Frieda, Vegan and Eggplant

Make the world go away, take it off my shoulders. Say the things you used to say, and make the world go away.

I think many of us share Frieda's sentiments. I know I do, on several levels. I would like the weather to stop acting like Minnesota. Wind, rain, snow, more rain. I know where I live, but sometimes I feel it's enough already. Frieda loves the spot on the ottoman, with the fire warming the room. If I sit in the living room she bothers me until I move to her comfy place. She has turned me into a mushy hearted cat lady, no doubt about that.

I watched a documentary series on Netflix, "Bad Vegan". You cannot make this stuff up. A very successful restaurateur loses everything in a con that has her buying into a lot of bizarre nonsense. The documenter comments a few times about vegan-ism. I won't go into that. My son became chef at a vegan restaurant a few years ago. A longtime friend went into partnership with another person on the restaurant and was having trouble keeping a chef. The son didn't know vegan cooking but had been a fine dining chef for a long time. He had been Sous Chef for several years to a two time James Beard Award nominee. He knew he could figure it out. I understand why people do this. I have known quite a few vegans, it's their business, but I don't care to be preached at. After a few months he tells me he is now vegan. Not surprised. His wife was a vegetarian and also went vegan. They didn't proselytize to us, so it was their business. The pandemic shutdown came along and the restaurant closed. It didn't take too long for the son to eat meat again, he helped me the last couple of months at my mother's house and picked up food for our lunch every day. His wife is still a staunch vegan and I assume will stay so. It still doesn't affect me, they haven't been here for a holiday or anything else since 2018. I did buy some nutritional yeast and a vegan "cheese" for meatless balls when they planned to be here New Years' Day, but they couldn't come.  I have no I idea how I came to this topic! Other than "Bad Vegan". It is a bizarre tale and vegan plays a role in it. 

I am rambling. I have things to do and seem to be actively avoiding the doing. I have an eggplant gratin I need to prep for tonight's dinner, I'm making it as a side dish. Anything I can do in advance is in my favor. I start to fade as the day goes on. The multiple days in a row of overcast skies isn't helping me, no doubt of that. Tax season ends on Monday, at least the filing does. Then it's finishing the extensions. Mark has later hours right now as the pressure of a timeline looming always does. 

I guess I'll shut the faucet of my mind off and go bake some eggplant slices.

 Ciao Amiche