90% Notes

A few quick notes on this fine evening about how I plan to develop this site:

- The aim I have in mind is to share recipes for others who may love meat, but who don't love being meat eaters...or who are just trying to eat meat a little less. I may share information about the health benefits of a vegan or vegetarian diet, but as you might have guessed from the title of this blog, I'm not 100% vegan and I don't aim to be.

There are definitely times that I will eat animal proteins, even some occasional meat. I have tried, and I found it very hard to keep a 100% vegan/vegetarian diet; I always ended up abandoning it because I thought I was a terrible vegetarian whenever I craved the foods I had been raised with...and inevitably fell off the wagon.

But when I stopped looking at the "low on the food chain" diet as an abstinent, all-or-nothing proposition, something happened. After that, I gave myself permission to just be a better consumer of food, if not precisely a perfect one. I wanted to reconcile the meat-lover in me with the parts of my heart, instincts, and intellect that tell me quite clearly that meat is not a sustainable choice, not in the Western diet's current level of consumption, so I started out vegan and worked my way to where I felt my mind, body, and soul were in alignment.

I've discovered that a good balance for me was eating just a little animal protein as a small portion of a healthy and flavorful diet based mostly on vegetables and grains. I still eat eggs, because I buy from the farmer. And I won't freak out if a dish I'm served has some cheese in it (though mostly cheese just makes me feel awful when I eat it, anyway).

And once every few weeks, I even enjoy the indulgence of a little bit of animal protein in the form of meat. I try to verify the source of the animal if it's possible, though I'm claiming no sainthood in vegan heaven, to be sure. And even though "90% Vegan" is my catchy-ish name for it, the truth is that my diet includes less than 10% of its proteins from animal sources. Now, from what I am able to discern on the 'nets, we Americans eat way more of it than we need to -- and certainly more than is healthy, so when you figure in the resource-hungry, cruel act of factory farming to the mix, you seal the deal for me: I just don't want to eat much meat or cheese.

So yes, I probably still eat lots of trace animal products in my mints (Altoids have gelatin, did you know? If you like Altoids, thank a pig!) and a true vegan might reject my favorite fake cheese (which has some casein in it). But my goal is to reduce my environmental and moral impact as best I can, because as an honest-to-gosh meat lover, I'm not sure I will ever eliminate that impact completely in my lifetime. We'll see, especially as I learn how to cook so well that I forget what meat tastes like, but for now I will never be the role model for the militant vegan lifestyle, and that's okay by me.

I will say that it's rarer and rarer (hey, a steak pun!) that I ever crave anything so high on the food chain as beef now, despite the fact that good beef was always my meat of choice. (I'm not sure I recall the last beef I had, actually. My wedding...?) Anyway, my recipes here will limn toward being as vegan as I know how to make them, but I encourage you to improvise too, to give feedback, and make your own (educated) decisions about what you eat and what cruelty or environmental impact may be underneath your plate.

Some other thoughts...


- I'm making the commitment to fewer updates in favor of better results. I made an almost-completely-awesome vegan Tom Ka Gai soup/noodle hybrid tonight...but the thing is, the results, while incredibly tasty, were not-quite-100%. Before I post it in haste, I want to do another run ( with more chilis and better purple basil, if you must know right away!) here in the test kitchen. This site is just a hobby for now, so before I go sharing any half-arsed recipes, I'm going to make a good attempt to perfect them.

- I am monkeying with the Blogspot layout within an inch of its life (er, rather, my abilities) and I'm still not happy, so I may just have to get some hosting for real. Sorry if the color changes are giving you a headache, and thanks for reading anyway.

- Here is a picture of a celery root. Lest you think that's nonsequitir, I'll tell you that I learned last week from my friend Molly that these things are fantastically tasty, and I aim to explore their mysteries in a future recipe.

Meanwhile, tell me it's not amazing that this homely little buddy could be edible AND tasty, and I'll call you a cynic. It's amazing.
Thanks for reading!