I'm still learning the ropes

Today makes day three of a meatless diet. I had anticipated eating leftover turkey, however we have yet to do it and it will likely go bad by the time we roll around to it.

Eating out at restaurants is going to take a lot of learning. Night before last my wife was craving rolls and mashed potatoes so we went to a steak house in Kentucky. I left full after eating a side salad and a baked potato, though I had to smother the potato in A1 because I kinda sorta hate potatoes.

Yesterday we drove up to Charleston and dined at Pies and Pints. I was really craving a cheese steak sandwich... so I ordered it.

Hey now, you don't think I would give up that easily, do you? I asked if there was any way they could substitute the beef for eggplant (they have another eggplant sandwich)... and they did! Without the gritty taste of the meat, I was better able to taste the other ingredients. I have never noticed before how while mushrooms compliment meat, the meat overpowers the full taste and texture of light flavors like the mushrooms and other veggies.


Today I started craving meat so I fired up my grill to cook a fake kielbasa. On the packaging it looks juicy and promises grill-friendliness. Why not?

Only it did not bubble up like it did in the picture. In fact, it dried out and wouldn't even burn like I had anticipated.

The first bite made me think of a salty sponge, however the taste seemed to get better with each bite. The taste was more that of liver than sausage, but I can deal with that.

Hopefully I will get more acclimated as time goes on.

Transition to Vegetarianism

I love meat. I love meat so much I try to eat it with every meal. I'll be honest, whenever I cook the meat is the focal point of the dish. I used to make a joke "Yeah, I'm a vegetarian. You are what you eat, right? Well, cows eat grass so they are veggies."
I love gravy made from the fat of delicious dead animals. I love the moistness of lamb, the tenderness of a slow-cooked pot roast. I love a gritty, spicy burger. Tacos stuffed to the brim with ground beef. Chili with beef and Italian sausage. Ham and pineapple pizza. You name it, I love it.

I am now shocking myself by contemplating vegetarianism. I have announced my intentions on Facebook and Twitter and I think people will hold me to it, for a while at least.

I have several reasons that I will discuss on later blogs. Long story short, ethics accounts for about 75% of the reasoning and health for the other quarter.

Over the course of the next few days I will not be going completely vegetarian, but the only meat I plan on consuming is turkey. This is because my wife has several recipes she had intended on making with the leftover Thanksgiving bird so I will be obliging. In the meantime, I am getting myself acclimated to different foods. I will be keeping track of a few of these on here as a record of things I am doing different and my initial thoughts.

This morning for breakfast I decided to make an open-faced egg sandwich with fresh onion and herb bread, Morningstar soy bacon, and an egg smothered in smoked gouda cheese and country herbs.

The experience was a bit strange, to say the least. To begin with, the Morningstar bacon looked like large strips of chewing gum with a unique dry, almost putrid smell.

I dropped a couple strips into some bubbling olive oil and waited for it to crisp - but it did not! I guess I learned a lesson today: soy does not firm up when cooked in oil. I had to remove strips and cook them in a non-oiled pot to make it work.

The sandwich turned out ok...ish. This kind of bacon will take some getting used to. It did make my stomach feel queasy for a couple hours. It is too early to determine if it was the soy bacon that did this; I don't want to use anecdotes so I will try cooking with it again in the near future in a different kind of dish.

I must note that it did fulfill my short-term craving for meat. Now that it is lunchtime, I am not going to make my usual lunchmeat sandwich, but instead a bowl of couscous and olives.

Welcome to the show

My mind goes to the cold, yet powerful opening of Pink Floyd's The Wall.
It begins with In the Flesh. The song opens with strong power cords, then it dies down giving a false sense of security prior to the sharp, gritty vocals and creepy, introspectively powerful lyrics - all of which before going FUBAR.

In a way that is what I hope to accomplish with this blog post - to give you a thematic and tonal taste of what to expect in this blog from here on out. It will not be pretty, as I am certain you will see.

My favorite subject is humanity. I am interested in what it means to be human. I am highly interested in ethics, the origins of morality, the many facets of religion, politics, etc. In other words, I plan on talking about a lot of hot-button topics on here that would not be as appropriate on other social media.

I don't believe that certain subject should be taboo. I believe open and honest dialog is beneficial on many levels, from helping others understand that there are legitimate views other than there own, to encouraging everyone (including myself) to analyze our own worldview.

In fact, I believe just about everything I will talk about here will be things that I once felt strongly in the opposite about.