Thanksgiving Ponderings

Five Thanksgivings as Vegetarian have passed and I am welcoming number six. Gives me a chance to take a look back and then towards the present. The first year was probably the most daunting. I was still new to the whole vegetarian thing only by a couple months. Outside of my immediate household the rest of my family still did not know the scary, dirty secret of my vegetarian decision (and yes that is how my mother treated it). At the family gathering, I ate around everyone else, without anyone paying any attention to my plate. No one noticed what was on my plate or what I wasn’t eating… until the car ride home where an argument ensured about me offending my unknowing grandmother because I did not eat any of her turkey. (By Christmas the rest of the family has been told, but is a whole different story.)

In the Thanksgiving that have followed I have added foods with my own meat-free twist, including my mushroom gravy and dripping-free gravy. This year I am ready to take the next step in the whole vegetarian feast… a meat-free alternative to their turkey thing. I’ve been playing with a few ideas. The first, and probably most obvious, is the whole tofurky idea. I’ve looked into the pre-made kind (by ordering or finding a store nearby) or by homemade, but I continue to have my doubts. I am hesitant to the idea of making something to look like meat. I even contemplated the idea of using my own stuffing/dressing recipe in a pumpkin and roasting (seemingly another popular idea). Of course a simple net search brings about all sorts of recipes and ideas of casseroles, roasts or whatever else. They got me thinking.

At a wedding over the summer they included “Vegetable Wellington” as the vegetarian option. Mystified and curious I did a net search to get a heads up on what we would be eating. My interest was piqued further. At the side down reception it was a surprisingly nice and savory entrée’ for ones who are accustomed to eating around salads and side dishes as such events (or the ever-present pasta). I’m contemplating my own version for Thanksgiving (and/or Christmas). Sounds like a yummy option for my and for my semi-vegetarian grandparent (the doctor has severely limited his meat consumption for health reasons.) Oh, the near endlessness of my options.

"Vegetarian: A person who eats only side dishes." ~Gerald Lieberman

Bow Season... Bleh!

I try to ignore that fact that in this area it is bow hunting season for deer. Of course, then I get those reminders like someone kicking you in the shin or somewhere else. My brothers hunt, my family hunts, and then there is me... the vegetarian and definatly the none hunter of the family. I try to keep my mouth shut, since it does no good otherwise. It just leads to fighting and arguments and that which does not good for anyone. So, I sit and I listen and I bite my lip as I hear them talking on the phone to the processing place regarding the deer that have to pick up and the talk about how the woods were this morning when my brother took his crossbow out, and to my sister calling to find out if anyone got one because she wants venison. I sit, trying not to listen and trying to keep my mouth shut, as I munch on my spicy thai peanut noodles wondering how I managed to become the person I am in this bunch.

"The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of a gun." ~P.G. Wodehouse

Have you ever grilled your peanut butter?

A lot of kids grew up on grilled cheese, my family was no exception, but that was not the only grilled sandwhich that we know from childhood. For me there is another comfort food from childhood that comes in the form of two peices of bread grilled and often served along side tomato soup... grilled peanut butter. It was often grilled up along side of the grilled cheese sandwhiches my Mom made, but was something seemingly unique to my family. It's the same basic process as a grilled cheese sandwhich, but takes a little more finess when it comes to getting the butter on both of the outsides of the bread and peanut butter on the inside. Once grilled there is the nice toasty outsides so many of us remember from childhood with the oohy, gooey, melty insides of the peanut butter (crunchy peanut butter has always been my favorite). The white bread from younger days has been replaced with a multi grain oat bread, but crunchy peanut butter melting from the inside has lovingly stayed the same. For me it is a taste of childhood, a comforting blast from the past. We all have something to turn to from those childhood days, something that helps give us comfort on the bad days and during those trying moments when simplicty of days is sought. Maybe next time I get the urge to grill up some peanut butter I might even add some fruit, such as some sliced apples or bananas or something else I come across in the pantry. I was never one much for jam or jelly intruding on my peanut butter, but some might be up for it too.

Thanksgiving is coming and dinner lists are being made. Are you ready?

"Nothing spoils lunch any quicker than a rogue meatball rampaging through your spaghetti." ~Jim Davis

Happy Election Day

Happy Election Day! Hope everyone got out there got their vote on.

Made an easy vegetable pot pie. I used a vegetable stew I partially made from leftovers in the refrigerator (leftover onion gravy, lima,s etc) and a few frozen and fresh ones. Added a bit of rice and used about a tablespoon or so of instant mashed potato flakes as thickener. You could still use a flour or cornstarch type thickener, but I wanted to try out using the potato flakes. It worked well. I used unrooled croissant rolls from the refridgerator to make the top crust.

We ordered pizza for dinner.

In the words of George Bernard Shaw; "When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity."

Holiday Preperations Underway!!!

It was a rather simple day meal-wise. I made a pasta with olive oil and herb thing for dinner, adding some fresh sliced mushrooms and spinach, then a touch of parmasan. A lovely meal with a peice of oat bread. I was talking to a friend of mine that used to be a vegetarian online while I ate and she talked about how she has been really thinking about going back. (Her vegetarian days were in high school and she started eating meat only when she was accepted as a foreign exchange student and she worried about food options.) Now past college, law school, married and into the real world the draw seems back. The numbers nationally are growing, but more so in cretain areas and the options out there are in constant growth. The options for vegetarian and organic foods are so much easier to find than they once were... even in the last six years.

The holiday food planning has begun. I spent awhile this evening on the phone working my way through the potluck list for the big family Thanksgiving. (And I mean it'll be a big one.) We are working on balancing a feast for for vegetarians, semi vegetarians, and meat-eaters alike. At a minimun that puts us at around three different types of dressing/stuffing to uphold various traditions and dietary needs. This means regular poultry inspired stuffing, oyster dressing (a family tradition), and my very yummy mushroom dressing (depending on whether or not I decide to stuff in inside of a pumpkin and roast it). The one thing with me doing the organizig is that I get to make sure there are enough vegetable type dishes and salads. At least one other fmaily member is limited on his meat consumption and it is important that there are options for both of us.

In the words of Jeremy Bentham: 'The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?" '

Pet Peeves

It was a mostly decent weekend (We had a good opening weekend, Halloween, some dancing, some hanging out with friends, all good things); but one full of some fairly annoying attacks to my way of being and eating and the whole vegetarian thing. We all have those peeves that just want to send us over the edge of just wanting to lash out at people and struggling not to.

Firstly, a friend of the family farms and their family all hunts (much like my own), they called to ask my mom and brothers if they wanted the meat from the deer one of the boys just got. (If they are going to hunt at least they use the meat or know people that will.) So since yesterday all I have heard around the house is about feild dressing, how long it can safely hang in this weather, getting it processed and butchered, finding a place to process, and what they are getting done with this meat (bologna, steaks, burger, etc.) and possibly the hide as well. There were phone calls, debates, conversations, gloating. I try to just ignore it... it doesn;'t do a bit of good to say anything, I just wish I did not have to hear it constantly. That was the start of yesterday.


Then came part two... the real point of my aggravation. It was Halloween weekend as well as an opening weekend for our show. This, unsurprisingly, means going out both night. (Halloween night I dressed as Mother Nature in a flowly, sheer, autumn inspired dress.) Well last night and into the wee hours of this morning we ended up at Denny's (after everything else was closed) and some of the group were still under the influences of alcohol (which probably did not help). Everyone had ordered and the food had just came. As the one girl (one that I had just met had already found myself shaking my head at more than once) began to dig into her chicken strips announced something about her being a vegetarian. I looked across the table at her plate then up at her, "Um, no your not." (This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves of people.) "Yes, I am. I'm just a vegetarian that eats chicken and seafood, I don't eat all things like beef or pork. You know there are all kind of vegetarians and vegans." She continued one babbling and raiing my blood pressure as she was going to lecture me about how a true vegetarian could still eat chicken and seafood and still be a true vegetarian. I don't think she liked my reference to "vegetarians" or eat such as semi-vegetarians. Finally she took a breath (I was getting more and more annoyed and just flat out aggravated) and something was said about me being a vegetarian (two fo the others at the others at the table know that I don't eat meat) and that I really didn't need her to tell me what one was. She asked what I ate and I explained as patiently as I could that I didn't eat anythign that had once had a face, that included chicken and seafood. So she started in on me about being a fake vegan... I don't claim to be a vegan and never had. She also started bragging about how good seafood was and how tasty her chicken strips are. These are the types of people who help make life harder for the rest of who us who actually do not eat meat. She kept at me about how good her chicken tasted and how I was a pretend vegan. I tried to explain why semi vegetarians who still eat some meat make it harder for the rest of us... when we go places people actually try to use chicken breath as "vegetarian" and fish as a "meat alternative." She was too caught up in her idea of always being right to even listen. I can't help it, but it just seems far worse to have pretend and fake vegetarians stirring up trouble than the meat eaters who just don't understand. It also confuses the meat eaters who think we can and do still consume things like that.

Check out these links:
http://www.theveggietable.com/articles/whatisavegetarian.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism
http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/OtherInfo/VegetarianTypes.htm
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/tp/TypesofVeg.htm

"To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body." ~Mahatma Gandhi