Inspir.es

Last Week…
On Christmas, I went to my grandparents house for dinner. My grandma served ham as the main dish, but she also prepared plenty of great vegetarian side dishes for me to enjoy: green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, dinner rolls and seven-layer Jello.

After the meal, Grandma was talking about the new recipe she used for the cheesy potatoes. As she was listing off ingredients I heard her say “chicken stock” and my jaw dropped…

I then proceeded to bite my tongue both literally and figuratively as I cursed myself for not asking the right questions before dinner.

Afterward, my mom tried to console me by pointing out that the key lime pie we were served for dessert turned out to be chocolate pie. If Grandma omitted key limes from the key lime pie, perhaps the cheesy potatoes didn’t include chicken stock after all.

Earlier Today…
Today I went to the store to get a bottle of Febreze and a notepad (only the essentials). At the checkout, I grabbed a bag of what used to be my favorite snack: gummy worms.

I drove home and plopped down on the couch to enjoy a cup of tea and my candy purchase. As I devoured the last few worms in the bag, my mom asked, “Isn’t gelatin made from pig’s hooves?”

I looked it up, and it turns out that gummy worms (and Jello) are made from animal skin and bones…making them very un-vegetarian indeed.

(sigh)

A year in, and I still have a lot to learn.

photo via merfam