thinking and eating...

i'm not a big cook, but i've been gaining such an appreciation for food now more than ever. once we started with our csa i found inspiration in fresh vegetables, where i had never before. i mainly steamed broccoli and that was about it. this insanely big sandwich features our csa veggies. lately i've been struggling with where my food comes from, how that makes me feel, and its effects.

i read Against Meat by Jonathan Safran Foer (everything is illuminated) and it struck me hard, especially this:

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of sushi “lunch dates” with my mom, and eating my dad’s turkey burgers with mustard and grilled onions at backyard celebrations, and of course my grandmother’s chicken with carrots. Those occasions simply wouldn’t have been the same without those foods — and that is important. To give up the taste of sushi, turkey or chicken is a loss that extends beyond giving up a pleasurable eating experience. Changing what we eat and letting tastes fade from memory create a kind of cultural loss, a forgetting. But perhaps this kind of forgetfulness is worth accepting — even worth cultivating (forgetting, too, can be cultivated). To remember my values, I need to lose certain tastes and find other handles for the memories that they once helped me carry.

i'm a vegetarian and live with a vegan. i enjoy my eggs and cheese and push out the idea that these things come from factory farming, which is a horrible, cruel existence for an animal. so i question my daily decisions, my cravings and how that effects not only me but the animal and you. factory farming is the number one cause of global warming! i think about this and safran's story daily and it makes my head spin. i eat my homemade egg and cheese "mcmuffin" that i obsess over making and wonder if the loss of that taste is worth forgetting.

jeremy made these Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Panino sandwiches the other day. the recipe is from Vegan Yum Yum. we love her food and her photography is killer. anyone who can get me to knowingly eat eggplant is a winning chef. believe me. served on my favorite handmade dishes by folded pigs. eating on anatomical hearts and cockroaches is oddly enough, my cup of tea.