Why I'm a Vegetarian--and Why I'm not Strict About it.

There are a lot of reasons why I became a vegetarian (mostly) last year.  I don't view my lifestyle as "better" or "higher" than those of you who do eat meat.  After all, what kind of true vegetarian am I anyway if I still eat eggs regularly (as well as cheese and dairy products)?  Here are the main reasons for my food choices:

I view the treatment of chickens, pigs, cows, and other factory-farmed animals as morally reprehensible, cruel, and disgusting.  I am not a person who believes "no living things should be killed" in order for us to eat.  In fact, I understand that death needs to occur for life to happen.  The big fish eat the little fish, the soil around us becomes rich with nutrients from dead animals.  I am not so disillusioned as to think that every human being must live a life wherein they don't directly cause the death of any animals. 

The thing is, I can't look at a perfect, juicy, delicious, healthy chicken breast without picturing in my head that broiler hen who spent the few short months of her life pumped full of hormones so as to grow faster while sitting in a pile of chicken poop and urine.  That hen lives in a cage where she can barely move.  Her skin is covered in burns from the ammonia in her coup. 

I can't eat a lovely pork chop without picturing the gestation crates where sows can't even move, or the lagoons of pig waste that seep into the ground and even get sprayed into the air sometimes. 

I don't eat steak for two reasons:  I don't like the taste of it (and never have), and for the treatment of cows  (most specifically veal cows) on factory farms.

It probably seems hypocritical of me to admit I eat dairy products (that come from dairy farms where cows are pumped full of hormones to produce their milk and then stuck in cages...you get the picture).  I can tell you that I try as often as I can to eat cage-free eggs, and that California passed a proposition last year that gives farm-raised animals the ability to turn around, stand up, and spread their wings/legs.  This is a small step in the right direction, but it's not nearly enough for me.  I simply do not like to eat highly-processed soy products (unless it's simply soybean curd or whole soybeans), and eating dairy is what helps satisfy me at a lot of meals.  I am inconsistent, I know.

A lot of people have asked me why I don't eat fish.  And I do--from time to time I eat shellfish (maybe 2 or 3 times a year) and I've been known to accept a tuna sandwich when there's nothing else available.  But for the most part, we all know pretty well that the oceans are being over-fished and our waste is replacing the fish we catch. 

One of my favorite things in the whole world to eat is wild Pacific salmon.  It is so delicious, so rich, and I look forward to salmon season every year.  I was really able to appreciate it for the first time when I started working at McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in 2006.  And the thing about this fish that I love is that it is regulated by the US government.  During  seasons when there aren't enough salmon, no one can fish them.  I grew up watching the salmon swim up the "fish ladders" on the Sacramento river and going to the hatcheries.  But I'm getting off topic here. 

I try to focus on eating things that are as sustainable and cruelty-free as much as possible.  I'm not a "hippy" as my husband likes to tease me, nor am I a vegan who believes nothing should EVER die.  But I do feel a huge burden on my heart that we need to take care of our planet to the best of our ability; and not to take advantage of creatures that we eat by torturing them every minute of their short lives. 

This is not a very well-written post, I know.  I don't have a clear structure to my thoughts and I could have backed up my research a little bit better for you.  There is some very basic information in the links I have splattered throughout the post and you can look at it or not--it doesn't matter to me.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that my choices in food are mostly based upon a desire to refrain from causing torture to the animals we do eat, and to remember that they are a valuable part of the planet.  There is something to be said for raising our meat in a way that they don't experience torture and stress every moment of their waking lives.  We have been given this earth as a gift, and it's wrong to think that we can simply trash it and use and abuse the creatures that share it with us just because we can. 

Yes, if we overhauled factory farms all over our country we might have to pay more for our food.  Yes, we might need to pass on the chilean sea bass (that is STILL served at many high-end restaurants!) and other endangered fish populations.  We might need to check the labels and do more reasearch, and go to our local Farmer's Market more often.   

I also wanted to note that I am very close to deciding to add poultry (maybe a lean chicken breast or turkey cutlets) into my diet at least once a month.  I recently have been listening to a podcast posted by an old dormmate and high school friend from the Philippines.  I believe that she works on a sustainable farm and has her own cooking blog. 

The podcast is a discussion about a book called The Vegetarian Myth which talks about the reasons vegetarianism (more specifically veganism) is unhealthy and will not "save the world," per se.  I have yet to read the book and have not yet finished listening to the interview with the author, but so far it has been very interesting and I am eager to listen to more and read the book.  Hopefully there isn't a long wait for it at the library! 

I just want to end by saying that my reasons for being vegetarian (mostly) are not "trendy" or necessarily health-related (meat eaters can be very healthy).  It's mostly my concern that I don't have a lot of ways to physically DO something to help our planet stay lovely and beautiful and one of those ways is in the choices I make about food.  Because the person next to me will ask "why are you a vegetarian?" and I will kindly explain to them my reasons.  This just helps a few more people each week understand the impact that our factory farms and fishing habits have on the earth.

I welcome ANY and ALL input and look forward to more cooking adventures with my new blog!

-Erin

Provencal Stuffed Peppers and Minestrone Soup with Pesto

On Sunday I decided to make two dishes:  Provencal Stuffed Peppers and Minestrone Soup.  This is how it turned out!

Provencal Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 red onion, sliced

1 zucchini, diced
4 ounces mushrooms, slived
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 4-ounce can chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
scant 1/3 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
4 large yellow bell peppers
1/2 cup red Leicester or Cheddar cheese, finely grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh basil leaves, to garnish

1)  Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion, succhini, mushrooms and garlic and cook gently for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2)  Stire in he tomatoes and tomato paste, then bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly.  REmove from the heat and stir in the pine nuts, basil, and seasoning.  Set aside.  

3)  Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and seed them.  Blanch in a pan of boiling water for about 3 minutes.  Drain and dry.  

4)  Place the peppers in a shallow ovenproof dish and fill them with the vegetable mixture.

5)  Cover the dish with foil and ake for 20 minutes.  Uncover, sprinkle each pepper with grated cheese and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubling.  Garnish with basil leaves and serve.  This dish is delicious served with crunchy garlic bread.  

 

This dish was a lot of fun to make.  I love bell peppers and the mixture of onions, mushrooms, zucchini, and tomatoes was just delicious!  The only problem was that I think the pine nuts were a big too overpowering.  I would have cut the amount of pine nuts in quarter or even just lightly sprinkled them because their flavor was so nutty and strong that they completely overpowered the rest of the lighter flavors.  But, all in all, it was a success.  

I'm no expert meal planner nor do I have the talents of  planning courses and dishes that compliment each other.  The reason I chose this next recipe to go with the stuffed peppers is that they both had the common ingredient of basil, and I thought a nice soup would go well with the lighter stuffed pepper dish.  So, I made minestrone with pesto.

Minestrone Soup with Pesto

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 leek, sliced

2 carrots, finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice

6 1/4 cups hot vegetable stock or water, or a combination of both

1 bay leaf

1 sprig of fresh thyme, or 1/3 teaspoon dried thyme

3/4 cup peas, fresh or frozen

2-3 zucchini, finely chopped

1)  Heat the oil in the saucepan.  Stir in he onion and leek, and cook for 5-6 minutes.  (I forgot to get a leek when I went shopping, so I had to leave that ingredient out...).  Add the carrots, celery and garlic, and cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes.  Add the potatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes more.

2)  Pour in the hot stock or water and stir well (I used all stock).  Add the hers and season with salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 10-12 minutes.  

3)  Stir in the peas, if fresh, and the zucchini.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the frozen peas, if using, and the tomatoes.  Cover the pan ans summer for 5-8 minutes.    

4)  About 10 minutes before serving, uncover the pan and stir in the beans.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in the pesto sauce.  Simmer for another 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let stand for a few minutes.  Serve with the grated Parmesan cheese.

The soup was, might I say, amazing.  The pesto was just absolutely phenomenal!  Even with the pesto, the soup just blended so well and all the flavors were really nice!  Definitely one of my favorites so far.  I ended up not using potatoes (I had a bag that I thought were good, but turned out to be growing into plants already!) so it was actually a healthier, lower-carb version.  To make up for the potatoes I simply double the amount of zucchini I used.  

You may notice that I have a hard time following a recipe exactly as it is written--that's because when I don't have an ingredient (even though I went shopping, haha) I just make do with what I have around and it usually turns out fine.  

Stay tuned for my next cooking adventure--I was forced to take three days off work this week (without pay, we're on shooting hiatus) and so I will probably use part of that time to try something new. 

First Posting.

I have been inspired. For a long time I have been wanting to CREATE and lately that has taken form in some cooking adventures. I absolutely love cooking. And I'm a vegetarian. So, I wanted to create this blog in order to chronicle my adventures in cooking (and possibly other mediums of creativity).

My new job is mostly why I have reawakened the creative bug. For a long time I worked in the food service industry and then I moved to the corporate world. Restaurants and coffee shops were so stressful and a source of constant dissatisfaction for me. Then the corporate world...well, if you've ever worked in a high-rise in an office for a top executive, you know. It's great at first because everything's so professional and clean and perfect, but it gets old. Trust me.

Anyway, rambling about my past professions doesn't get to why I am creating this blog. I want to be creative! I want to teach myself and learn better cooking techniques and discover new foods. So, here I go.

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My first cooking adventure of the summer (back in July) was homemade mozzarella cheese. I have always wanted to try it, and when I stumbled upon an article on the internet about how easy it really is to make, I just had to try. It was mostly a success. I never did figure out how to get the salt to actually stay in the cheese because the whey just kept washing it away, and the cheese was very squeaky like curds you would buy in a dairy. But all-in-all it was a great success and a fun project.



I started out with the three things you need to make mozzarella: vegetable rennet (vegetarian enzyme that causes the milk to curdle), citric acid, and raw milk. I found the raw milk at Whole Foods and the only store that carried the rennet was out so I ended up ordering it from the New England Cheese Making Supply Company--it was inexpensive.


The first step was to slowly bring the milk to a temperature of 95 degrees. Warm, but not hot. Then I had to dissolve the rennet (only 1/4 of a tablet for a gallon of milk) and wait until the milk was perfectly still. Once it had sat for 3 or 4 minutes, I can't remember exactly how long, the next step was to cut the curds.

I just cut it into one-inch cubes so it would be easy to spoon out of the pot. It was not hot enough to burn my hands, but just hot enough to be really uncomfortable. Anyway, the next step was to separate the curds from the whey.

This involved simply kneading the curds like bread--or however I could knead them. Then draining the whey into the sink, nuking the curds in the microwave for 2 minutes, and continuing to knead and drain until it began to form into a ball of cheese. I burned my fingers a little bit but I survived. :) It was crazy because the cheese ball would look like it was all curds and then after 2 minutes of sitting there all of a sudden all this whey would appear all around it! It never stopped. Haha. I guess that's why when you buy fresh mozzarella in the grocery store it usually has extra liquid around it.

And here is the end result! My mozzarella ball was a little rough looking because it was my first time, but it tasted just fine! A little bland because of my salting problem, and a little squeaky on the teeth, but all in all a success.

I had so much fun trying something new and am thinking I'd like to try feta or goat cheese sometime.

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That was my first cooking adventure of the summer, and it won't be my last (though technically summer's almost over...it lasts until about October here in LA) :D

I will blog late about why I'm a vegetarian, so that all my readers (if I have any) can understand and better enjoy my vegetarian cooking posts. I am very excited because tonight is Provencal Stuffed Bell Peppers and Minestrone Soup with Pesto--straight out of my brand-new veg. cookbook. Stay tuned!