Somewhere around 1976, I read Diet for a Small Planet and started down this path. The idea that eating lower on the food chain was better for the world made perfect sense to me and I connected to the underlying ethos of not taking other lives to sustain our own.
I learned to combine proteins, cut beef and pork out of my diet, bought a copy of Laurel's Kitchen, and began to look for like-minded souls. There was no Google, no Facebook, no Twitter, so I joined the Natural Food Co-op where I traded a two hour shift once a month for the opportunity to purchase raw nuts and beans from bulk bins, freshly made tofu, and the occasional organic vegetable (you could also buy your Birkenstock's there and Indian print bedspreads, and loose leaf tea).
I never missed steak or hamburgers or pork chops, but I had an occasional craving for certain culinary delights from my childhood, like Genoa salami, Italian sausage and peppers, and fried Taylor ham on white bread. My emerging vegetarian repertoire included cauliflower souffle, a wonderful Indonesian salad called Gado Gado, and Laurel's Roman Beans and Rice.
In my first apartment after college, I grew bean sprouts on the window sill and made my own yogurt. I learned to combine proteins, bought the New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook, and stopped eating chicken. The progress down the path to the place I am now has continued ever since. I went from eating fish occasionally to pretty much not at all. I flirted with going vegan, but couldn't give up my beloved aged cheddar cheese.
I am still negotiating my way around societal norms, cultural traditions, advertising, fast food menus, and misinformation including advertising c, and fast food advertising, to develop my own culinary tradition, one that allows me to feed myself and my family, in a way that seems connected to the earth, my family traditions, and my heart's desire.
I decided to record a years worth of dinners here, for my daughter, who is dreaming of a place of her own where she will rule the kitchen and prepare Shabbat dinner every week, and for my son, who told me that his life's ambition is to make enough money to buy the best ingredients and have enough time to make them into wonderful food to share with family and friends.
