Meat is dead

When I was growing up, and then driving, the 1989 Buick Century was plastered with a blue "Meat is dead" sticker, with an upside down cow on it. After my dad's hippie phase passed and he started eating meat again, the sticker was a reminder of the times when he didn't eat meat. I inherited the car, but not the vegetarianism. My stepsister's & stepmother were vegetarian when they moved over here, and one of them still is. I think it's amazing that to this day she can say she's lived her entire life, including gestation, never having eaten meat. And you could say she's even healthy, though managed to survive on baked potatoes and pierogies for quite a long period. Gotta love picky vegetarians.

I may have mentioned my decision to go meat-less as my New Years' resolution, and I'm writing to say that it's still going strong. Yes, I have not eaten meat since January 1, 2010, which is a whopping 29 days. And I'm proud, because I've made it through almost a month. To be fair, I didn't expect this to be amazingly difficult, given my housemate is a vegetarian, though a very lax one at that (pâté de foie gras is one exception). I am not tempted to cook meat at home. I am tempted and give into temptation in a lot of my dreams, which is a strange thing for me. The other day, I was offered a roast beef sandwich, and I ate it, then realized I would have to start over with my vegetarianism. Whoops. Good thing it was only a dream. That wasn't the only one, but the details of the others are fuzzy at this point, and thankfully they are happening less and less.

So here I am, nearly done with one month of a successful resolution.

This week I'm giving up sugar. Just for 7 days. Day one was difficult. Very very very difficult. I am 200 times more addicted to sugar than I am to meat. I imagine tonight's dreams will involve every sort of delicious treat that could be thrust my way, horrible caving in, and then very intense feelings of guilt. It'll be like I'm in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I'll be Augustus Gloop and fall into the chocolate river and enjoy every minute of it because I'm a decent swimmer. Probably better in chocolate. Oh man, I could really go for a white chocolate pistachio blondie right about now. So glad I brought the leftovers to work... (Recipe here: Flagrante Delicia). Oof.

Things, things, things

I'm not supposed to be buying things this week, but I've been tempted by the Dalaga newsletter, which features some really freaking cute clothing. What to do, what to do?

Answer: Wait. If I want it that badly, I'll still want it in a month. Plus, do I really need another pencil skirt or grey coat? No, I have a few pencil skirts and a grey coat that should get me through the winter. I feel like maybe part of it is being in New York. I have been gripped with a horrible desire to acquire, acquire, acquire. It's a new season, I need new outfits. This, of course, is not true. In fact, I probably need to clear out my closet before even thinking about purchasing another outfit.

I did, in fact, purchase some opera tickets yesterday. Looking forward to La Damnatian de Faust on October 26. Hopefully we'll find Matthew's binoculars before then.

I also made some crappy brownies last night. I really need to make a big note on the recipe that it needs twice the amount of chocolate to taste good. It's more like cake than brownie, but that's also because it's whole wheat. They're "healthy." Should have added raisins, but I'll save that for the next time.

Weekend Frenzy, or something of the sort

I mentioned on my last post that I was doing a cake & bread over the weekend. The cake came out great and my boyfriend's been putting it in his lunches all week. First week of work for him, and he doesn't get the same free-lunch treatment I get.

The cake cookbook I have has a number of interesting recipes, savory & sweet, categorized by season, then by month. You can really get the most out of the seasonal offerings, though there might be a few discrepancies between NY & France. When I started as an English assistant in France, almost every Monday some kid would have gone mushroom picking over the weekend (and liked it). I went to The Garden. Not my garden, as I live in a 4th floor walk-up. A boutiquey-organicy-specialty-fancy-pants grocery store down the street. Bought my champignons from the supermarket. The recipe said something about mushrooms by season, but I was quite fine with the mushrooms I got. Used my new scale to measure the cheese, mushrooms & flour, and still had to do math to convert all of the cl measurements.

The mixing in of mushrooms.

Baker's Secret, but not really, 'cause this came from a cheapy store on Graham Avenue.

The bread was stubborn this week, perhaps because it was colder inside. It took a while to rise and then didn't rise as much. It is delicious. I said that a few times while eating it last night. It's got good flavor, what can I say.

I also made a zillion tomato, leek, onion & olive tarts and an eggplant parm for lunches & dinners this week.

Let me just say, it's worth slaving away over the stove making a bunch of different dishes that taste fine cold or reheated. We don't have a microwave, so everything gets a stove top or oven treatment if it needs warming, and while it takes longer, it tastes better. Something about the rubberiness or sogginess that a microwave produces turns me off. Now, I've read that it uses less energy to run a microwave, so apologies Mother Earth, but I a.) don't have room for one and b.) don't feel like schlepping one from the store home.

So we've been eating pretty well this week. We purchased some wine glasses on Sunday after the book festival, and got some Bear Flag red wine (http://bearflagwine.com/ourwine.html). It was $10 dollars and tasty, in addition to having lovely artwork on the bottle. I'm really pleased with the wine shop discovery we made a few weeks ago. We stopped in at Dandelion Wine (http://www.dandelionwinenyc.com/) for a tasting one night, and found a real gem in our neighborhood. The staff is somewhat more knowledgable than the guy across the street who said a $6, dusty, Moldavian wine was going to taste good (Side note: I bought it, yes, but that was partially because I knew it wouldn't taste good and would be a good excuse to buy a wine for sauces). I was intrigued by the display that was up originally, featuring a few skull bottles of vodka (produced by Dan Ackroyd???) with handwritten, pink poster board signs saying "Come join us...you'll love it." I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a picture.

Going out to dinner this weekend, so might not be as baking crazy. I would like to get a lot of basil while it's still fresh & make some pesto for the winter months. Pesto is one of my favorite things, probably because it's full of garlic which is definitely towards the top of the list of things I'd be sad to live without.

No TV and no beer make Homer something, something...

I decided that in September I would not be drinking beer after the ridiculous amount of leftover beer from our housewarming. Ok, it wasn't ridiculous, but it was enough that I didn't feel like I needed to ration and Matthew was able to test the hair of the dog hangover cure. He was worried it wouldn't work, but it sort of did, and we were sort of less hungover that day.

Regardless, I decided that I owed it to my body to avoid beer for some time. And so far, I've been pretty good, except that one beer last week. But it was a Peak Organic something or other and it was delicious. This is also why I've been upping the wine intake, though I'm not really regretting that. I love wine, and it's fun to drink with dinner. Red wine, white wine, rosé wine...it's all good.

On buying things we don't need

This week began an adventure in trying not to buy things. How easy is it? So far, so good. Though I'm looking at opera ticket packages & a bread class & possibly going out this weekend (dinner, mentioned above), I don't think those count in the same way as objects. It's hard to figure out. I'd like to save some money for more exciting adventures (China is my goal for the winter/spring travel), but I'd also like to enjoy my apartment & my life. I don't need curtains to enjoy my kitchen, but it's going to get cold soon and maybe a heavy set of curtains will help keep some heat in. Maybe not. Does that make it a need? Or is it just a want with a good defense? I have a feeling a lot of my "needs" are just wants with good defenses.