Cowboy Pie

I made a "mystery pie" the other day. Only it wasn't a mystery because members of my family kept walking by and asking what on earth I was making. I tried to avoid detailed answers, but replying, "Oh, a pie. Just some sort of pie," to their queries didn't cut it.

As they each scanned my recipe I was delighted with different reactions.

"Don't you dare make that!" was the reaction of one brother. I think he felt I was wasting a chance to make a perfectly good dessert.

"hmmmm," accompanied by raised eyebrows was a common response.

I also heard some incredulous laughter.

Buoyed up by this encouragement I pureed the pinto beans I had been soaking, mixed them with sugar, nutmeg, milk, and egg yolks, and poured them into a pie crust. Once the pie had set (it took about twice as long as it should have for some reason and made me very nervous it wouldn't work at all!) I topped it with a meringue and served it for dessert.

Much to my own surprise, I must admit, it was quite delicious! Tasted something like pumpkin pie, a little like mincemeat, and a little like custard. It definitely didn't taste like beans. My brothers even ate it!

*Feels proud of herself and oh, so courageous and oh, so economical. After all, gas has topped three bucks here, and one must do something to conserve. What's cheaper than beans?*

I Guess Pooh Bear Wasn't Vegan

While at the checkout line today at the A Market (the local health food store) I suddenly realized I was very hungry. I guess the owners of A Market had anticipated this hunger in their customers, for they had placed a rack of cookies conveniently next to the counter. I succumbed to my impulse buying and snatched one up. To my initial horror, I discovered that it was a vegan cookie and did not contain lots of ingredients that I've come to expect in my cookies. It did have wheat in it, so I bought it, deciding i could tolerate the nondairy bit. Oh, and it did have sugar, too.

Anyway, I noticed that the wrapper proudly stated that it contained no honey. This struck me as odd. A shred of knowledge from my beekeeping days asserted itself in my brain. I remembered reading that vegans disapproved of beekeeping because the bees were "in captivity." ARgh. I expressed to Aaron my annoyance with vegans not eating honey and wondered out loud why they wouldn't, seeing the premise I had heard was ridiculous.

"It's because it's an animal product," came a voice from behind me. The speaker was a blonde Californiaish (not a compliment)fellow who works at A Market. he went on to explain to me a bunch of stuff that I already knew, like the fact that vegans won't wear wool. I opened my mouth to explain to him that honey isn't a product from the bee's body like wool, and that bees can no longer live in the wild because of parasites that have developed over the years. But before I could explain that he had walked off leaving me seething at his rather arrogant tone. sigh. I'll just have to tell him next time...

I can understand, no, not understand, respect people's decisions to be vegan for ethical decisions, but until I either feel that adopting a vegan diet will improve my health or that animals have more rights than people, I will continue to put honey on my pancakes, drink milk, wear sweaters, and eat hamburgers!