This Contrary Vegetarian has a New Home!!

For a long time, I’ve been casually posting a recipe now and then under the catagory “Contrary Vegetarian” (because I am not a vegetarian – I just cook for a few of them) and toying with the idea of starting a food blog.  Well, today I did it!!  (That’s not entirely true – I’ve been working on it like crazy for a week or so now – but I launched it today.)  So, without further introduction, I’m excited to announce ~

What’s for Dinner, Mama?

It’s been over 10 years now since one of my daughters decided to go vegetarian, and when she did, I resolved that I was not going to cook two different meals every night – one for her and one for everyone else.  I also didn’t I want her to live on Tofurkey and PBJ’s her entire life, so I started cooking more vegetarian-friendly choices and developing adaptable meals – meals that can be made for both vegetarians and omnivores at the same time.

That daughter has long since been lured back to the meat-eating side, wiled away by the seductive scent of bacon (and no, my dear vegan/veggie friends, your facon does not taste like bacon, no matter how much you like to think it does), but there are still plenty of vegetarians in my life to cook for, and since then, I’ve never looked back.  In fact, I’ve learned a lot about cooking for vegetarians in an omnivorous household, and even more about living cleaner, greener, and healthier – and that’s what What’s for Dinner, Mama? is all about.

Pop over today – you’ll find four recipes (under the tab Recipes →Cooking Basics) that are staples in my meal-prep arsenal.  Next Monday, I’ll put them all together and post a recipe for one of our all-time favorite meals – warm, healthy comfort food that both veggies and omnis will love.

 

P.S.  I’ll get the results of Save a Book posted this weekend!

 

Save One Book, Part 1

My niece-in-law (is that a thing?), Katie, recently posed the following question:

You are standing in front of the world’s biggest library – in the midst of the coming of an apocalyptic end to the world.
You can save one book.

Which book you would save and why?

You have to prove that it is worth saving. Remember, it may be the only book humankind ever has left. 

Include any quotes that help to substantiate your argument.

If you are a reader or a writer, you’ve likely pondered this conundrum at one point or another; I know I have.  But this time I got to wondering what my answer is these days, and how it might have changed with the turning pages of my life.   And how other people out there might answer differently.  And why.

So, at the risk of doing Katie’s homework for her, I’d like to offer a slightly modified version of her query…  Excluding:

  • Sacred writings (e.g., the Bible, Koran, Torah, Tao Te Ching, Writings of Ellen White, Book of Mormon, or anything else that appears on Wikipedia’s very long list of religious texts.),
  • and Reference Works (e.g., the dictionary, thesaurus, Compton’s 1973 Encyclopedia – Volume M),
  • and Technical Manuals (really?)…

What book would you save?  And why?  The aforementioned exclusions notwithstanding, everything else – fiction, non-fiction, or anything in that grey area (like political biographies) – is fair game.  And, like Katie, I’d love it if you could share a quote or two from your chosen volume to help substantiate your argument.

I’ll post the results, along with my own answer, later this week.  I’m pretty excited to learn what everyone will be carrying out of that library.

Image courtesy of Paul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

P.S.  Just a note ~ I’ll be delaying publishing comments on this post until Save One Book, Part 2 is posted later this week: I’ll be using some of your comments in that post.  Thanks!

Day of the Girl

International Day of the Girl

As the mother of five girls living in the United States, I feel very blessed – from birth, my daughters have had access to education, health care and running water.  They can choose to go on to college, to pursue a traditional career, to be a stay-at-home mom, or to break outside the box.  They can choose if and when and where and who they marry.  They can reach for a multitude of life’s adventures, and they are hindered only by their own fears, insecurities, and the practical limitations of middle class life.   In short, they are free to follow the inspirations of their hearts.

I want to take this moment today to share with you the first International Day of the Girl Child, with the hope that it will remind you (as it does me) that as citizens of this planet, we have a responsibility to help, to support, and to empower all of our children.

I posted the following link on my Facebook page this morning: Sihiba on Pinterest

Soon after, a dear friend shared it on hers, and to her posting came this response: “She has the internet, a camera, and posts pictures on pinterest? heart wrenching, but someone else is using her for some reason.”

Here is the reason: (Please take three minutes to watch this video, created by the African Medical and Research Foundation.)

Of course they are using Sihiba. They are using her to make a point, to make people think, to raise awareness. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think about the plight of Tanzanian child-moms on a daily basis. Or what my responsibility to them is as a fellow human being. They are using her to make us think. And possibility act by encouraging governments to act.  They are using her to give people HOPE.

From the Day of the Girl website ~

There are a billion reasons why we need the Day of the Girl, but let’s start with just a few facts:

  • ILLITERACY – By 2015, females will make up 64% of the world’s (adult) population who cannot read.
  • SCHOOL DROPOUT – Only 30% of girls in the world are enrolled in secondary school. In America, the dropout rate is worse for boys but one in four girls does not finish high school, and the dropout rate is even higher for minorities.
  • FORCED MARRIAGE – One in seven girls in developing countries is married off before age 15.
  • VIOLENCE – In the US more than half (54%) of all rapes of females happen before age 18.  One in 5 high school girls has been physically or sexually abused by a dating partner. Worldwide children as young as age 11 are forced to work as prostitutes. Some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children being trafficked every year.
  • BODY IMAGE – More than half (54%) of 3rd-5th grade girls worry about their appearance and 37% worry about their weight. More than half (57%) of music videos feature a female portrayed exclusively as a decorative, sexual object.

You can learn more at Day of the Girl.org  http://dayofthegirl.org

And to all girls (and women) everywhere – You are STRONG.  You are CAPABLE.  You are BEAUTIFUL.  You are WORTH IT!

Keep On Chasin’ That Dream

Sit back, youngsters.  I’m gonna tell you about the olden days.

I went to my first concert back in ’77 – BOSTON – at what was then Portland, Oregon’s premiere venue, The Memorial Coliseum.  Back in the final days of festival seating, before that fateful concert in Cincinnati that pushed us all forever into assigned seats.  Back when standing in line for hours… even days … before an event was part of the deal.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  First, we had to get tickets.  The “we” being my then boyfriend, Carl, and (if I remember right) our friend Frank, a fine-looking boy who wore his Levis so tight that a doctor once told him if he planned to ever have children, he’d better change his wardrobe.  (It may have been our other friend, Mark, but Frank sticks in my memory… wonder why?)  Anyway, getting tickets wasn’t going to be easy – BOSTON was riding high on the tide of their self-titled debut album, released in August the previous year.  (To this day, the record still ranks as the best-selling debut album in U.S. history.)  As the hottest band coming to our little town in months, their concert sold out before we even knew the tickets had gone on sale.  (Oh, what we would have done for eBay!)  Of course, back then, as now, you could get a ticket… if you knew a guy and could pay the service charge.  But I was just 14, and Carl was 15 – and we didn’t know any guys yet.   So we asked around, but we had pretty much given up on going.  Then just a week or so before the concert, I was standing on the corner of NE 82nd and Siskiyou waiting for a bus when I overheard a girl talking to her friend about how she couldn’t go to this concert the next week because she and her boyfriend had broken up and …blah, blah, blah… honestly, all I really heard was that she had two tickets she needed to get rid of.  I tried to act all calm, cool and collected while I made the arrangements with her, but I was jumping out of my skin; I couldn’t get home fast enough to call Carl and tell him!!  I met up with her at the bus stop the next day, and paid $32 for both tickets – just a dollar or two over the selling price.  Carl and I had decided that we could chance getting another ticket down at the Coliseum – there was sure to be a single that someone wanted to unload, and Frank was OK with paying the price.

Now came the really hard part – convincing my Dad to let me go.  Did I mention that I was 14? Two years out from being able to officially date, according to our house rules, and a universe away from going to a “rock concert alone with boys.”  OK, so I know that I should have gotten permission “first.”  In fact, if any of my girls pulled that on me now, I’d probably say no just on principle.  But it was the 70’s.  Things were different in the olden days, girls.  That’s all I’m gonna say about that.  I won’t bore you with the details, but it involved a lot of promising, pleading, tears, and Carl’s mom intervening on my behalf.  (Mama S., I still love you – you sweet lovely woman!)  Somehow we managed to convince Dad (a man who later did not even let me attend my senior grad party) that I would be safe, protected and well-supervised whilst attending this uplifting musical event.

We arrived early in the day.  Frank scored a ticket in the first few minutes – and paid over $20: enough to buy 30 gallons of gas or 42 dozen eggs back then.  We stood, we sat, we leaned, and we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, the gates opened and we made our way to the entrance, where we lifted the hems of our bell-bottoms for security to scan our socks for contraband, and then pushed our way through the turnstiles and into the roar of the crowd.

BOSTON was Awesome.

Like candy from a parade float, that word gets thrown around a lot these days.  But in the truest sense of the word, it was an Awesome show.  Because while, after 35 years, I may struggle to recall some details of the night – including exactly who went with us – I will never forget the chills I got as the Coliseum pulsed with Tom Scholz and Barry Goudreau’s amazing guitar harmonies backing Brad Delp’s vocals through the most incredible rendition of Long Time that I will ever experience in this life.

So no, Tom, we didn’t forget about you after you were gone.  No one forgets their first concert.  The details, yes.  Maybe even a few of the participants.  But that first concert, the way it made you feel, the place the music took you – that stays with you forever.

Lighters high, my friends.

Epilogue:  BOSTON toured again this fall with veteran Scholz anchoring the group, but the closest they came to my hometown was Sturgis, South Dakota.  C’mon guys – the left coast misses you.  It’s been such a long time…