Northern California Nesties
EmmieB
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
The Butcher and the Vegetarian: discussion (SPOILERS)
I finished this over the weekend. I quite enjoyed it (once I figured out that no romance was forthcoming, that is.)
So - some discussion questions to get the ball rolling:
1) How do you define your eating habits? (ie: vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, carnivore, omnivore, etc...)
2) Were you as annoyed as I was that she didn't put a single recipe in the book? (luckily, they're on her blog: http://www.teaandcookiesblog.com/ ... which is not working for some reason)
3) Have you reconsidered your eating habits at all?
4) What did you think overall?
ETA:
5) Do you agree that meat is masculine?
i know there was another one i'm forgetting....i'll add it when it comes to me.
...and...go!
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Re: The Butcher and the Vegetarian: discussion (SPOILERS)
1) How do you define your eating habits? (ie: vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, carnivore, omnivore, etc...)
Omnivore - I start the meal planning with vegetables, but there is always a serving of meat for at least one meal a day.
2) Were you as annoyed as I was that she didn't put a single recipe in the book? (luckily, they're on her blog: http://www.teaandcookiesblog.com/ ... which is not working for some reason)
:-)
3) Have you reconsidered your eating habits at all?
Only in that I was THRILLED to find Prather Ranch at the Campbell farmer's market - they even sell bacon! Oh, and I need to barbeque bacon at some point. Yum.
I have decided that a raw food week is in order when the temperature decides to warm up. But that's more because I like a challenge than anything else. After all, after I finished The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry we ate French food for well over a week. It was divine.
4) What did you think overall?
I enjoyed it. Like I said - I expected there to be romance, but once I got past that I found it good reading. Apparently neither the title nor the cover were her idea...nor did she even approve of the cover, but she lost that fight. It's on her blog...which isn't working today. I do enjoy a good food memoir. So much of life is formed around how we sustain ourselves. I find it fascinating.
Wait! I haven't read it yet!
1) How do you define your eating habits? (ie: vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, carnivore, omnivore, etc...) Omnivore.
2) Were you as annoyed as I was that she didn't put a single recipe in the book? (luckily, they're on her blog: http://www.teaandcookiesblog.com/ ... which is not working for some reason)Oh, that would TOTALLY bug me.
3) Have you reconsidered your eating habits at all? I'll let you know!
4) What did you think overall? Ditto #3
No pressure! I just finished it early and didn't want to forget my questions. It's that kind of place around my brain lately :-)
I finally finished it this morning. This book was an adventure, as I'm also a vegetarian and have recently done some reevaluating of my own. It inspired some writing of my own too, a three-page essay I'll share with you if you promise to give me feedback on the crappy ending.
I was surprised to find out that raw food did so much for her. That was puzzling and I'd like to know more about why.
To answer your questions:
1. I've been a strict vegetarian for 22 years.
2. Yes, this did annoy me. I didn't have much interest in the meat recipes, but others I did. I imagine there's copyright issues there.
3. Yes. See above. The one big difference in my experience and the author's experience is that she seems to have very little problem with the actual act of eating meat, of putting the flesh in your mouth. That is a huge problem for me.
It did also make me question a bit more about the conditions of the eggs I purchase at the farmers market (I checked 'em out online and was happy with what I found).
4. It was kinda sad that choosing to eat ethically is so difficult -- free range chickens that can barely walk due to their breast size, for example. And eating ethically while eating out? Forget it. If I were to start eating meat again, it would have be as humane and environmentally responsible as possible -- but that's a lot of work!
And it's still frustrating that she doesn't know what her health problem was. Mysterious digestive problems seem to run in our family and I wonder if this is something 10 years from now we'll all discover.
5. I can see it, though not hugely so.
me, too. I'm actually adding more raw recipes into our diet - both as a way to get new recipes for the things we already eat and to eat a little more healthfully. I'm hoping it solves my digestive issues.
I have also decided that unless I *really* trust where the food is coming from, I'm going to cut way back on ordering meat when we're out. Because you're right - eating ethically is hard.
We actually started buying our chickens whole from the Prather booth at the campbell's farmers market and the breast size is insane - it's what you imagine it would be when you look at a picture of a regular ol' chicken. The legs are also WAY more meaty...Husband says it's really eye-opening now and he would rather we pay $12 for two chickens and eat them less (and use every bit - the stock alone is divine) than pay less for chickens that probably couldn't hold up the weight of their own bodies.
I think her ethical issues re: ingesting flesh weren't there because she was raised feeling abnormal and just wanting to fit in. Normal people eat meat, therefore she wants to eat meat...but I like that she did her homework and ultimately bought products from animals who had "one bad day in their entire lives."
Yeah, and I can't help but wonder if it's something fairly innocuous about the raw food diet that is making her feel good -- removing high fructose corn syrup, or carbs or some other allergy along those lines. (And I'm curious about how it would affect me, of course, but man, that much fiber would not be good for ibs.)
I find it's hard enough to eat healthy, much less responsibly. Between working full time and all the other things I'm doing, a picky husband, etc., sometimes I'm just too tired or haven't planned enough to make a healthy meal. And missing the farmers market on Saturday mornings -- the best and most affordable source for eating organic, free range, etc. for me -- throws everything out of whack. You can kinda tell she wasn't working full time while doing this experiment.
I guess the doing the best you can do is really all you can hope for.
I'm thinking it's an allergy - or just that her poor system wasn't working so hard to digest everything.
But I've made a couple of rawmazing salads and they've been delicious. Paired them with pasta, which is cancelling out the raw part, but man are they tasty.