Quesodilla Night

Melted cheese isn't just for between two slices of bread or on top of some baked pasta. Sometimes it comes in quesodilla form that includes veggies and topped with salsa. Tonight was such a night. When I first saw the quesodilla makers in the store, I laughed. We did fine without one. Then somehow we ended up with one and tried it out. Its not one of those kitchen necessities, but it can be nice. Quesodilla Night is one of those where a spread of filling options are laid out and everyone makes what they want. I like to saute up sliced mushroom and a bit of onion with a touch of taco seasoning, using a sprinkle of water to really let everything start to meld together, then add my mushroom mixture with black olives in between the flour tortillas and shredded cheddar, then topped off with homemade salsa after cut. Of course, the great thing is you can add pretty much anything you want and even put the salsa on the inside.

We are still in discussions on what to do for my family birthday dinner. It really shouldn't be this much of a discussion. For some odd reason I seem to want to go somewhere that includes more than grilled cheese and the occasional salad that is meat-free. I want more, especially since it is supposed to be for my birthday. At this point I think I'd be happy just with ordering in from someplace I like and enjoying a lone bottle of wine or something sparkly. This area doesn't have the greatest restaurant choices (a lot of steakhouses and "homecooking") for those vegetarians, and I don't know how open they'd be to some of those options as it is. Looking at something maybe more 'ethnic'- based like Mexican or Italian. We shall see.

'I venture to maintain that there are multitudes to whom the necessity of discharging the duties of a butcher would be so inexpressibly painful and revolting, that if they could obtain a flesh diet on no other condition, they would relinquish it forever." -- W.E.H. Lecky

Bites of the day

I actually cooked today. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. I made a baked pasta primavera with leftover Alfredo sauce from the other night, rotini noodles, carrots, spinach, sauteed mushrooms, some grated parmesan and a lovely provolone cheese melted on top and a sprinkling throughout. Seasoned, mixed together, and topped with cheese; it baked to lovely golden browned top. More a decadent treat than an everyday occurrence. I'll probably stay simple for dinner like a salad. Yum.

Plans for my birthday have been in discussion. Since we were little birthdays have always been celebrated with a family dinner of our choosing. Sometimes we go out, sometimes it is something more at home. My birthday dinner discussions often include a sometimes heated discussion about meat being included. I get the whining about being fair to everyone else and how you can't have a family meal without meat, blah, blah, blah. I'm not really surprised. It would just be nice if once there was a sit down meal where I didn't feel like I was eating around everyone else. Somehow, my brother's dislike of spinach is the same as my not eating meat in their eyes. Oh, to live in a world where I'm not the exception. We seem to have come to an agreement (no one else in my family has to negotiate their birthday dinner) of a fondue night complete with grilled kabobs (so I can have vegetable ones and they can have their meat) and a salad.

We're still in the midst of hunting season. Bah! I asked them to be respectful of me by not hunting on our own property (they have a list of family and friends with more property than we have), but this request was denied out of "respect for them." I try to take comfort in the fact they are not great shots and they are down to just bow season (no more deer being chase by guns). I recently had a friend, who is once again a vegetarian (she's been on and off for years now), who tried to lecture me about hunting. Of course, no one in her family hunts and she doesn't come from a 4-H or agricultural/farming family, therefore not understanding how ingrained in the culture it becomes. What some people don't understand is that I am never going to change them. I just really, really wish that they would be a little more understanding and compassionate about my place in the middle.

"I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because its's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her." -- Ellen DeGeneres

January Blahs

The January snow is piled up all around and I've been scanning the web and other blogs trying not to feel so isolated. It's a mixture of the winter blahs and an impending birthday (a birthday that serves as a reminder that my twenty-something days are numbered). I'm not sure which is lending more to the feelings of isolation today... the snow and cold, the birthday thing, or the feeling of being socially isolated as vegetarian. I have a large, loud, and usually supportive family... all omnivores. I have an interesting and at times eclectic mix of friends... mostly omnivores. I even have a very sweet, very thoughtful significant other... most definitely an omnivore.

Here I sit, contemplating a new year, and new age, and the desire for an early spring. It's too early to be playing in the dirt and getting dirt ready for planting (it's all covered with that cold, white stuff). It's totally the wrong season for locally grown produce and farmers' markets (they just make me happy). The snow keeps piling up and I, not liking the snow, am forced to wear socks and shoes and all that winter gear. I know part of this is just spring fever and the January blahs, but I think I need to find something, somehow... just not all together sure what that is.

Isolation is a strange thing at times. I've been a vegetarian over seven years now and can barely remember what it was like before. It affects so many things in everyday life. I check food labels at the grocery and at home, even when I am looking at clothes. Leather? I don't think so. Fur? Absolutely not. Yet, everyday there is it blaring in my face - "You are the family freak." It doesn't have to yell, it just is. My brothers hunt. Guns, bows, ammo, and clothing sporting camo and orange are all around. A camo coated doe skull sits in the dining room as my brother's dog chews on a roasted deer bone (gotten from the guy who processors their kills). Somehow our mailbox is an interesting combination of hunting magazine and catalogues and vegetarian magazines. I guess on the plus side, my brothers don't seem to be very good shots. In all the years my three brothers have been hunting; with shotguns, bows, and muzzle loaders they have only brought home two deer (without counting the one my sister took out when it ran into her car). They eat everything they kill and it has to be better for them than the factory farm crap that comes from most groceries.



I just sometimes wish there was more than me nearby. I hear myths about vegetarian romances, but I don't know if I believe in them. I hear stories about like-minded vegetarians getting together regularly to share foods and culture. I hope these exist. Maybe one day, I'll better understand them. Maybe I need to plant something inside, like an herb or something.

"When man wantonly destroys one of the works of man we call him a vandal. When he destroys one of the works of God we call him a sportsman." --Joseph Wood Krutch