The End of Teetotal Vegetarianism

The last few days post are missing as I had them on a memory stick that went missing. Maybe one day they will be uploaded if it ever turns up!

Surfice to say I won the bet, bought a giant double bacon sausage monster burger and then threw up.

Result!

Teetotal Vegetarianism - Day 25 May 29th 2009

“The next time I have meat and mashed potatoes, I think I'll put a very large blob of potatoes on my plate with just a little piece of meat. And if someone asks me why I didn't get more meat, I'll just say, "Oh, you mean this?" and pull out a big piece of meat from inside the blob of potatoes, where I've hidden it. Good magic trick, huh?” – Jack Handy

Today I’ve been reading about vegetarian shoes; a growing trend for those who won’t just stop at not eating meat but they also won’t wear leather or other animal skins.

Are your shoes vegetarian?

Robin Webb, creator of Vegetarian-shoes.co.uk talks about the concept;

‘’We have come a long way since Veggie Shoes first started in 1990. When I started the business back then I made all the shoes by hand. In fact, originally I only made one style - a basic lace up shoe.

I had started to teach myself to make shoes four years earlier after leaving Art College. I was inspired to hear that in parts of Africa, car tyres were recycled into soles. This got me thinking and soon I was making shoes out of anything I could lay my hands on, but being veggie I didn't want to use leather.

Then I made an exciting discovery, -a synthetic Microfibre material used for yachting upholstery. It looked and felt like supple leather, but was 'breathable', unlike other plastics. After some experimenting, I realised that this was what I had been looking for, and Vegetarian Shoes was born.’’

And Vegetarian Shoes will be at Glastonbury this year if you want to pop along. Sadly I won’t be there; I’ll be eating meat in a pub wearing my suede jacket and leather shoes!

Vegetarian Dish of the Day;

Grown for Pleasure Seeds of Change Jalfrezi Medium Hot Organic Indian Sauce

Box Blurb: This sauce meets the Soil Association's standard for Organic Food and Farming. This Jalfrzi takes you firmly into spicy territory. Deliciously piquant, it brings together crisp red and green peppers in a feisty combination of authentic spices and herbs. Let your taste buds sizzle.Seeds of Change donates 1% of sales to the research and promotion of biodiversity and suistainable organic practises. All of the ingredients grown for this product are 100% organic. No Artificial Additives or Preservatives

Possibly the most limp wristed curry sauce in the world. It gets bothered about how the soil is. But boy is it tasty. So tasty I wrote a song about it;

I folow the Moskva

Down to Gorky Park

Eating the seeds of change

An August summer night

Soldiers passing by

Eating the seeds of change

The world is closing in

Did you ever think

That we could be so close, like brothers

The future's in the air

I can feel it everywhere

Cooking with the seeds of change

Take me to the magic of the moment

On a glory night

Where the children of tomorrow dream away

With the seeds of change

Cooked it up with Quorn Chicken pieces and it was extremely edible. I’m getting better at stomaching Quorn. I cleared my plate!

Teetotal Vegetarianism - Day 24 May 28th 2009

''Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon'' - Doug Larson (writer)

All this hippy nonsense is getting too much. I walked past one of Ramsey’s many ‘Crystal’ shops (yes, a shop that sells crystals and yes, there is more than one in the town of Ramsey) and I noticed this sign;

Loving making jewellery!!! Someone has created jewellery that can have sex! That or their grammar was a bit off.

However I went on to read something more bizarre later in the day;

''Vegetarian or vegan cat food has been available for many years, and is targeted primarily at vegan and vegetarian pet owners. While a small percentage of owners choose such a diet based on its perceived health benefits, the majority do so due to ethical concerns. Cats are obligate carnivores and require nutrients (including arginine, taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and niacin) found in meat sources that cannot be obtained in sufficient amount in plant sources. According to the National Research Council, "unsupplemented vegetarian diets can result in harmful deficiencies of certain essential amino acids, fatty acids, and vitamins." Vegetarian pet food companies attempt to correct these deficiencies by supplementing their products with synthetically produced nutrients'' (Wikipedia)

Poor guy just wanted some meat; no more vegetarian cat food

I’m an obligate carnivore, I hope I’m not down on an required nutrients. But in terms of cat food it’s a bit mental. I always wondered who the 2 out of 10 cats were. While all their feline chums are tucking into Whiskas these poor moggies are suffering a nutritionally void vegetarian option. As the website vegancats.com says they are a ‘cruelty free alternative for cats and dogs’. However cats are naturally cruel (I’ll never forget the cat who brought me the severed head of a baby rabbit that it had just killed) so who are vegetarians to deny the natural way of things? Its ok for them to choose to not eat meat but to force their belief on a animal who will just go out and kill anyway is on a Susan Boyle level of mental! (She likes cats, wonder if hers gets vegetarian cat food…)

Vegetarian Dish of the Day:

Quorn Sausages

Box Blurb: Deliciously succulent Quorn sausages perfectly seasoned with onion.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Linda’s sausages I thought I would give the Quorn ones a go. I pan fried them but things looked off from the starts. The sausages gave off a thin white foam and looked hideously dry. I thought I was in a vile time but as I bit into one I was shocked. Textured almost identically to a dodgy meat hotdog and tasting almost the same it was a revelation. Obviously no good if you don’t like those but to create such a match without the need for mechanically reclaimed meat should be applauded. I served them with mashed potato to create the English classic of Bangers and Mash. In terms of vegetarian sausages I would rate these over the highly lauded McCartney version.

Teetotal Vegetarianism - Day 23 May 27th 2009

"Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn'' - Garrison Keillor (Radio Host)

Butter or did Garrison get excited?

Garrison Keillor obviously getting a bit too close to his sweet corn with that quote. Very Children of the Corn. Which is another reason to shun vegetables. Look what those kids did when pushed by corn.

Speaking of corn; try this puzzle. A farmer has to get his fox, his chicken and some corn across a river. He can only take one thing in his boat at a time. If he leaves the fox and the chicken alone the fox will eat the chicken. If he leaves the chicken and the corn alone the chicken will eat the corn. How does he get them all across?

I found this madness in the supermarket today; Vegetarian friendly soap. What next, vegetarian toilet paper?!

Vegetarian Dish of the Day:

Discovery more adventurous tastes Mexican spicy Refried Beans

Box Blurb: Traditional refried pinto beans spiced with red pepper, cumin and jalapenos. What they lack in beauty they more than make up for in flavour.

These looks so bad they felt they had to acknowledge it on the pack. If ever I needed fake dog poop this is where I would go. But that aside I love refried beans and thought I would try and use them in a jacket potato. Interesting aside;

‘’The name is based on a mistranslation. In Mexican Spanish, the prefix re- is an informal form of emphasis meaning "very" or "well," not to be confused with the English re- and formal use of the Spanish prefix re-, which indicates repetition. Thus, frijoles refritos, the Spanish name of this dish, would translate to English as "well-fried beans," not "twice-fried beans’’

I’ve always been a big fan of Mexican food; it got me through a terrible ordeal in Newquay (thank you Senior Dicks). And whilst this brand is excellent and spicy in taste unfortunately as a filling refried beans quickly showed their incompatibility. Baked beans work well due to their tomato sauce but as their refried brothers lack as sauce and are very gooey. They were too thick I felt and whilst still very edible as a meal I think I will leave it to bake beans when it comes to Jacket Potatoes in the future. Refried beans can stay alongside Enchiladas where they belong.

Teetotal Vegetarianism - Day 22 May 26th 2009

‘’And, of course, the funniest food of all, kumquats’’ - George Carlin

Teetotalism was always a strange concept to me but nothing more strangely than the fact that Lynchburg, Tennessee is a dry county. For those who don’t know;

‘’Lynchburg is a city in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is governed by a consolidated city-county government unit whose boundaries coincide with those of Moore County. Lynchburg is best known as the location of the Jack Daniel's distillery, whose famous whiskey is marketed world-wide as the product of a city with only one traffic light. Despite the operational distillery, Lynchburg's home county of Moore is a dry county’’

A dry county being someplace;

‘’in the United States whose government forbids the sale of alcoholic beverages. Some prohibit off-premises sale, some prohibit on-premises sale, and some prohibit both. Hundreds of dry counties exist across the United States, although most commonly in the South. A number of smaller jurisdictions also exist, such as cities, towns and townships, which prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages. These are known as dry towns, dry cities or dry townships’’ (Wikipedia)

I guess being that close to temptation they had to put a law in place. Apparently the brewery is allowed to sell small commemorative bottles of JD to tourists, but not on a Sunday. Gods speaks louder than Alcohol in Tennessee. I’ve always enjoyed Jack Daniel’s but don’t drink as much of it as I use to after supping a whole bottle in a short amount of time and getting mighty ill. Maybe they need to make where I live a dry county.

Vegetarian Dish of the Day

Dalepak Cauliflower Cheese Grills

Box Blurb: A delicious blend of cauliflower, onion, green beans, vegetarian mature cheddar cheese and medium soft cheese, lightly seasoned and coated in a crisp crumb coating

I had stayed away from Dalepak products, part consciously and part subconsciously, following the Spicy Bean burgers and the health scare surrounding them. But I’m always prepared to give things another chance and so I cracked open the Cheese Grills. And very nice they were too. I love Cauliflower Cheese and these were an excellent contained version of that. The crumb coating was indeed crisp but not too thick which allowed the filling to shine through. Whilst nothing magnificent in terms of fine cuisine they were perfectly good at what they set out to be; simple food. Yet another product that works well on its own or as part of a main meal.

Teetotal Vegetarianism - Day 21 May 25th 2009

''If slaughterhouses had glass walls the whole world would be vegetarian'' – Linda McCartney

Since Linda McCartney was one of the pioneers of a vegetarian lifestyle and her food has featured in this endeavour I thought it only fair we should explore the woman behind the eats.

‘’A pioneer in both the vegetarian and animal rights movements, the late Linda McCartney shared her knowledge and love of meatless cooking through a series of best-selling cookbooks including, Linda McCartney’s New Home Cooking and Linda’s Kitchen: Simple and Inspiring Recipes for Meatless Meals. In 1991, Linda launched her own line of meatless frozen meals in the United Kingdom. With her husband, Paul McCartney, Linda promoted the health and environmental benefits to be gained through a vegetarian lifestyle, and through her company, she was always looking for creative ways to bring new and delicious tastes into the realm of wholesome eating’’

The information was from the website www.linda-mccartney.com as was the following which describes the mission plan of the company.

We have been making good tasting, high quality vegetarian food since 1991 when Linda started our food company. Our intention was — and still is — to provide our friends and customers with an easy, healthy alternative to a meat-based diet.

Since then, we have produced popular vegetarian meals for an ever-more environmentally aware world. As animal lovers, we are proud that our products are cruelty free and that not one animal suffers in the production of our delicious meals.

We sincerely hope you will enjoy our line of food and that you will join us in helping to make our world a better place for us and our children to live in - Paul McCartney’’

Linda McCartney died aged 56 as a result of cancer in 1998. Paul McCartney suggested people turn vegetarian as a tribute to her. An act almost as noble as a Gentlemans Wager...

Vegetarian Dish of the Day;

Linda McCartney Vegetarian Country Pies

Box Blurb: Soya Mince in a rich onion gravy within a light flaky pastry pie

The first thing I noticed about these was the very thick pastry. Even when meat is locked inside I like my pies to have a thin crust. The box has promised a ‘light flaky pastry’ but I found it very stodgy. The mince was also very gritty and was more like real mince than the Quorn stuff I have been so enjoying. Perhaps I had a bad batch but these were not what I expected. Not terrible but they really lacked the finesse I was hoping for from a McCartney dish and was another poor showing following the Quarter Pounders; all whilst Quorn is sneaking up the rankings. After the beauty that was the Duke ShawZy pie these seemed pretty light weight. Nothing to stop me going through the slaughterhouse glass after Alice.