Emily has tagged me with not one but two memes! I finished reading The Irresistible Inheritance of Wiberforce by Paul Torday over the weekend, but I am not in the mood to write about it at the moment. So as to get best mileage out of them, I will only do one today and save the other for later this week. So without further ado, the food meme.
- Link to your tagger and post these rules.
- Share 5 food facts about yourself.
- Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them)
- Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs
- I’ve mentioned before that I am vegan. My husband is vegan too. We took the plunge together which made it easier. I think it was 1992 when we decided to go vegetarian for health, environmental and spiritual reasons. And then in 1993 (or ’94 I can never remember) after reading an article in Vegetarian Times about the horrible way dairy cows are treated, we decided we could not in good conscience eat dairy anymore (and by extension, eggs). It was easier to do than one might think. On rare occasions we will use honey as a sweetener when baking. Does this make going to out eat difficult? You bet it does, especially when we are visiting family none of whom are vegetarian. It certainly makes things interesting.
- Until last year I hated mushrooms. But for some reason when we joined a CSA and had all this fresh food and a recipe we were making called for mushrooms and we saw at the market that mushrooms were in season and from local sources I almost fainted when I heard the words, “let’s buy some mushrooms” come out of my mouth. My Bookman looked at me like I had grown a second head. But they were good. Since then we have even made mushroom gravy. I have no idea what has come over me.
- I don’t like cooking. Thank goodness my Bookman likes to cook. I think he figured out early on that if we were going to be together and he wanted to eat anything besides Spaghetti-Os or refried beans and Cheez Whiz (I was in grad school and not vegan yet) that he was going to have to take control of the menu. He’s like a mad scientist in the kitchen and believes that a recipe is only a suggestion. As a result, whenever he makes something really brilliant, he has not idea what he did and so therefore cannot, generally, repeat it.
- I cook once a year, on the the Winter Solstice. I scour cookbooks and recipes I’ve clipped and saved through the years to put together a menu for a fancy meal. Unlike my Bookman, I stick hard and fast to the recipes. They have, after all, been tried and tested, and I don’t want to risk ruining the one meal a year that I cook by deviating in any way from the instructions. I also bake a cake for my Bookman’s birthday in July, but as far as a meal goes, we usually eat out.
- One of my favorite food memories is from when I was a kid. I was 16 or 17 and made a recipe I had found for a peanut butter cake. I love peanut butter and so does my dad. We took the cake with us on a fishing trip to the Salton Sea. Just me and my Dad. The first morning when we got up at sunrise–that’s what you do when you fish with my dad. I had planned on having cereal for breakfast and asked my dad is he wanted some too. He said, no, we weren’t having cereal for breakfast. He took out the cake and cut us each a big slice and then poured glasses of milk. Cake for breakfast? Sure! And then he had a Bill Cosby moment and proceeded to tell me how cake was good for you. He concluded with, “but don’t tell your mother.” This was so unlike my dad that I couldn’t do anything but eat the cake. Our trip was three days. We ate cake for breakfast everyday. There was none left by the time we got home.
I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you want to play along, please do!
Advertisement
What an interesting meme.
1) I am severely carnivorous.
2) I love mushrooms of all kinds.
3) I am not a good cook. [Don't know how to do it.]
4) I don’t even really cook even once a year, unless using my George Foreman grill counts!
5) You reminded me of how my dad used to wake up in the middle of the night and have a slice of toast with peanut butter and jam on it… and yes. MILK. It is a nocturnal habit that has carried over into my own life!
And the “Bill Cosby moment”! Isn’t that entire routine of his absolutely hilarious? Oh, it is a classic. A classic. I love the part where Cosby’s father expresses his chagrin over the birth of a granddaughter, rather than a grandson. He looks over Bill’s shoulder as he holds the newborn and says…. “Hmmm. Looks like you forgot to put the stem on the apple!”
Where do people find these cooking husbands?? I’d love to spend less time preparing meals
Great answers, Stefanie – did enjoy your mushroom moment!
Your cooking habits sound like mine, and Hobgoblin is capable of doing mysteriously wonderful things in the kitchen too — thank God! He’s not a recipe follower. I just don’t get it — how do you know the result won’t be a disaster??
Very interesting! I love mushrooms, but I don’t know if I could be vegan. I admire those who are, though.
Wonderful answers–especially the last. I hate cooking and you can generally tell by my concoctions. Actually I have a repetoire of maybe five dishes that are basically edible–unfortunately I am stuck doing a lot of the cooking, which is pretty miserable, but oh well. If I was on my own I could happily subsist on cereal and peanut butter sandwiches!
Aren’t mushrooms good–glad to hear you’re a convert!
Oh, I’m just like your Bookman. Bob is always saying to me “Write this one down,” but I forget what I’m doing the minute I do it, and I’m not about to stop in the midst of cooking to write down what I’m doing. Besides, I never measure. I just dump stuff in until it tastes good. Can you see that on a recipe card: “dump until tasty?”
Love the story of cake for breakfast. That’s what fathers are for, isn’t it?
What fun answers to this fun meme!
I cook like Emily does – a bit of this and that. (I love the ‘dump until tasty’ instruction!)And my dad used to make us chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast every time my mom was out of town. I still love them!
I love the memory you shared of cake for breakfast with your dad! How fun. My dad was a chef and didn’t like anyone helping in the kitchen so I can’t cook. Funny thing though, my dad ate so much junk food. I think he was tired of the fancy food he had to make/taste all day at work!
Your bookman sounds great! Do you have any good vegan baking recipes you can share? Fun meme!
Cip, I think Burger King would go out of business if it weren’t for you
I love that Bill Cosby routine. He was a funny, funny man back in the day.
Litlove, I’m not sure how I managed to find a cooking husband. I knew from the age of 13 that I would need one, I even told my mom that my husband would cook so she needn’t bother showing me how. She thought it was a great joke
Dorothy, exactly! How do they know their concoctions will work? I just don’t understand.
Bibliophylia, the first year of going vegan is the hardest. After that it gets easier until you don’t even think about it anymore.
Danielle, we would get along well in the kitchen. I think cereal and toast make a fine dinner. Mushrooms have turned out to be tasty.
Emily, you and my husband must have gone to the same cooking school. Dump until tasty sounds perfectly right. I just don’t understand how you do it and I admire the ability. My dad would always say listen to your mother, and I loved it when he’d relent and do things like have cake for breakfast.
Melanie, I’m beginning to see a trend with dads and breakfast
Iliana, cooking is overrated
Cooking at home must have been like taking his work home with him for your dad.
Gentle Reader, oh he’s got lots of good baking recipes. Anything in particular you’d like?
Have you considered using agave nectar instead of honey? It’s vegan, and quite delicious.
Heather, we just saw agave nectar at the store we shop at the other day and were wondering what it is. We’ll have to try it sometime!
I’d love a decent vegan cupcake recipe, and do you have any really good cookie recipes? And by the way, I use agave nectar, too–but they say it’s best to use the raw stuff. Whole Foods sells raw, organic agave nectar that’s pretty good
We too use agave nectar regularly. It’s sweet like honey, but with a lighter flavor, dissolves easily even in cool liquids, and doesn’t crystallize.