Wish I Could Cook

About Me

I'm a recipe junkie. I admit that I love paging through magazines and cookbooks and thinking of occasions to make fabulous meals. I used to clip recipes like crazy and stuff them away in a file, but now with 'zaar, I've turned into more of a surfer.

I really ought to post more of my clippings, but that would take away from the time I get to spend looking at new ones! (Ok, ok, I'll start with my favorites...)

If I didn't need the paycheck, I'd love to spend my time in a huge garden and preserve a lot of fresh food. I'm inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I try to be as much of a "Localvore" as possible, and support the local farmers. I do think local and fresh wins hands-down every time over canned and frozen.

I started avoiding meat more than 20 years ago for environmental reasons. (It takes so many resources and the pollution risks of confinement operations are huge.) And now I consider myself a socially-polite vegan. That means that I cook vegan meals at home and order them in restaurants. But I don't try to covince anyone else of the benefits (happy to talk about it though!), and I wouldn't want people to feel akward around me and be flustered if I were to visit them for dinner. So if they are serving pasta, I'm not going to refuse it because it's egg noodles, or not have a slice of pie because they made the crust with butter. Because I'm not allergic, I would prefer to keep people comfortable around me than to be hyper-sensitive about an occasional bite of non-vegan food.

And one of my favorite things is to invite my omnivore friends to dinner and have them realize that there is not one bit of sacrifice required for a vegan diet. In fact it's just the opposite, there are far more flavors and variety!