I have this odd perfect baked good issue, where the first time I eat a particular baked good, it is awesome and wonderful, but all subsequent times its just okay. Some things seem to transcend this problem, but very few.
J. was very thoughtful and got me a wonderful present from Sur La Table recently: stackable cookie cooling racks. I had read that cookie racks helped your cookies to crisp, so I'd been putting the cookies on the toaster oven slide out wire rack but couldn't fit all the cookies usually. These stackable cookie cooling racks solve the kitchen space issue because they are stackable and we have a teeny kitchen, though not teeny in an adorable way which is endearing, just annoying.
For the purposes of science, I went to eat another cookie, and I think this cookie is closer to the perfect cookie for me. I used 1 TBS less flour than was called for, and 3/4 tsp salt (however, I will use 1 tsp salt next time as per the recipe). I baked them longer than the recipe stated because mine weren't browning. When you cook them long enough (without burning them), they get delightfully crispy while remaining chewy inside.
Now, onto thoughts. J. forwarded me the article about the former vegan previously known as "The Voracious Vegan". In the past I have read her blog, but as I recall there were too many green shakes on it, so I stopped looking at it. I'm just not that into green shakes. Regarding her transition to an omnivorous diet: I can see if you don't feel properly healthy on a vegan diet and then stop it, but what I can't understand is why then the need to try and say it is unhealthy for everyone, and how eating meat is necessary for everyone, and how eating local meat is the better choice for the environment, not eating local vegetables and grains. You could instead say that being vegan was not right for your particular physiology, and it might be fine for others.
J. and I discussed what if one of us fell into poor health and somehow we were able to find out that this was due to a lack of animal products in our diets. I think I would try to see how small a quantity of animal products I could eat and still be in optimal health. I think the best would be to find, through friends, a hunter with excellent aim, and ask him/her that when they go next to an area with a significant overpopulation of deer, to invite me along and I would be responsible for transporting the corpse to a butcher and then taking the meat home. I might need to make some space for a large freezer so that I could store the deer meat for a long period of time. I would find out what was required for me to live in good health, and eat only that. I'm not sure if I could stomach eating meat - because after not having eaten it in over ten years, I have grown to really dislike the smell and I hate having to walk through the hall to our condo when someone in the building is cooking meat, it grosses me out. However, I think if I sliced it thinly and maybe blended it up, I could somehow combine it with enough other strong tasting ingredients that I could eat it without really thinking about it. Maybe a mexican casserole with cheddar flavored daiya. I love taco seasoning and it might be strong enough of a cover flavor.
However, we are very, very lucky not to have such a difficult choice to make. We both enjoy excellent health for which we are very grateful. I hope that if you do find yourself in that situation of needing to eat meat due to a physical intolerance of the vegan diet, that you will consider the above solution rather than simply eating all types of meat from any source. Obviously you would want to research the most eco friendly wild animal food source appropriate for your region.
On the note of a Mexican casserole, I think maybe I will make a taco-flavored seitan Mexican casserole. Sorry to my lovely Jon (who just said "why are you calling me J. on your blog, that's weird!" I told him it was to protect his privacy. He said there are a million people named Jon so he didn't think it would reveal his identity :) ), who I don't think would like a Mexican casserole like the one I'm thinking of making.
