Herb Watch Day 8

Made spaghetti with them this week and garnishes galore!

Herb Watch Day 1

Planted some herbs today!! Left to right (back plant is not an herb):
Chives, Sicillan Oregano, Curled Parsley,and English Thyme!

So excited...!!!!!

Vegetarian Medley

Four weeks ago, after a particularly heavy gorge-fest weekend of eating out, eating in, eating heavy, eating whenever...we decided to lay off the meat for a week and see what happened. This presented a really huge challenge for me, because I'm responsible for the meals around here and keeping it interesting, tasty, and healthy. Most of my recipes centered around a meat product. Roasted Pork Tenderloin. Chicken Tikka Masala. Tequila Lime Chicken. Ground Beef Taco Wreath. You get the gist.

We're entering our fifth week of vegetarianism and I do have to say I feel great. All over! It's definitely an adjustment - we are both very ritualistic people. Which doesn't mean we're scared to try new things - we do try new restaurants all the time. But, when we go to a restaurant we've been to before, there is a 84% chance that we'll order the same thing we've ordered before. We're quality junkies and if something has worked in the past, it'll work in the future or by damned we'll be disappointed. Now, those stand-by dishes are off the radar. At Chuy's that means our chicken enchiladas become spinach/mushroom enchiladas. At Guero's it means we actually liked what we ate this time. At Outback...well, we'll just leave that off the list because our dear friends invited us to go and we ended up both having steaks - and regretting it later with stomach aches.

Rather than trying to build an immediate cadre of no-meat recipes in the house, I've been opting for buying lots of produce, some good veggie staples (black beans, noodles, rice, etc.) and then making it up as we go along. Here's a couple interesting examples...

Grilled Asparagus with Angel Hair Pasta and Garlic Toast





Yellow Squash and Mushroom Tacos



Me showing off some local multi-grain tortillas



Rice and Sauteed Veggies



This is essentially fancier version of the mixture I made for the tacos...it didn't turn out too well but that's because I used Lawry's Seasoned Salt and the flavor totally clashed

I saw my entire immediate family this week - on a bittersweet occasion - my dear grandma passed away and so I was off to Southern Utah. I will really, really miss her and her beautiful voice, smile, and humor. We both share a passion for travel and I am just happy to know that she's off running around in space somewhere, not bound to difficult joints from her body. Or cooking up a storm...one dish I make that comes from her is the Arnold's Family Cranberry Salad, which is made on Thanksgiving and Christmas. EVERYONE loves this dish.

After the funeral, a sweet neighbor of my grandparents released their doves in a symbol of hope, peace, renewal and freedom for my Grandma. It was so beautiful.



Tschüß!

Asparagus in Tomato Sauce

I still love Indian Food. Yes, I cheat at times and use the canned sauce...but recently have even started applying basics in one recipe to something different. Last year, I first tried Potatoes in a Tomato Sauce. Awesome, awesome, awesome! I used basically the same sauce but added cut Asparagus to it and it was amazing!





I will admit, this picture is from a few weeks ago - we've recently decided to go veggie for a while (which may be a long while). I've always had some serious meat guilt and struggle with my love of cooking and my love of animals. Using the "circle of life" justification only gets me so far...at the end of the day, I know animals are beautiful and deserve to live their own peaceful life. "But what about overpopulation?" There are always going to be meat-eaters and I'm sure I will eat meat in the future. However, we've created an industrial process that raises animals specifically for food, we raise too many of them, we spend too many natural resources to produce it, we kill and reap the harvest when they are too young, and I'm tired of being a contributor to that. It's the same thing with High Fructose Corn Syrup or other corn by-products. I don't have anything against corn or even goopy sugary syrup. I have a thing against nations, cultures, communities, and companies being dead-set reliant on one crop that's ruining the environment and is full of corrupt policies and practices/subsidies.

Wow, I needed that. I've been very trigger-shy lately about posting - this is a travelogue about our journey through food, through cultures, and through a very fun life in Texas - so let's get on with that, shall we?

I'm making good progress on planning our UK 2009 trip, which is coming this September. We'll be focused in London, Bath, and the Cotswolds, along with two days in Bristol for my BFF's wedding. I can't wait!

Tschüß!

Bowling night