Barefoot in the kitchen

This is a bad habit of mine. When I'm inside the house, I have a terrible aversion to footwear, unless I'm bitter cold and can't feel my toes already. And so, when I cook (which is more often than it used to be, but still probably not often enough), I tend to do so barefoot.

Some time ago I embarked on a similar endeavor, and with disasterous results. I was frying something in a skillet,and a drop of hot oil *popped* out of the pan and landed right on the top of my foot. After that time, I vowed never to cook whilst barefoot again.

Quite naturally, I was good on my word for all of 2 months before falling back into my old habits!

This time, however, things were a bit different. For one thing, I managed to avoid injuring or burning myself. More importantly, though, was the content of the food. In a lot of ways, I'm true to my roots - I grew up eating lots of meats and breads and potato starches, and so when I actually get myself into the kitchen, it's as natural for me to think "casserole" as just about anything else. Well, my sister is a vegetarian, and at her suggestion I used Morningstar brand "crumbles" (a vegetable-protein-based meat substitute) instead of the lean ground beef I would have normally cooked.

All in all, it was a good choice - the Morningstar defrosted and cooked quicker than the meat would have, and I didn't have to go through the additional step of draining that ground beef usually requires. And whilst the Morningstar did have a noticeable texture difference from regular ground beef, in the context of the casserole, it was hardly a problem at all.

I've not experimented with other Morningstar products, but so far they've received a positive opinion from me. I wouldn't use the crumbles to, say, make burger patties...but I imagine there's another product that's better suited for that purpose.

I am not vegetarian, and have no real intention of adopting a vegetarian diet, but I do try to monitor my meat consumption, especially red meats (this is both easy and difficult for me to do - the menu of the restaurant I work at is very meat-heavy, but we prepare far more poultry than red meat). It's nice to know that there are viable substitutes out there that are both readily available (the Morningstar came from the nearest grocery) and easy enough for a lazy cook like me to prepare.

...Because when one spends all day cooking for other people, the last thing I want to do it come home and have to cook for myself! ;-P

PLUR!