Forecast for the Future

"Every individual without exception bears a potential writer within himself. The reason is that everyone has trouble accepting the fact that he will disappear unheard of and unnoticed in an indifferent universe, and everyone wants to make himself into a universe of words before it's too late. 

Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not that far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding."

- Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Wednesday: Pesto Perfection

Last night we followed up the great meals of Monday and Tuesday with another delicious one, this time prepared by Lil Beaumont with help from our two dads:

Stepdad Rick's pesto on spaghetti, with grilled asparagus, and salad featuring Real Dad's balsamic vinaigrette/dijon mustard/agave nectar** simple dressing.



As you can see on the left, a handful of the asparagus are wrapped and skewered in something pink--yep, that's some nice hot cappicola! Which I'm sure tasted great, though I wouldn't know it since I consumed only the "naked" asparagus below. Really. 



And there we are. Sprinkle a little parmesan on top and add some fresh italian bread with butter and pepper and you've got a table of "yum".

Deep Thoughts With Jack Handey...
The constant satisfaction I've experienced in eating this week sans meat serves as a reminder of the great difference (to me) between being vegan and being vegetarian. 

During last year's Hyperliving week of veganism (almost exactly one year ago, actually), I felt like every meal I consumed was some kind of grand compromise: a tactile exercise is maximizing potential flavor quotients while working on more or less "stone soup" principles... As if each meal were a mile marker on a journey toward the freedom of eventually being able to eat animal products again. 

For me, vegetarianism is nothing like that--it's simply an absence of a group of products from an otherwise normal diet. Other than occasionally going, "Oh, guess I can't eat that cappy", I feel like life is only minimally impacted. I'm sure in any kind of long haul I would miss bacon and burgers, but no where nearthe sense of loss, sadness, and emptiness I would feel over eliminating pizza, cheese, yogurt/ice cream/shakes and so forth. Or at least, so I think.

Anyway, onward march.



NOTE:
** Normally you would use maple syrup rather than agave, which would make this dressing that much better, but I killed the last of the maple at the end of my fast

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