Cooking again

Tonight, I cooked for the first time in over a week. I didn't cook last week because I had leftovers to use up before going out of town. So tonight, I made a soba noodle dish from The Garden of Vegan and a tofu picatta from the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. My food wasn't quite hot enough when I got it plated, so I stuck it in the micro for a couple minutes, which improved the taste dramatically. The noodle dish has spinach, an absolute power veggie, and miso, a fermented soy paste which is said to have amazing health benefits. While miso is unfortunately high in sodium, a little goes a long way. Just put it in your dish toward the end of cooking to avoid diminishing its healthful properties. I may try a different noodle next time, such as linguine, but it's still a good side dish. Before I went veg, I used to love chicken piccata--something about lemons and capers--so a tofu version with mushrooms truly appealed to me. I didn't have wine, so I used vegetable broth, which worked just as well.

Well, the vernal equinox (first day of spring) is coming up. Oddly, the weather here in DC was said to be lovely this weekend while I was in Florida--which also had delightful weather--and when I came back to Washington, DC, Monday, the temps were around 80 degrees, and it was sunny and breezy and almost perfect. It got cooler as the week went by, and I hear we may get a dusting of snow this weekend. Snow. Just before the beginning of spring. It seems winter does not want to give up its grip. Luckily, I haven't gotten my change-of-season cold (yet).

Every year in March, is Meatout, once called the Great American Meatout. It was modeled on the Great American Smokeout with the idea that you give up meat for one day (or do Meatout Mondays and avoid animal products every Monday). There are events nationwide, and even internationally, so check the site out and find an event near you. I hope to do tabling Sunday, and a restaurant visit I have coordinated for the local vegetarian society is listed as an event. The times I've done it, it's been bitterly cold.

Ironically, just before the Meatout events begin, dozens of Catholic bishops have given a special dispensation so Catholics can eat "traditional" food on St. Patrick's Day, such as corned beef and cabbage and briskets and all sort of other fatty, meaty foods--ick. Catholics who wish to eat meat are supposed to deny themselves something else instead for that Lenten Friday. I understand that one of the bishops who granted the dispensation is a vegan himself. I have to wonder why would he all but encourage consumption of meat. But then, how often do you see a vegan clergyman? I do know some vegans who practice the lifestyle because of their religion; one young woman I met said that because her religion required it roughly half the time, she may as well eat vegan the rest of the year. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are prohibited from consuming meat and dairy products altogether during the Lenten period, which for them is 55 days before Easter.

I don't intend to wear green tomorrow either.