black cherries - yum!
• fresh cut chives - these will go well with the potatoes I've been craving
• summer squash - if it's zucchini, more zucchini hummus - it's so good - or shredded and lightly cooked with a little cheese - like mac and cheese, only I feel slightly less guilty

Note: the CSA recommends cooking the three types of berries we're getting into a cobbler and I say, no way. These babies are going to be enjoyed fresh and raw! I may like cooking, but I have to say that the raw food movement has definately taught me that some things are best enjoyed in their natural state and berries are one of them! I can't wait to give myself a sweet treat tonight - hope A doesn't eat them all before he gets them home!

Getting Excited About Raw Again

Working my last weekend at the market and trying to be very diligent, but it's challenging. A is picking me up here after work, we're buying some sack suppers and heading out to a concert at the zoo. Meeting many friends, including some who planned a "masala" wedding and now have a lovely child, with whom A is smitten. Should be fun.

In the meantime, I've eaten both a bagel and macaroni and cheese today, but am dreaming about raw food. I want a Vita Mix blender so bad that I'm considering just purchasing one on my credit card. Oh, bad American! Slap to the wrist. Anyways, I got ahold of this book from a friend of mine and can't wait to make some of the recipes in it. The pictures make the food look mouth-watering-ly delicious!

I mentioned the possibility of a raw entree at our wedding, but A thinks not so much. I reminded him of his earlier assertion that it's my wedding and I should have it the way I want it. I am tempted to ask for some really off the wall things just to see how far I can push it. At any rate, having a raw entree doesn't seem like such a wild idea to me. If everyone selected this option, we could have trouble keeping up, but I think most people would not be into it. But I know that I and my lady-in-waiting* certainly would.

*I haven't chosen or requested anyone to be in my bridal party yet as I'm waiting for a count from A, but assuming I have any bridal party, I assume she is waiting to be asked, hence, lady-in-waiting. And it's very regal and even though I don't really want to be a princess and certainly don't want to be a princessa and just is fun to say.

This Week From the CSA

I went through the fridge last night and cleaned house. We still haven't touched the cabbage, but that'll keep a little longer. I made a chili with some of the dried beans, but though soaked, they hadn't cooked last night - I'm hoping the day in the slow cooker will do the trick, because I'm looking forward to a bowl of warm chili this afternoon. I threw in a bunch of peppers that I got free at the market, some of the onion from last weeks bag, some corn off the cob and a tiny bit of broccoli I found in a bag hiding in the fridge. It might seem weird to put broccoli in chili, but the best chili I ever made was thrown together with bits I had in the freezer once when I was poor and hungry and included a whole bag of frozen broccoli. Spiced it all up with a little chili powder, some cayenne and a lot of chipotle powder, because I just can't get enough of it.

We had taco salads for dinner last night using Fantastic Brand black beans - they were delicious and a great addition to the salad despite being pureed. If no chili tonight, then bean dip! Used up most of the remaining lettuce and decided to cut and clean the lettuce immediately as it arrives for easier usage. It's hard to want to make a salad in the evenings after work when I know it involved cleaning cutting so many veggies.

So far, what we have left from previous weeks includes:

• rhubarb - going to make another pie, just need to get some berries
• lettuce - just a bit, probably eat today as side salad
• pea pods - these got lost in the fridge - we'll probably eat them raw because they are sweet and delicious
• onion and dried beans - these will last a while
• cabbage - need to make saag one of these nights - that'll make it go quick. If that doesn't happen, then I'm making sauerkraut
• zuchini - raw pasta makings! Or raw zuchini hummus. Or dog food. :)
• carrots - general use and A keeps eating them raw which is great!
  

This week's bag includes:

• lettuce
• pea pods
• fava beans - never eaten this!
• cabbage
• blueberries - I've been eating blueberries as a nice light breakfast and it seems to be quite nice.
• summer squash
• a fresh cut herb
• sedum - never heard of this! It appears to be a garden plant and NOT necessarily edible. So far the other two plants are still on my kitchen window ledge, but A says he's got potting soil somewhere and I know we have pots, so I'm planning on digging in the dirt a little later today!

We'll see what we end up doing with this bounty!

Barbecue

BBQ'd tonight with friends we met on the wedding cruise this past December. Though these folks live just 15 minutes away, we haven't seen them since then and have only spoken to exchange pictures immediately after the trip and to coordinate dinner plans for tonight. I don't know why we let such time go by as they are delightful. Our mutual friend, the bride from the cruise wedding, came up for a visit, so we all got together for a barbecue dinner and long visit.

Our meal was delicious: Dr. Praeger's California veggie burgers - brushed with EVOO before grilling, eaten with condiments between lettuce leaves - delicious! Watermelon, cob corn, grilled asparagus and strawberry shortcake and white wine for dessert. Two important lessons: 1. EVOO brushed on garden burgers before grilling helps them stay moist and 2. no white wine for me - I woke up with a hangover despite only drinking about 3 ounces.

I had a good time catching up with everyone and even found out about a local adoption agency that some friends of our hosts adopted a baby through. Even though I felt fatigued by the late evening and woke up not feeling well, it was a great night and gives me the idea of something to look forward to - only 2 more weeks until I have a reasonable work schedule again. It may satisfy some need to overachieve to be able to respond positively when asked "do you work..." but I will be even more satisfied to share my evenings and weekends in the companionship of my partner and good friends.

This Week From the CSA

I haven't had a chance to even look at this weeks bag. A brought it home and put it away and our fridge is getting very full with all this produce. It doesn't help that I did a pretty good sized shop or that the top shelf and door of our fridge are relatively unusable because of a delicate seal. So, in my effort to plan and not waste as much as possible, here's my ideas of how to use this week's produce:

• lettuce - to be made into salad hopefully before it browns! Taco salad? Tomorrow!
  
• cabbage - mmm...Indian cobi saag - should make this in the morning or evening and eat as leftovers.
  
• broccoli - more?! I love broccoli, but I can't keep up!
  
• a sample of the first of the summer squash - where is this?
  
• edible pea pods - eat raw?
  
• rhubarb - another pie, probably
  
• orange carrots - guess I shouldn't have bought that 5 lb bag!
  
• an herb plant (mint) - still needs to be repotted

This Week From the CSA

This week's bag contains and was used to make:

• rhubarb - Rhubarb Daquiri
  
• edible pod peas - eaten raw as snack
  
• lettuce - used as a wrap for garden burgers, perfectly sized small leaves
  
• onion - saved for later use
  
• dry mixed beans - saved for later use (maybe chili?)
  
• beets - steamed greens and beets (not very successfully); plan on finishing beets cold in salad
  
• broccoli - steamed greens and ate with macaroni cassarole; ate "tree" part separately
  
• cauliflower - Broccoli Bisque soup from Blossoming Lotus cookbook, modified for cauliflower
  
• a potted marigold flower - needs to be re-potted, still sitting on my windowsill dying
  

It may be New, but it's still Mexico

Traveled with A and his parents to New Mexico and found New Mexico charming. I was pretty enthusiastic the entire trip and found myself exclaiming about how "cute" everything was. There are a few words I dislike, among them and high on the list, are cute and stupid, so I felt pretty stupid blathering on about how cute everything was.

At any rate, I loved New Mexico. We landed in Albuquerque Sunday afternoon and spent the day with our friend D who showed us the sights of Albuquerque including old town, the plaza and Tingley Beach. She explained that many of the towns in New Mexico are centered around a plaza and church, which shopping a restaurants all around. We saw a lot of life in these plazas including tango dancing, choirs, Indian vendors and even just locals having a lunch break. Shopping around the plaza in Albuquerque had better prices than around the plaza in Santa Fe, but there is ever so much to see in both places.

I learned that barter is still practiced in New Mexico when a pair of earrings we were looking at dropped quickly from $120 retail to a special offer for a pretty lady at $25. I'm cheap, but I think even spendthrifts will find that they don't need to spend more than $5 to get some great turquoise and silver earrings. One great place to shop in Albuquerque is the Blue Portal (2107 Church St NW) which is a craft shop for seniors. It's run as a charity, so the seniors who's work is sold get 100% of the price you pay and there is no tax on the items. The prices were much more reasonable than at other shops as there is no mark up, but the selection was somewhat limited.

Monday morning, we picked up A's parents in our rented Prius and drove up to Santa Fe by way of Madrid, New Mexico. Pronounced mad-rid like "mad hatter," Madrid is the cute artsy town featured in the movie Wild Hogs. It was a great halfway point on our drive up the turquoise trail and we were delighted with the galleries and boutiques. I especially was drawn to the works of Ms. Liz Falkoner, a local artist in Madrid who's gallery Tombo is an old train car with a couple of dogs to welcome you out front. I also loved the gourds by Carol Lee and was especially intrigued by Liz Paterson's white clay pots and sculptures. I left Madrid with the feeling that I want to resume my own artistic creativity!

When we arrived in Santa Fe, we were pleased to check into the Villas de Santa Fe where we had a 1 bedroom condo - I'm sold on the idea of a condo for traveling - it's so nice to have a kitchen and a place that feels like a home. A and I even headed out to the Santa Fe farmer market Tuesday morning for some fresh produce. The prices seemed steep, but we later realized it must be hard to grow fresh produce in those local environs. We picked up some tamales for dinner that night and salad fixins. My only regret is that I didn't get the local kombucha I saw there - I thought I would see it around, but I never found it again and would have loved to try it as the flavors, like Sangria and Mojito, sounded fantastic!

Lots more galleries in Santa Fe - including the Mineral and Fossil Gallery where A purchased an interesting 150 million year old fossilized squid piece. We didn't even get to see that much of Canyon Road as we started out near the plaza. The drive by we took later was just enough for A to know he needed to go back for photos the next morning and me to know that I could happily return to Santa Fe another time in the future. Our other explorations included churches: San Miguel Mission and Loretto Chapel; food: Upper Crust Pizza (whole wheat crust! yum!) and Bumble Bee Baja Grill (squash quesadillas are my new favorite!); and chocolate!

Oh, the chocolate! A sweetly put together a list of the best chocolate places in Santa Fe for my tasting pleasure. It was catch as catch can and we nabbed chocolates whenever we could find them, but were surprised at the dearth of chile inspired chocolates. At Todos Santos, we tried the red chili and tangerine cream truffle - it was good, but not quite spicy enough for our local adventure. At Kakawa, we were put off by the incredible focus on elixirs, but tried a couple of truffles and elixirs anyway. From the mildest Marie Antoinette to the strongest Aztec Warrior, we decided that cocoa elixirs were not for us. We did enjoy the truffles, though. Number 1 for us was the Peach Pink Peppercorn truffle which neatly combined the sweet peach and spicy peppercorn flavors. The Gorgonzola truffle was also quite good, but we are biased to our own local smokey blue cheese truffle. Another interesting taste that we didn't love, but which is worth a taste was the paprika truffle. Basically a chocolate truffle rolled in paprika, it's strange at first because it's a whole lot of paprika, but once the flavors blend in your mouth, it's actually quite good. After that, we were on a mission to find chili chocolates.

A wrong turn put us at Chocolate Maven, but we were in no mood for distraction, so it was back into the car until we finally found our original destination of Chocolatesmith. Next time, it would be worth taking time for Chocolate Maven, but every time, it's worth taking lots of time for Chocolatesmith! Both were featured on Food Network which will make them popular tourist spots, but you don't get on Food Network for nothing! Chocolatesmith was generous with their tastings and we were able to try many things, including a white chocolate lavender lemon bark and the mountain bark (with cherries, coconut, toffee and white and dark chocolate!), both of which we loved. In our excitement over the green chiles, we even forgot to try or purchase any red chile chocolates, so those are on my list for when I go back! We walked away with dark chocolate dipped ginger; pistachio, cherry and green chile bark and a single spat all of which were consumed with great delight. It's hard to say if I liked the bark or the spat better - the spats are "Pan Roasted Tamari Piñon (pine nut!) in a bed of Buttery Home made Caramel trimmed with Dark Chocolate" and were DELICIOUS! The sum of our chocolate tasting - yes, there is good chocolate to be had in Santa Fe!

We also spent some time in Bandelier National Park after which I welcomed the highlight of our vacation: a trip to the spa! A booked us a room at Ten Thousand Waves, but not just any room, the best room they have, the romantic Ichiban private bath house. It was an amazing place to relax and rejuvenate and an even more amazing place to receive a marriage proposal. Yes, A asked me to marry him while we were relaxing together at the spa and I said yes. This vacation and this place will therefore always hold a special remembrance in my heart.


Must do's next time I'm in Santa Fe:

• Try local kombucha
• Canyon Road art galleries
• Chocolate Maven: breakfast and baked goods
• Chocolate Smith: more spats, red chile chocolates
• More authentic New Mexican cuisine
• Ten Thousands Waves, again and again
  

This Week From the CSA

A and I are excited to have purchased a share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm. This means we paid a fee to the farm up front and receive a share of the harvest each week through the growing season as well as free seconds, discounts at the farm stand and a few open farm days to U-pick. A has charged me with making sure that we don't waste our CSA dollars and that we eat up all the yummies we get each week, so I'm going to be blogging about what we get and what I make with it each week. Bon apetite!

This week's bag contains and was used to make:

• lettuce - Taco salad, mmm...
  
• rhubarb - Raw Strawberry Rhubarb pie
  
• strawberries - gifted to a friend
  
• pinto beans - dried, on hold for later use
  
• onions - saved for later use in soup
  
• bok choy - didn't get to this until it was already turning; edible peices cut up for dog food
  
• a calendula plant - gifted to a friend
  

So far, so good. Hope we get bigger bags as the summer goes on.

What a Morning

It's only 8am and it's already been quite a morning...woke up very early. Not sure why - maybe the 2 cups of coffee I had at 9pm last night? Didn't seem to affect my sleep, but I'm certainly a little extra jazzed this a.m. Found out that the dog had peed on the carpet at some point in the night - did we forget to take him out for his before bed pee? Yes, we did. Oops - mea culpa. Something has to change for my poor dog. He's not happy and I'm not happy about his current quality of life. And "staying in the garage" would most definitely not be an improvement.

After many "I'm sorry"s to A for the carpet, it's on with the day, including a raw breakfast: soaked oat groats blended with cinnamon and dates with sliced apples - yummy and preparing lots of other raw foods for the next couple of days. The raw agenda: sunflower and sun dried tomato pate, not tuna salad and ranch dressing from Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People. We got tomatoes (for stacking or for slicing onto sandwiches and in salads), romaine lettuce (for sandwich "bread" or salads) and avocado. I think that gives us several options and will be quick and easy since I pre-prepped onion, celery and lemon juice. I mostly just have to process things together this morning. I might even splurge and mix up a raw cheez if I have enough lemon juice.

This morning, I also cleaned out my email inbox, created several useful Google Documents and emailed "collaborators" to join me, found 3 new old friends on FB, added a travel map to my FB page and added every city I've ever been to, using the criteria that I had to have actually done something in that city, not just drove through or flew through. I'm getting a little OCD with my FB page.

I've also recently added "weRead" in which I can keep adding books that I've read. I should have just started where I was at that moment, but it's very tempting to just keep adding books that I've read. I've already added more than 150 books and I keep remembering more authors and books and that's all fiction! One thing that's holding me back is that my aunt, all of who's books I've read, is a historical romance writer...many of my other favorites seem to be pretty sexy books and some are even categorized as erotica ... yeah, there's really not much more I want to say about that, but I just don't want people to think I only read sexy books. I remember dog sitting for a couple weeks once and reading all the crime dramas on my hosts shelves during that time frame - I just don't remember those books.

Quite a few other tasks on the list today, but most of those have to do with mailing or faxing things before I leave this weekend, especially getting my medical claims sent in so I can be reimbursed. Another appointment with the chiropractor and maybe something social this evening as A and I haven't been out to see our friends in a couple of weeks.

Whew. Tired already. Think I might have to take a nap.

Ack, My Back

Haven't been able to sit down and catch up my thoughts for the past week, because I haven't been able to sit down. I herniated a disk in my back a week ago and have been in a world of hurt since then.

I find myself remembering when my dad did this in his 40's. My mom told me that was the only time she'd ever seen him cry and it wasn't about the pain - it was about not being able to take care of his family. Well, my dad ended up having surgery and was fine not long after. I'm going to be fine, too, sans surgery.

It's great having chiropractic, naturopathic and acupuncture at my fingertips. I'm taking fish oil and enzymes to fight the inflammation and am having soft tissue work, adjustments and physical therapy to recover. While I've been down, I've been watching all kinds of raw food videos and wishing that's what I was eating, but instead, I've made do with take out since I didn't want to be more of a burden on A. I do think raw food would have helped speed my recovery along, though, if for no other reason than that I wouldn't have been consuming so many pro-inflammatory foods.

I've been out for a week, hoping that workman's compensation is going to cover this time off, but needing to be off regardless, because sitting hurts and standing for too long also increases my pain. I'm bored, a little cranky, also hopeful and glad that I have a personal vacation scheduled next week.

My New Motto / Rule / Whatever

As I walked in to work this morning with the sun in my face, I heard a friend say a cheery "Good morning, B" followed immediately by a more neurotic, "please don't judge me." I hadn't even noticed her sitting there nor the cigarette in her hand since the sun was blinding me, but I reassured her, "not at all." And that's really what I'd like.

Not at all. No judgment. Even more than non-judgment, I would like non-concern and non-notice of certain areas of my life. What I'd like people not to notice this week: what I'm eating. Unless I'm breast-feeding you, it does n0t affect you and is none of your concern. In my etiquette readings, I have learned that it's actually a rudeness to pay any mind to what people are eating. While I wish that much more etiquette would be remembered (even if means that my indelicate mention of breast-feeding gets me a slap on the wrist), this one seems particularly important when food is busy being demonized.

How this wish came to my attention was in discussion about vegetarianism with a colleague. She's a veggy, A's family are veggy, many of my friends are veggy and I usually eat as a veggy. Some of the wacky hijinks of A's family revolve around issues around vegetarianism and reasons for becoming and maintaining a vegetarian lifestyle. So I was discussing with a friend and had fondly remembered a bite of prime rib that I had greatly enjoyed and my mom's cooking which is often heavy on the meat and strikingly delicious. My colleague said something that made me pause for the rest of the day and the following night, "it sounds like you don't want to be a vegetarian."

Wow. Did I? Do I? The answer surprised me. No. Not if being a vegetarian means that people will be watching to see if I eat meat. Not if it means that I cannot enjoy local cuisine when I travel in the world. Not if it means that I have to alienate people that I love. Do I want to eat a lot of meat? Do I want to eat meat with every meal, daily, regularly? The answers to these are also no. It comes back to my not wanting to be labelled. I mostly want to eat as a vegetarian, I even prefer to often eat as a vegan, because if I'm really concerned about animal welfare/rights, I think the egg and dairy industries are oftentimes just as bad if not worse than the meat industry. But I also want to be able to take a bite of something. I also want to be able to enjoy the community and ceremony of eating meat occasionally. I mostly want to be able to be open to experiencing those things that I choose to experience without being punished or judged for them.

So, I'm setting my intention to not notice what other people eat so as to set the example for what I want. Maybe that means I'll have to ask people "how" they are eating on a regular basis, but this is no more than the same negotiation that is required when any group of people are trying to pick a restaurant or plan a shared menu. But I'm not going to notice - I'm going to let other people be responsible for their own choices and their own labels. And I'm going to reject any label and eat what I choose. And if/when I have children, I will, with my partner, decide based on what I think is healthy and good for them, how they shall eat until they are old enough to make those choices for themselves.

I guess it's not really a rule or a motto, but whatever. It's just a good feeling to stop feeling like I have to lie or hide who I am, what I want, the choices I make and the things that I really like. I hope that others can experience this feeling someday, too.

Macaroni and Cheese

I may have to start a new blog exclusively about macaroni and cheese...I try it everywhere I go and have a grading system, but I think my wisdom is being lost...anyway, I'm thinking about it.

In the meantime, I had the mac at the Full Sail brewery on the way home yesterday: C-
Watery cheese sauce, little flavor. The bread crumbs and crushed red pepper were good, but were just baked on the surface and that's about all this mac had to offer, a little surface flavor. The portion was plentiful, but it consisted mostly of cheap elbow noodles and said watery sauce. I've had better vegan mac and with this mac boasting 6 actual cheeses, I expected more. Maybe with enough flavorful beer, I would have enjoyed this more.

Cooking Night

I made a decision about a week ago: to start making decisions! During my recent trip to DC, E and I were sometimes paralyzed by everyone's lack of preferences and during the past 6 months living with A, the same thing happens on a fairly regular basis. I also recently read a list of tips for eating out - I think it was a weight loss article, but this tip was more about satisfaction - it said, "Order First." Apparently people who order their food first are often far more satisfied than other diners. I usually try to be the last person at the table to order, but no more.

And that goes for home, too. I decided that unless A made any specific requests, I would just decide what we're eating each night. Asking him hasn't given me any new information, ever, so I just took that step out and for the past week, I've found myself much more satisfied by the new process. Different nights this week, I decided:

• what I was cooking for dinner
• what we were getting for take out and from where
• that we weren't eating dinner at all and could grab snacks if we get hungry
• and that A could eat this and I'll grab something later

It is working out splendidly and tonight I've decided on an ambitious cooking list:

• mushroom and zucchini quiche (for quick meals whenever)
  
• sweet potato quesadillas with pepper jack cheese (for dinner)
• raw chili rellenos with raw mole sauce and queso fundido (for yumm!)
  
• dehydrated kale chips (for snacking)
• dog food (for Chibo)

Here's to stress relief and expressions of love through cooking!