My blog has been created!

So...wow.

Here we are.

Possibly, you want to know who I am. I am Sam.

I am Sam.

I am Sam.

Sam-I-Am.

I will not eat green eggs and ham...'cause I'm a vegetarian.

Well, okay, I might eat eggs once in a while, but not often, and mostly if they are very well disguised ~ baked into things, or smothered with chili and cheese (cheese! Which I can't eat anymore, so...booooo!!!). I am not especially morally opposed to eggs. I just sort of detest them. They feel gross, taste gross, and might have been chickens if they had half a chance so...you know...GROSS. Nevertheless, I sometimes crave a really good egg salad sandwich.

I am allergic to milk protein, so that leaves me almost vegan, I guess. Except that I am too lazy to be truly vegan. I was, for 8 years, but now I am too lazy. Yes, I know, I suck. Like a Hoover. Moving on... I like honey, and I wear my dad's old Navy bomber jacket, which you'd better believe is leather. Oh, yes, and I would totally eat cheese, ALL DAY LONG, if I could. But I can't. It's sad. Soy cheese bites ass. I suppose I should make an effort to become more eloquent if I am going to write for an audience, but, as yet, I have no audience ~ score! So. Soy cheese bites ass. With the exception of the kind you can buy from Leonor's Mexican Vegetarian Restaurant, which fairly rocks. But, really, nobody has made a good vegan smoked gouda or ricotta. There's no passable soy jarlesberg or brie, as far as I know. Maybe I will discover one...or invent one. Who knows?

Well, anyway...

I have been vegetarian for something like 25 years. I am married to a wonderful man who tries to be vegetarian most of the time, but who, I suspect, would be thrilled if chickens grew on trees. Sometimes, he eats chicken when he is out and the kids and I are not around (yucky!). Shhh! We don't talk about that. He used to sneak in seafood sometimes when we were out, but my severe shellfish allergy has pretty much nipped that in the bud. I guess having to rush your wife to the emergency room because you gave her a kiss after you ate shrimp pretty much turns one off shellfish. Together, we are raising 3 wildly precocious vegetarian daughters, who are currently 12, 10 and 6 years old. One hates vegetables. Go figure.

I love to cook for my family (or anyone, for that matter), and they (with the exception of that vegetable-hating one) like to try new things. In fact, I like to cook so much that, when I am really pleased with a meal I have created, I sometimes photograph it and share the recipes with friends online. I didn't realize how often I did this until my kids started saying things like, "Mama, my food looks really good. Do you want to take picture before I eat it?"

Last night, over a dinner of curried vegetables, tofu and brown rice, they suggested that I create a vegetarian food blog. They even came up with the name. I think they are awfully clever, these little people I've spawned. I like them, and I like their ideas. So, here I am. And here is my blog, in all its vegetarian food-y glory. It won't be fancy. Nor will I.

I promise the next entry will actually include some kind of food...ish..ness. Foodishness?? That's a word, right. I think it is. I am pretty sure I just made it up, but I like it, so I think I will keep it.

Welcome aboard.