Jeanne, I’ll leave a note at your site, too, but I just wanted to tell you, I made an apple pie with your gf piecrust recipe last night and it was FANTASTIC! Thanks!

zegg - i encourage you to try a “meatless Monday” (or Tuesday, or Wednesday...) with your family, to go with the night you dedicate to your picky eater. i went veggie a year ago and was lucky enough to have a family, friends, and boyfriend who all support my meatless eating - i bet your family would too.

i am sorry to have missed the chat, but also concur with the book club idea! i have been reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals,” which is an account of his journey to vegetarianism. i was also lucky enough to hear him speak recently; i think he is one of the new breed of vegetarians who are sure of their beliefs, but not self-righteous or overly preachy. he really entertains the conversation about eating meat, although he knows where he stands.

ok, help! i made this stock the other night, with 2 turkey carcasses, and when i got it out of the fridge last night to use it for soup, it had gelled in the pot! it was very gelationous all the way through! did i do something wrong? is it salvageable?

wah! where’s the chat? :(

Pasta and Bean Soup by redweather on Sep 25, 2009 at 9:25 AM PDT

perhaps it just needs more salt - i’ve just discovered that it’s marvelous on tortilla chips!

i just made this with canned beans, (just skip step 1), and without bacon (i know, i missed it, but i’m a vegetarian now). It’s pretty good, but without the bacon, i think i should have added something else to give it more “oomph.” i’m open to suggestions - it’s just a bit bland - more pepper?

Fudgy Brownies by redweather on Sep 15, 2009 at 9:36 AM PDT

i made these for my fella’s birthday, and they came out wonderfully! i’ve never made brownies from scratch before, only from a mix. although i couldn’t tell if the batter was pulling away from the bowl, after beating FOREVER, i just hoped for the best and baked; they cooked for 15 min longer than the suggested 35 min, but came out lovely - chewy and rich!

PS - personally, i do think the best solution right now IS a national health plan, run by the government - i just have no objection to people who don’t agree, so long as their arguments make sense to me.

catsluvr - i respect your view, and your right to spend your money as you see fit, but i have a little bit of a different reading on what Mackey is saying. here are his exact words:
---
“Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?

Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America”
---

It seems to me that he is saying that none of the legal documents founding this country specify a right to food, shelter, or healthcare. Although his argument is made in a confusing fashion, it seems to me that he thinks that people should have access to all three, but that a)although there may be a societal moral imperative that people have access, there is no LEGAL imperative, and therefore, this may not be government’s proper domain b)healthcare is not MORE important than shelter or food, and there is no current goverment push for 100% shelter and nutrition for citizens, and c) although people should have their needs met, none of these needs/rights should be standardized and met through big government.

Also interesting in his statement is that the healthcare available to Whole Foods employees seems to be better in many ways that that available to other people in similar industries. Employees are eligible for the plan if they work 30 hours a week, lower than the 35 hr/week threshold i remember from my days in retail, and there is a company contribution (over $1000) towards their care. i don’t know how good this really is in practice, but it sounds like an interesting solution to a complex problem.

i tend to “vote with my dollars” too, but i think even with Mackey’s (arguably questionable) personal politics in mind, whole foods (to me) represents, in a very actual way, a much more progressive agenda than wal-mart or ralph’s or safeway.....

i think of myself as more of a bleeding-heart liberal than a libertarian (Mackey), but i can see some sense in his reasoning, even if it reads as slightly cold. i do believe that as a society, we are obliged to see that all of our members have access to good food, decent shelter, and humane healthcare, but i think there is more than one way for us to get to that place, and more government isn’t necessarily the best solution.

Jacqueline and niece -

I think the best solution is to make several things in big batches ahead of time - a lentil soup, a veggie lasagna, Kim’s spicy black bean burgers and tomato sauce are my standbys. Freeze in servings and defrost for healthy meals. I also find canned beans, quinoa, and just about any vegetable sauteed in olive oil are very quick and satisfying.

As I’ve never preserved food before (except by freezing) I can’t give a memory. Although I was too young to remember watching my grandmother make her sweet pickles, I have an intense memory of their taste, color, texture, and scent. Green, dimpled, crunchy but yielding, sweet, with a tart tang at the finish. I don’t have a memory of canning, so much as a longing for the contents. It was my father’s mother who made these pickles, and he doesn’t know anything about her recipies, her secrets, or her process, but part of my reason for wanting to preserve is to resuscitate my grandmother’s pickles.

also, “saveur,” although i just found out this is actually a magazine title.

hmmmm.... i like the word “relish;” i think it has a strong connotation of enjoyment, but not necessarily a connection with gluttony - plus, relish IS food! :) relishant? relishand? relishvore? maybe not that last one - sounds like someone who only eats relish.....

Ms. Gilbert, thank you very much for a profound post. It sounds like you haven’t answered your own questions yet, but I hope to see you writing more on this topic soon.

Thank you!

PS - I recently discovered the faux General Tso’s Chicken in the Whole Foods prepared food section.... it has saved my life! It is so much like real chicken that I keep checking with them behind the counter to make SURE that it isn’t! Can you do a column sometime (and I would especially love some recipies) on mock meat? Cheers!

Kim, I’ve really enjoyed your blog/chat on WaPo, and looking forward to continuing to follow you here. As a recent covert to veggie life (last November) and a meat lover, I have found it very difficult to find that elusive umami in non-meat foods - mushrooms and miso are fantastic, but how much of them can a person eat? And of course, there are so many dining experiences where a non-meat eater has little to choose from except the occasional veggie-burger or the veggie fajitas....

As to Trista’s question about why getting Americans to eat less meat is a political and psychological challenge - I don’t have the answer, but upon giving meat up (and missing it immensely) I noticed that meat is EVERYWHERE. It’s an ingredient in everything, even things that we don’t perceive as “meat” dishes. It’s advertised everywhere, relentlessly, as the American dinner - bold, nutritious, filling, savory, etc. Has anyone ever seen an ad for a chain restaurant that featuring tofu? Or even a vegetarian appetizer? I assume there is a pork lobby and a chicken lobby, and certainly a beef lobby, but I never thought about it much until I gave up meat and found that the MSM seems to desperately want me to eat meat again!

I also think that the percieved militancy (whether true or not) of the veggie/vegan faction has created a backlash among meat-eaters. They feel like they need to defend their lifestyle choices, even when they are not being “accused” of anything. I often find that if I don’t order meat in a group outing, someone will ask me if I’m veggie. When I say yes, the immediate response is “I could never do that” or some form of “You shouldn’t be a vegetarian for health/animal rights/environmental/etc. reasons because....” or a defensive “I’m fine with eating meat because.” They seem to be worried that I’m going to read them the veggie manifesto and shanghai them into a meat-free existance.... :)

I would love see you dig deeper into this phenomenon in your chats/blog, because I think it’s truly fascinating, and I believe meat-eating will become INCREASINGLY politicized in this country.