2010 - a little late

1.10.10, no??

I think I am not up for posting about food much. I'd rather talk about it, and all that picture posting is quite a chore. I'm not up for blogging that way. Isn't the written word supposed to be used for creating mental images? This is not a resolution.

My New Years resolution this year is to go veggie. I'll try it for a year and see how I feel. This is not the strangest thing to decide to do, as I currently live with a vegetarian, and it's never crossed my mind to cook 2 versions of the same meal so that I could have animal protein. No, I've become somewhat adept at making delicious things and not using the meat, leaving me only eating meat when at my parents house, at a restaurant, occasionally at work for lunch, and when I'm forced to, like on airplanes.

This decision is in part influenced by my recent reading of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. I'd be happy to eat only grass-fed beef or stuff I've bought at the farmer's market that was culled humanely, but I just don't have the time, energy, or desire to do that. I would encourage meat eaters to do that anyway. The system in place now does not work, and I would prefer to stop contributing to it.

I've had many dreams recently where I've been fed something with meat in it and enjoyed it. Just last night, someone recalled to me (in dream-land), that I had eaten meat raviolis, and I woke up with a kind of terror in my mind, and remembered that no, I had not eaten meat raviolis recently, so there was nothing to worry about. Like all resolutions, one misstep will not unravel it, but I prefer to go all in, or nothing, so perhaps that is the cause of my anxiety.

I have not been missing meat, because I don't eat it all that often. Good for me. I am sick this weekend, with some kind of horrible sore throat thing, and all I can think is, no chicken soup. I don't really consider chicken soup meat - more like medicine. But all or nothing - I'm going to be skipping the chicken soup this cold season, and power through with some Throat Comfort tea and lemon & honey hot water. They do the trick too!

I feel like some people in my life don't think I am sincere about this and that I am just doing this as a stunt. Maybe not a stunt, but not in a serious way. It's a lifestyle choice that I have pretty much eased my way into over the past few years. It's funny that the b.f. is easing his way out. He will eat foie gras, but refused to try goose at Thanksgiving. He's a little confused, I think. He is technically a pescatarian, meaning he'll only eat fish (no other animals). That's another decision for me to make - fish, or no fish? I don't know if that falls under the umbrella of meat. I really like shrimp. I've recently read that shrimp are farmed in not so great ways. What do I think of that? I've been fishing, and fish are not very relatable. I don't eat a whole lot of fishy fish. I hate fishy fish. So is the exception to eat shrimp, lobster, scallops, mussels a legitimate exception? Does that make me a crustaciatarian? I made that one up. But maybe that's a good compromise.

10 days... that's pretty good so far.