Welcoming the Summer Season

The Memorial Day weekend is over and I made it through one of the biggest cookout weekends of the summer. Being like many families across the country my family joined in the BBQ, grilling, picnic festivites.

Even the vegetarian (me) was able to join in and enjoy my fill of grilled yumminess (of course grilled in a manner as not to touch any of the meat or meat juices). At last Sunday's bog family gathering I grilled up some mushroom veggie burgers for me and my grandpa (his doctor has limited his meat-intake by a lot and he has been embracing a semi-vegetarian diet now in the seventy year range). Despite the surprise to some family members it wasn't a big deal. On Monday, we grilled out again, this time at my mom's aunt house, my grandparents also attending. We grilled up some potatoes and onion, then I grilled some marinated portabella mushrooms for my grandpa and myself. (He likes the veggie burgers and mushrooms.) I love to to cook on the open fire and eating meat-free does not have to be a limitation.

The warming weather seems to have brought my desire to cook back. Although it could also be that the show i was involved with is now over and my stock up of frozen meals dwindled during that time. In the last week I made my favorite corn chowder and a rich and spicy vegetable stew. Hard to say what I might make next, especially if it can meet the dietary guidelines my grandfather's doctor set for him.

"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other...." ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

Ode to Almond Butter

Yesterday, I baked. I was flipping through one of my cookbooks ("Table for Two" a dairy and egg free cookbook) and was debating on making the recipe for peanut butter cookies (vegan at that). But instead of using good old fashioned peanut butter I went to another pantry favorite of mine- almond butter. I discovered it while living at a youth camp where I worked as finding new ways to keep things on hand that were meat-free and tasty. I started using it part of the time on my pancakes instead of peanut butter (a family favorite) and even got my foreign vegetarian roommate embracing it on pancakes as well. The cookies turned out great and just the right amount when you are cooking for yourself. Of course everyone else in my family looked at me like I was nuts making cookies without butter or eggs. Yummy.

"God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear,

To give sign, we and they are His children, one family here".~Robert Browning