Lost in the Quotidian

I’ve been reading the Julie/Julia Project blog a little too obsessively after watching the movie Julie & Julia. And I have to say, I like the real Julie considerably more than I did her character representation in the movie. But, perhaps the most interesting thing is that I, as a life-long vegetarian, am thoroughly enjoying reading a blog involving the intricacies of all sorts of meat. No, it certainly doesn’t make me want go out purchase steaks for pan-frying. I’m not sure anything could ever convince me to cross the line into meat-eating.

I once had a spoon full of chicken soup to placate a Salvadoran gardener I was working with. We were sitting in our truck at lunch time and for some reason he desperately wanted me to try the dish his wife had just brought to him, nice and warm. Not sure why I did that, swirled the broth around in my mouth and swallowed. I didn’t die or get sick. Perhaps that’s what he wanted to prove to me. Well, I knew that the wrath of God wouldn’t come down on me for eating meat. But, it was still weird when nothing was different afterward.

My only other intentional experience with non-vegetarian food, involved accepting a piece of lobster. No sauce. I chewed it and ruminated to myself that it was like white, rubbery solidified sea water. Whatever. Again this was for some reason for a man. The kind who had venison in his freezer. One of my girlfriends A. got really upset at me for this. She (and her family) are responsible for introducing me to the more gourmet possibilities of food when I was a teenager. Mmmm, there was always such delicious food at their house.  A. was hurt that I didn’t decide to forsake my vegetarian upbringing with her.  She made me promise that if I were ever going to cross this line ever again that I must do it with her. Because she’d feed me something so damn good that I couldn’t help but love it and lap it up. I’m sure she’s right. But, I don’t want to go there again.

Still, that aside, I’m having to hold myself back this week from reading every single blog entry that Julie composed over the span of a year. Space it out and savor a little more, right? I just like how real she is. And how, it’s so very true, that nothing is as simple as it sounds or looks in a recipe, sometimes you just have to substitute, and everything takes twice as long to complete. Especially when you’re nervously checking the recipe every few minutes afraid you read something wrong (Ok, my own self-doubt issues are something I’ve got to work on, I know). And sometimes just reading a sentence where Julie describes the ingredients she’s using makes me happy. Tarragon. Parsley. Garlic. Black Pepper. Mmmm…

And I love the experience of following recipes when I cook. They really help me expand my food worldview because they start to show me how certain ingredients work together and they inspire me to actually cook things that I’d have absolutely no idea what to do with otherwise, such as yucca.  I’m currently working my way through a kick-ass cookbook, not nearly as difficult or intense as Mastering the Art of French Cooking but sublime all the same. Oh, Veganomicon, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Ok, perhaps not all the ways, but they do include: Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes, Roasted Portobellos, Fresh Dill-Basmati Rice with Chard and Chickpeas, Mediterranean-Style Baked Lima Beans and Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu.

I’m not a even a vegan and so my dishes as a result aren’t always dairy-free either (yay for being okay with substitutions!). The end results are quite tasty a majority of the time. And they even have a fabulous Joy-of-Cooking-esque section in the beginning about how to cook vegetables, grains and beans. The thing is that this really is about the process. It usually takes me an hour or two to cook anything. I will certainly never be the Julia Child of onion dicing. I’m just slow. My eyes cry through every chop of the onion. But, I love it even as a I sniffle a little bit. I’ve come to realize that cooking becomes a meditation for me when I let it. As soon as I get stressed out, or desperately want something to turn out amazing, it gets a trickier. So it’s a good exercise in just going with the flow, step by practical step. Or confusing step here and there. Chopping and cutting and measuring out spices and simmering and shutting the bedroom door so all the kitchen smells don’t sneak in there. Trying to time everything just right. I like it.

I was the kind of kid who loved to look through all the pictures in cookbooks. And just imagine the possibilities. One book I adored was the Superheros Super Healthy Cookbook.  I don’t believe we ever cooked anything from it. But I certainly loved imaging the fantastic possibilities embedded in the cool comic-book-style pages. The fun thing now is that I think I might enjoy playing with cooking as much as I enjoyed imagining making Batman and Robin’s Secret Salad Dressing. Reading about making food, look at pictures of food, actually dicing the green pepper for Veganomicon’s Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalya. Mmm, all very fun stuff.