I miss meat. I do. I wish I was stronger than I am. I have these grand plans that I’m going to be a vegetarian for a year and really try to make a difference in the world. I feel good about myself. I feel like those crunchy granola people must feel like when the shun restaurants that serve lobster. And then…

And then…I walk by the salad bar at Whole Foods and see the Chicken Caesar salad and I melt. I know I’ll make it through this week and I could probably even go a month. I feel like eventually this has to stop being so hard. I will probably forget my meat cravings eventually, right? RIGHT?

Augh. But I love meat too much. It’s a family thing. My wonderful family memories center around food. My dad has always been an excellent cook. So whenever I go home we gather in the kitchen and partake of one of my dad’s creations. For as long as I can remember he’s never really used a recipe. Occasionally he’ll take out the Joy of Cooking as a guideline but it’s only ever that. He works with his own style.

And because of that I don’t think I could ever avoid meat forever. But it is getting easier. Tonight I made my own version of a veggie burger–baked eggplant with cheese and ketchup. It was ooey gooey good. Mmmm…eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables.