A Weekend Away

I spent the weekend in Columbus with my show and got one of those reminders about how much easier it is for a vegetarian to have food options in a bigger city than going out here. Last Monday we moved the show down and stopped in the "North Market" before heading home for a late lunch... oh, the options I do not get here. Our director is vegetarian too and we both seemed to embrace the options that do not exist here.

Thursday Night, we had brush up rehearsal and wanted food afterwards so we asked a local. He sent us to a restaurant call "Tip Top Restaurant and Cocktails" that met the specifications of our group... beer and food options for both me (the lone vegetarian) and the meat eaters alike. The corn chowder was almost as good as my own.

Friday night, we headed back down for our show. We headed to High Street Friday after the show in search of amusement and I embraced a falafel sandwhich before the bar and a big slice of new york style pizza after the bar. We decided sometime in here to stay away from things we could have here.

Saturday, we slept in and then headed to Easton in search of food (four of us from the show stayed in a hotel together). We had a late lunch on the Mongolian Grill (my brother's favorite), where they had no problems making sure my meat free food was cooked seperate from the meat-laden entrees of my friends. We headed to a midnight show and caught a bit of Waffle house before heading back to the hotel to catch a little bit of sleep before our Sunday show.

Sunday, we slept in as late as we could (something to do with lack of sleep) and got up only as early as we did for check out After a phone call or two we made plans to meet up with someone else from the show and head back to "North Market" for lunch and to kill time before we had to be back to the theater. I had a somewhat messy, but satisfying sandwhich of mushrooms, artichokes, roasted red peppers, cheese, lettuce, and some italian dressing on a nice long peice of bread. It made me happy. When I got home after the show and after strike i made one of my rich favorites of tortellini with mushrooms, spinach, and oilive oil. (I sneak frozen spinach in where-ever I can.)

Still peaking from the high of have food options I made stuffed portabella mushrooms (stuffed with a mixture of woody basmati rice, frozen spinach, corn, diced mushroom, and italian cheese), and served beside roasted carrots.

Food on the run... welcome to another tech week

I'm moving towards the opening night and weekend of my current show, which makes things a little hectic, especially when it comes to things like meals. Tonight I ate on some potato bake thing my mom made to go with dinner (she made baked beans too, but there was bacon in them and hard to tell what else) and grabbed a banana on my way out the door to eat at rehearsal. It was enough to sustain me until we got home. We stopped at my sister's on the way home a bit, while my brother raided her refridgerator. I've given up on raiding my sister's fridge for such for me... she eats very few vegetables and puts meat in pretty much everything. When I came home I heated up some frozen ravioli and topped it with some jarred sauce (spiced up a bit) with a peice of wheat bread.

It promises to be a busy week and thankfully I have plenty of fruit on hand.

Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I'm halfway through my fishburger and I realize, Oh my God. I could be eating a slow learner. ~Lynda Montgomery

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

Kepping It Real

My show is about to open and it has been a busy week. There has been a lot of eating on the run and eating late. Its seems to be a tech week curse. I'm not starving, although after a few wardrobe issues last night I wonder if maybe I should be. Anyway, the show opens tomorrow night and I hope everyone is eating up life. :-)

From George Bernard Shaw: "Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends."

Hello Again.

It's another day, eating on the run and trying to keep up at the theater, and trying to get a 33 person cast into costumes (multiple costumes in most cases).

In the Words of Plutarch: "Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?"

Eating on The Run

It's tech week for my show and therefore means that Ill be spending a great deal mroe time at the theater. I was there until about midnight helping paint and random set stuff (I needed a break from looking at costumes) and will be there every night through opening weekend. It also means a lot more meals there or on the run. When I got there tonight the pizza they ordered arrived shortly after I did. I was offered food, but I'm trying to limit my pizza consumption for the most part this week, plus I was pretty sure there was meat on everything. The whole meat thing came up later when asked about Thanskgiving and if I got any turkey. As the mini discussion evolved on if turkey is meat or fowl on came the almost expected comment, "I bet you're no fun on a date." They always think they are funny and they generally always thing they are being original. (There are, of course, multiple variations of this aged joke.)

In the Words of Will Kellogg: "How can you eat anything with eyes?"

Just A Couple More Days Before Thanksgiving

Overall it has been just another day in just another week of my life. I’m keeping a somewhat busy schedule and am glad to be over the bug that seemed to be going around. (I usually bounce back pretty well.) With keep erratic hours at the theater I am glad to have leftovers frozen from past dinners (potato and mushroom casserole, vegetable lasagna, and black beans and rice). I went out to lunch at this local Italian restaurant for dinner with my family today and had this lovely pesto pizza and a nice green salad. It was even sprinkled with pine nuts to add a nice little texture to the mix. I love finding and trying new things at local restaurants that end up just making me smile. I may enjoy a nice salad (and especially a nice vinaigrette on it), but I need more adventure than just salad in my diet. I do enjoy food… preparing it, eating it, and sharing it.

I got the grocery things needed for Thanksgiving and started discussions about the food for Christmas Eve (we always have a Christmas Eve thing with finger food and lots of people). We have definitely entered that busy season of family, food, and holiday cheer. For me, it means meal planning not just for myself and others like me but helping prepare food that will appease both vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. Oh, the excitement that is upon is.

Hope ya’all are staying healthy, happy, and warm.

As a pre-holiday extra check out this link for more vegetarian information, recipes, and commentary: http://talkingvegetables.tripod.com/

From Robert Hutchinson, in his address to the British Medical Association, 1930: "Vegetarianism is harmless enough though it is apt to fill a man with wind and self-righteousness."