Back, and hopefully not forgotten

No, I didn't forget, it was just a busy summer full of spending time with family and friends, grilling veggie burgers and wonderful vegatables like corn on the cob, mushrooms, asparagus, onions, peppers, and anything else that seems to catch my fancy. Fall is very much upon us, kicked off in this area my the county fair in September. I entered my vegetarian cookbook collection in the hobby building for cookbook collections and took first place in the catagory, beating out the wildlife cooking collection and more tradional colletcions. (I viewed this as a fairly major personal victory in making this lifestyle much more accepted in mainstream farming country.)

I've been keeping myself busy with community theater (one current project that is getting ready to open, one just starting rehearsals, and one that I am working on proposing), as well as getting ready for the holidays. I just can't seem to resist trying new recipes (especially trying out new cookie recipes on friends and family). Plans for Thanksgiving are now in the works. As per the usual my family is all gathering round... vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.

Hope ya'all are enjoying the fall foilage and enjoying the soup inspriing weather.

Check out the American Dietetic Association's (ADA) 2003 Position Paper

http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_933_ENU_HTML.htm

"I think if you want to eat more meat you should kill it yourself and eat it raw so that you are not blinded by the hypocrisy of having it processed for you." ~Margi Clark

A Dream

Last night I had the strangest dream. I was somewhere in my dream and someone was trying to pay me with meat. (Yuckk!) I told them that I did not eat meat and was a vegetarian. They kept trying to find something else, but everything they kept coming up with was more meat. The ladies seemed rather understanding, but meat was mostly everywhere. They were understanding, but it was sizzling and frozen, and all over the place.

Sometimes, I feel like that... that I live in a world surrounded by meat and so often struggle to avoid it. Commercials boats images of steaks and chicken. Right now there the airwaves and print media seem bombarded with images of roasted turkey. Sometimes, I really miss that sense of normalcy. Instead I make special requests whenever I am out to dinner with family or friends. I have few vegetarian friends around me, but most are not people I see or associate with everyday. Generally, my friends respect and accept the differences in my eating habits, but often I just wish that i didn't not feel like an island of vegetables floating in a sea of raw meat. Five years and some things seem much easier, but other things are definitely not.