Celebrating a lovely evening run with a bowl of rocky road ice cream. What? That's the whole point, isn't it?

adventures in meatlessness

If you want to give a chef a heart attack, the quickest way is not a beurre blanc, a hollandaise, or some other cholesterol-laden sauce, oh no. Just come home from the grocery store with a package of vegetarian italian sausages (tofurky brand, no less)(totally crossing that off the bucket list). Happily, Ryan survived the shock (and he didn't even have to eat one. I cooked him the real thing) and I survived a dinner which prominently featured said tofurky product. It was very bad. Really exceptionally bad. You can probably tell I'm still working through this experience.
In contrast, just a night or two later we had dinner at our favorite Nepali restaurant and I tried something called Malai Kofta, and Sweet Hindu God of Vegetarianism it was lovely. Pretty sure there's a lesson around the juxtaposition and the reasons for it, but it will have to wait til I'm in a more ambitious frame of mind, or you can figure it out on your own. Coincidentally at the Nepali restaurant we dined near our friend Eric, who is one of the three readers of this blog, and who recommends the happy pills. In light of how much I have not flung myself into pursuit of my new sport, I'm not ruling them out.
On the bright side, while at the Nepali restaurant Isaac did not pull down his pants, destroy any furniture, or maim any innocent bystanders. It was a good dinner.

fake it til you make it.

It's no accident that I am squeezing out a post every two months this year - my writing-homework deadlines fall every two months, and immediately afterward is when I feel like I have time to putter for a couple days.
(disclaimer: food-themed navel-gazing ahead)
In the past couple of months, I have been experimenting with fake meat. TVP, seitan, tempeh, Tofurky ground beef crumble. I do not like it. I'm not even that wild about tofu, to be honest. 37 years of dietary habit are not about to be wooed away by masquerading soy product.
So now, Plan B, which so far consists of Ditching Fake Meat In Favor of Something Better.
Eggs? Eggplant? Mushrooms? Guittard 70% bittersweet chocolate? I don't know. Still working out the details. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure I'm not doing this vegetarian thing right. I find myself eating lots more garbage than I ever used to, because I feel hungry most of the time. But I'm telling myself that, like anything difficult, it's just a matter of doing it for today, and then doing it again tomorrow, and if I occasionally trip and a piece of bacon happens to accidentally land in my mouth, nobody is going to kick me out of the club. Right?