This day was a tricky one: I'm having a friend over for lunch. I am fine with making exceptions for going out to lunch, but this friend comes weekly, and we eat leftovers from the night before for lunch. I love planning meals for the night before her visit that will create yummy leftovers - it's a fun challenge. And I don't want to be a poor hostess and eat something different than my guest. So I wanted to plan a meal for last night's dinner that would make for vegan leftovers today. Thus, the pumpkin pancakes. Instead of the sausage I bought vegan sausages at the fancy grocery store yesterday.
Lunch was good except that the soy sausages were...in a word...gross. So gross that my friend and I dumped them into the compost bin with relish. We agreed that if we truly couldn't eat any meat, and hadn't for a while, maybe they'd be good, but since we're still basically meat-eaters, there was no comparison. Maybe there isn't supposed to be. Either way, pass.
I also make cookies most of the time when my friend is here, so I attempted vegan cookies. They were actually very good except that the carob tasted more unlike chocolate than ever before. Maybe the eggs and butter mask its tepid flavor when I use it elsewhere. Note to self: hunt for dairy-free chocolate. Like shangri-la, I believe it exists but eludes me.
This brings up all kinds of issues of being a good host or friend by day, while sticking to a new regime. Food is such a social, central part of our lives. How do you walk this line?
There are vegan chocolate chips. Much of the dark chocolate doesn't have milk at all. They cost a little more, but that's what I buy for Miguel when I make chocolate chip cookies since he can't have dairy.
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