Seven Foods That Keep Me From Vegetarianism

Another food post?

Really Devyn?

Yes, really.

Here's why, they say "write what you know".  I know food. We are gonna have to deal with that together.  

This is the follow up post to my post wondering why I wasn't a vegetarian here.  As much as I hate all of that stuff, I love all of this stuff even more.


Seven Foods That Keep Me From Being A Vegetarian or Vegan:

• Cheese. Who knew milk could make something so wonderful?  Cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, brie, mascarpone, swiss, and on and on.  So delicious.  Alone, on things, in things, with other things, anyway you want it!  Melty, gooey, cheesey goodness. 
• Cheeseburgers.  Please see my ode to cheese above.  Add to that some top quality beef ground and pressed into a perfect patty.  Add a few other toppings and bingo! A solid burger can heal me.  It can elevate a blasé day to a fantastic day!  Look out for a post on my best burgers! I can feel it a-comin'!
• Sausage. Sometimes sausage gets a bad reputation, that nasty pair of words comes up sometimes(meat filler).  Sometimes it is just sublime, seasoned, meaty, paradise.  That pizza I wrote about at Pizzeria Bianco has homemade fennel sausage on it and without it, I wouldn't have enjoyed it half as much.  I die.
• Bacon.  Do I even need to explain this to you?  Honestly?  Put it on that cheeseburger and eat it.  Fry it up and eat it by the pound like my little brother.  Take some thick-cut applewood smoked bacon and make the best BLT of your life.  Nothing could ever take bacon away from me.  This is probably the #1 reason I will never be able to ditch meat or animal products.  Sorry to all the vegetarians out there.  Bacon is amazing. 
• Eggs.  Know what's cool?  Eggs.  They are the most versatile ingredient in my kitchen.  You can make a cake, brownies, angelfood, meringues, buttercream, custards, and even cookies.  Then you take them over to the savory side and you make quiche, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, french toast(swoon!), hard boiled eggs. They can be the most delicious thing, but they are also one more thing that can gross me out, I'll leave the specifics up to you but I'll be damned if I can't help but enjoy them!
• Hot Dogs.  All beef, soft bun, condiments, cold beverage.  Yep, simple things.
• Steak.  Beef, thick, slightly charred, well seasoned, perfectly cooked to medium, with some potatoes and sweet corn on the cobone of the most satisfying meals.  A special treat for me to have steak.  Most of the time I grill a burger patty and eat it with a steak knife and A1 sauce and call it my poor Devyn's steak.  Mmmmm.

Honorable Mention: BUTTER.

 Do you have a similar list of things you could never give up?  I need to go eat some of these delicious treats like now. 

Seven Ways I Am Compelled To Be Vegetarian

Happy Sunday!  

Today's post is about to get real. Really.

Several of you have asked why I don't eat food off of the bone, and this should help clear that up a little bit.  I also prefer to not talk about a cow while I am eating a burger, or a chicken while I'm enjoying nuggets.  Now you know.

Every once in a while though, I am caught thinking about becoming a vegetarian.  I have seven reasons that won't be happening too, but for another time.  This time lets learn what sways me toward the vegetable lifestyle.

Seven Ways I Am Compelled To Be Vegetarian:

The Sound Of Knife On Bone - I had to take 6 weeks of basic culinary classes before they let me take pastry classes in school.  We cooked real food daily.  Had lamb chops at 10am once!  But we had to prepare those lamb chops.  Scrape the tissue and sinews off the bone to create that perfect presentation.  Nails on a chalkboard has NOTHING on this sound.  Curls my hair, boils my blood and tests my gag reflex all at once.  

People That Eat Guts, Innards, And Other Nasty Bits - I am not here to judge.  I believe everyone should be able to eat whatever they please.  However, the mere fact that people eat these things grosses me out.  Just think about your tongue and what it has been through...wanna eat it?

Chicken Wings and Fried Chicken(bone-in) - People LOVE fried chicken and chicken wings, i love the flavor and the idea but not the consumption.  I like to think humans are beyond gnawing on bones to procure our food.  It also makes me kinda sick to gnaw on a chicken’s wing bones.  Its hard to know what you eat and where it is safe to bite.  Biting into the bone or the cartilige areas too hard makes my hairs stand on end and I don’t know how to avoid that..  These are some of the reasons I can’t handle boned food.

Hot Dogs aka “weiners” - Meat Filler.  Two words that can send me running.  Anyone with an imagination and/or the Internet can figure out what composes this and why it is not appealing.  This is why I go all-beef all the time.

The Mere Idea That People Eat Bone Marrow - Osso bucco.  Not only are you scraping bone to get to this, you are scraping out the centers of bones.  Never tried it, never will.  Thinking about it makes me tense up...why am i not a vegetarian, again?

The Thought Of Animals Being Raised And Killed To Eat - Inhumane conditions and practices just for food?  Don’t vegetarians live fully nutritional lives without meat?

Being Able To Look At Certain Raw Meats And Identify “parts” - The logical side of my brain looks at a chicken breast on the bone and pictures its orientation on a chicken’s body.  How does it fit?  How did they get it off of the rest of the chicken?  Ew, why am I thinking about this?  Culinary school made this a little worse too.

Do any of you have some of these issues?  Or am I just really weird?  Wait, don't answer that last question. 



***Spoiler alert, tomorrow is Music Monday and the  triumphant return of Hercules!***