Meatless Monday

Tonight, Emma told me she thought that at some point she will become a vegetarian.    When I was 19, I decided I was going to be a vegetarian and that was it for the next 25 years.  I would eat fish and seafood when going out to dinner and could never say no to the Italian sausage at my mom's and when I was pregnant, I had cravings for chicken.  For the most part, it was vegetarian cooking, 50 weeks out of the year.

Both Emma and Brian were raised vegetarians in the house but all bets were off in restaurants and other places.  Chicken nuggets?  Go right ahead.  Hot Dog?  Enjoy honey.  So 3-4 years ago, when I started up my CSA with farmer Allan, he was offering free range chickens and farm raised heritage hogs and I couldn't refuse.

Cooking these days does involve fish, chicken and pork.  I still don't have a taste for beef or other kinds of meat (never liked lamb in any case) so I don't cook it.  We have meatless meals at least a couple of times a week.  Unfortunately for Emma, she doesn't like to cook so I'm not sure how she's thinking she is going to live on vegetarian meals.  I have offered to teach her how to cook and so far, she's not interested although she does bake.  I really need to show her how to do at least the basics of putting a meal together.  Her brother loves to help me cook and Emma's response is always "don't worry mommy, I'm going to hire Brian to cook for me"

Tonight we had polenta, pole beans and fried potatoes. 

Polenta is easy.  Bring to a boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of milk.  Stir in 1 1/4 cups polenta and cook a few minutes until thick.  Stir in some gobs of butter.  Pour 1/2 into a greased pan, top with grated cheese, cover with the rest.  Bake at 400 for 30 min.  Serve in wedges.

I steamed the beans and served with butter.  The potatoes were cubed, then boiled under tender.  Heat peanut oil until hot, add potatoes, salt and pepper and fry until golden.

I didn't have potatoes with mine but ate some of the quinoa salad instead.