The ham that turned my granddaughter vegetarian

I can always count on you to bring a humorous view on life.
Hugs and Happy New Year

What's wrong with butts? She'll get over it....someday she'll be in college and go to a party where they're serving both beer AND pig butt. And she'll love it.

Happy New Year, Sandy!

Yay vegetarians !!!

I couldn't imagine life without butts. Edible ones, I mean.

Go, Granddaughter! There were foods I stopped eating, for similar reasons, like sausage and salami. Intestines? Scraps? yechh.

Gotta love a discerning kid! I wonder who she takes after, eh? You've begun my new year with a good laugh, Sandy.

I can't imagine life without edible butts either, Robiyah. However, I was much like my granddaughter when I was young. About once a year I would think about what I was eating and swear off meat for months at a time. I finally decided pork was too good to give up. Now that I think about it, that decision might have something to do with the twenty pounds I've gained.

I send hugs and Happy New Year wishes back at ya, Spencer. I think 2009 might be a better year for all of us, and for our world.

Sheryl, I can easily see your party prediction coming true for this girl. And I don't think there's a thing wrong with butts. We've come a long way from the "bubble butt" insults of my day to the "I will pay for junk in my trunk" aspirations of recent years.

I second yay for vegetarians, Peter. I keep reminding myself that they have beautiful skin and hair and don't seem to gain the twenty pounds I picked up.

Dannielle, I agree! I don't eat meats that I can't pick the fat out of (fortunately, I can break the fat off the bacon or I might have to change that).

It's nice to hear your laugh again, Donna. I've missed you.

I tried swearing off meat a few times in my life. I just couldn't stick with it though. You know, now that you mention it, I wonder if I can attribute my weight gain to meats.

There's a lawsuit in there somewhere, I just know it.

Butt, butt, butt..My daughter is a vegan. She never was huge on meat and was having horrible problems trying to manage her weight. She's extremely healthy and is able to maintain a decent weight (even though she works out like she is being pursued by evil forces).

Did you tell her that a lot of vegetables are grown with animal poop? That will freak her.

Have a wonderful New Year. We have so much to look forward to this year.

Blessings.

I never try to think too closely where any food I eat comes from. Makes it much easier to eat anything that tastes good!

Siblings are wonderful.

I was going to do an awful pun about 'never meating a butt I didn't like....' but decided against it, this being the last day of the worst year of my life, so far. I sincerely hope your prediction that 2009 will be better will come to fruition, Sandy...I don't think I could do one like this past 12 months again.
Happy New Year, everyone! Srsly.

I wonder if I can attribute my weight gain to meats. My doctor tried to pretend it had nothing to do with what I’m eating and I can only blame age. You just gave me another reason to prefer blaming meat, Robiyah.

She's extremely healthy and is able to maintain a decent weight (even though she works out like she is being pursued by evil forces). Gee, thanks, Sharon. It’s too late to erase what I said to Robiyah. Your daughter’s story also reminds me that I was addicted to exercise when I was a healthier eater. Maybe you could remind me daily?

Dave, you make a good point. Knowing that some of my foods lived underground with worms isn’t all that appetizing either.

Aren’t they, Nippy? Nothing like a sibling to turn one bad thing into three ;-)

I wish you a happy New Year, too, Jim, filled with BBQ delights.

Ruth, I hope you haven’t forgotten that I am psychic. I know, absolutely, positively, for sure that 2009 is going to be a better year. I love you and would never lie to you.

Do you like your butt with cloves, D?

You don't need more data that points toward the age theory, so all I can say is that I agree with Nippy about siblings.

(K. tried this with A., but the results only lasted a couple of days.)

Doesn't anyone with a heart go through a vegetarian phase at least once in their lives? I remember mine. It lasted until we had spaghetti and meatballs.:)

Cute story.:)

I went through my vegetarian phase when college poverty dictated that peanut butter was much more affordable than meat. I remember when I went home for Christmas, after not having eaten meat for 3 months, I gagged just smelling the sausage my Mom was browning for the stuffing. Of course, I eventually started eating meat again, but have never cared for cow. Pig butts, on the other hand, are good eats.

Sandy, I was thinking about you today and wondering where you had gone to.

I can go a good while without any meat, then I'll start craving chicken. Haven't had beef or pork in twenty-some years and don't miss it. I'm annoying to go grocery shopping with because I read the labels of nearly everything. Just wait till grandbaby starts doing THAT. LOL

Maybe she's prefer eggs. They simply pass through butts.....

After all the meals I've pepared this last week, I never want to eat again. No, ifs, ands, or butts about it.

Sandy, thank God she wasn't told what all went into the average hotdog.

Happy New Year to you and everyone!

We each follow our own path and I think the vegetarian one is the wisest for our earth and fellow creatures.
Happy New Year

I just demolished a huge T-bone steak with 2 lobster tails for dinner... don't talk about hams, I am a pig. Oink oink... and Happy New Year!

*going in search of some antacid*

I enjoy food too much to give up any of it..LOL
You have a wonderful view on things!
Happy New Year!!!

When younger, with longer hair and more "causes", I sometimes declared myself vegetarian. Then my Dad would innocently stop at Golden Point Hamburgers, bring a big greasy sack full of those little greasy sliders back to the car, and my vow of eating meat flew right off the menu.

Speaking of pig butts... a couple of years ago I thought I wanted to cook one of those hanging hams that are smoked and hung up in a mesh net along behind the butcher counter. They had a sign above them, "Smoked and seasoned for the ultimate ham experience." I didn't know what I was doing with it and the thing ended up so salty we couldn't eat it, if we could have bitten into at, because it was tough as whang leather. Not trying that again!

SMOOCHs back at ya, D.

K. tried this with A., but the results only lasted a couple of days. I’m pretty sure this will end as soon as she is near a chicken finger.

Doesn't anyone with a heart go through a vegetarian phase at least once in their lives? I think most of us go through it at some point.

I went through my vegetarian phase when college poverty dictated that peanut butter was much more affordable than meat. Oh yes! I’m sure the poverty induced peanut butter/ramen noodle stages led to many temporary vegetarian decisions.

MJ, we already read EVERY label for this one because she has a severe peanut allergy. She is very dedicated to label reading. Thanks for missing me – November and December were busy months for me. Hopefully, everything is settled and I can spend the rest of the winter parked in front of this computer where it’s warm.

Love the pun, Wilhelmine.

Lisa, I’m so happy to see you back! I wish you the greatest year ever.

Priscilla, are you all settled in a warm spot now? Got an extra room?

Duckie, the t-bone sounds delicious. I haven’t had a steak in a long while and might have to change that.

Thanks, Lisa. I hope 2009 is a great year for you!

Country ham! Oh, Vicky, that’s one of my favorite foods. I think it might be impossible to get anything too salty for my taste but many agree with you.

The closest I ever came to vegetarian is when I lived in Toronto. It started with my introduction to 'corn-fed beef' I honestly thought the meat was "off" as it had no flavour! I stopped eating beef then. Later I was introduced to 'Fit for Life' and due to my starch addiction opted for the Veggies and starch combinations rather than veggie and meat/cheese/protein combinations.
Then I moved to Texas. Try being vegetarian in the most beef-centric state in the union!

Our daughter was a vegetarian for a while when she was in high school. She never liked grains, fruits and vegetables that much. She ate a lot of vegetarian convenience food.

Kathleen, I can imagine that it would be hard to be vegetarian in Texas.

Nippy, what are vegetarian convenience foods? Would that be nuts and frozen tofu burgers?

When my girls were young, I didn't trust myself to keep them healthy on a vegetarian diet so I fed them meat every other night. When the younger one got sick after school lunches, the pediatrician told me it was because I fed her healthy meals at home and her stomach wasn't prepared for the greasy foods she was getting at school. How sad is that?

I have to say that I'm surprised. I quickly read all the comments and I did not see one that mentioned any joke that had "piece of ass" in it.

Not thinking about where the food comes from may help me, but it may not be necessary either. Anthony Bourdain certainly knows where everything he eats comes from and yet he eats it anyway! :-)

Kathleen, interesting you should mention corn-fed beef as being tasteless. I've been slow-reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and it seems there are lots of reasons, taste being one of them, to avoid corn-fed beef.

My 9 YO DD tried to go veggie, but hubby made bacon one morning and it was all over. I applaud her efforts though. I'm not a huge fan of meat, but will take a few bites.

Donna, the comments are remarkably clean for this group, possibly because I didn't put an adult flag on this thread.

Dave, I will admit that my aversion wasn't out of concern for the animals as much as it was the ick factor. My granddaughter is much more an animal lover than I am so we'll see where this goes with her. I've always wondered why some don't consider humans part of the food chain. (I understand that our use of weapons clouds that argument.) I hope you are planning to write something after you finish Omnivore's Dilemma, since you always put these topics that I don't read into enjoyable, understandable words for me.

Tinks, I could never resist bacon. It's the perfect food because the smell and the taste are irresistible, and it tastes like it smells.

Sandy, I'll try to write up an article about Pollan's book. I have been going very slowly through it...it's not an easy read partly because of the descriptions of what goes on behind the food most of us eat. Perhaps this will be the new Jungle.

"Nippy, what are vegetarian convenience foods?"

Fake hot dogs, fake hamburgers...

Thanks, Dave and Nippy.

UPDATE: I put turkey on her plate tonight and found it in the garbage. Guess she's sticking to it.

I had a friend who said he'd never eat an egg until/unless he saw a chicken take a leak.

Some pig gave up his butt for her. She BETTER eat it!

That's funny, Gary.

Good news, Michael! That pig butt was not totally wasted on her. I used this remnant in a pot of lentil soup yesterday. She had four bowls.

HA! That's fantastic

she will eat it sooner or later.

Thanks, Courtney and Richard. She is eating meat again.