Another day, another meal

So, I'm fighting a bit of a cold. One of my brothers started with it and everyone in the house has had it to some point or another. I'm dealing with it and with the fact that I really do not feel like cooking. Tonight I raided the leftovers I had in the refridgerator. I cooked some noodles and heated up a container of bulgar chili I had in the freezer, topped with some peices of swiss cheese from the refridgerator. Hearty and simple. Depending on the pasta I usually add and toppings (cheese in this case) the chili itself is vegan; full of onion, garlic, a mixture of different kinds of beans, spices, and bulgar. Mine tends to be on the spicy side.

"Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out. Of all the creatures ever made [man] is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one... that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain." ~Mark Twain

Simple, Yet Hearty

The lastuple days I've been in one of those moods where I have wanted hearty food that is fairly simple to make. Last night I had to be at the theater so I fixed up a toasted cheese sandwhich (on a nice whole grain bread) and made a homemade vegetable soup out of the selection of vegetables from leftover, frozen, and fresh vegetables, mushrooms and rice that I had around. I thickened it a little with a seasoned flour I keep around and spiced it up. It made an easy take-along in a plastic-lidded container to the theater.

For lunch I sauteed up some onion and spinach with peirogies I had in the freezer. Dinner was a simple parmesan pasta with some spinach and mushrooms thrown in, served along salad with homemade croutons and some garlic bread.

"Drinking without being thirsty and making love at any time, Madame, are the only things that distinguish us from other animals." ~Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, 1784, translated

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?" '