It's been 46 Days since I last had meat. Tonight: Me + a BIG burger. In the meantime, why did I do it? (My friend Huck asked me that in London, Ontario, site of my most difficult meatless evening). Well, there were a few reasons, none particularly religious, I might add. I'm Episcopalian, after all, and mostly an atheist one. But it's a tolerant and tender religion, and I'll stick with it. At any rate, it's good to have goals and see them through. They can lead to other goals, which was kind of my goal. I also wanted to get out of the "eat the same recipes rut" that I was in. I do the cooking, and although we often eat fish or meatless (I don't say vegetarian, because I often use chicken stock, etc., in my meatless meals), I needed some new blood in my repertoire. I accomplished both those things, plus lost a little weight, so it was a successful effort.
I'll also be better equipped to make vegetarian dishes for my vegetarian loved ones, which is a definite plus when hostessing.
What did I learn from this venture? Well, I knew I enjoyed eating meat, so that wasn't a revelation. I might add that I have no moral objections to eating meat. I grew up in northern Michigan with a father who hunted. He grew up on a farm that raised beef cattle. My granddad and uncles continued raising cattle while I was a child, and we were often out there. I do have a problem with many parts of the animals-for-meat-raising business, but I'm lucky to be able to buy locally-raised organic meat, so that's not as much of a concern for me as it might be for others.
I learned that going out to eat without being able to choose from the entire menu really sucked the joy out of it for me. Mind you, if I lived in a big city this would not be as much the case, I realize that, but there you have it nonetheless. In our little hamlet I had a surprising amount of meatless dishes to choose from, but they were largely the same: lots of fish, an occasional meatless pasta, salads. By the last couple of weeks I was merely trudging on, trying to get to today. At home it was a different story. I bought a couple of great new cookbooks:
Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food
and
Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen
(I already owned this one:
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
one of my favorite cookbooks, period).
and I made a lot of new recipes, most very good. A couple were flops. Mark still ate them. Speaking of Mark, he ordered meatless whenever he was out with me. He called it his sympathy-lent effort. What a sweetie.
My biggest giggle came from the vegan cookbook. I didn't realize it was vegan when I ordered it, but it turned out okay. I just ignored the vegan part. The line where the author had the epiphany about milk being only for 1,000 pound cows had me in stitches. Why would anyone do that, she asked? Uh, because items such as cheese taste GREAT, maybe? Have you ever had unpasteurized, grassy, fruity, English Farmhouse Cheddar? Well. I think not.
So, back to my most difficult evening. We were in London for the Brier, the Canadian Men's Curling Championship. It was a MOST wonderful weekend with Huck & Sally, our Yooper BFF's. The first night we ate at the Fox & Hound, where we had the most amazing Mediterranean nachos. Mark ordered them -- they were vegetarian, with feta cheese, and they were awesome. The second night I had a lovely salad & soup, and the third night, the night in question, I had a most-unsatisfactory grilled cheese sandwich. The problem: we were at the Scot's Place, a Scotch pub. They had Scotch Pie. Do you know how often I'm at a Scotch pub, where Scotch Pie is on the menu? Well. Not bloody often. Still, I made it through to today, and I'm ever-so-pleased with myself. When we were on our way home I told Mark how hard that dinner had been, and he said "baby, we'll go back to London just for the pie if that's what it takes for you to find one."
Here are some Awesome Brier Weekend Photos:
Action Shot!
Fountain by Labatt Park, during our Sunday Walk (you can see Mark in the hoodie)
(London, by the way had gotten a bunch of snow the night before we got there;
it was mid-March, and definitely still winter there).
The huge crowd at the finals:
And lastly, my favorite place, (besides the Labatt Centre, where the curling was):
Covent Garden Marketplace. It was awesome. I shopped for souvenirs for
Kitty and Bunnie, and bought a few things for myself. Great fun.
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