Meatloaf Competition!

Yesterday I brought a bottle of wine to enjoy with dear friends and easily extended my invitation to stay for dinner. How could I resist the caucus and voting for the  Meatloaf competition?! Pictured here are the winner, competition founders, and with--90+ years of experience--the tie-breaking voter Grandma Broley--AKA Nana.

Great time had by all! On these occasions, I'm often asked - but I thought you were a vegetarian? My typical response is, I treat meat as a delicacy and will eat some on special occasions. I'm pretty sure some people think to themselves, "That's non-committal", "I expected something more political", then look at my leather shoes, etc. In no particular order, these are the reasons I eat very little meat and fish,

• I've accepted the fact that I'm not very disciplined to do or quit anything cold turkey. Changes in my behavior require a modification of routine over time (stubborn and lazy). I've been conditioned to eat meat since birth so I have a conditioned response, salivation, to the smells of meat cooking, stock simmering, the grill, etc. 
• Cooking meat is much more labor intensive and I've never really enjoyed cooking it safely or "just right". 
• I'd rather pay someone else to cook meat for me occasionally.
• Selectively and humanely killing an animal for direct consumption is one thing but mass animal destruction  and torture does not justify a "medium rare shell steak with sauteed onions and mushrooms." 

This post does not represent a defense on vegetarianism but a checkpoint on where I presently stand on the issue. -- Yes,  this is non-committal!