The story of how a 30-something carnivorous daughter-of-a-trapper ventured into a bold new vegan world.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Lead me not into temptation...

Forgive me father.  It has been a long time since my last confession.  Okay, I'm not Catholic, but I feel the need to repent after the carnivorous thoughts I had last night.  I am 2 days shy of hitting the one month mark of veganism.  Honestly, it's been easier than I thought it would be.  I haven't had any cravings or felt I was missing out on anything.  Until last night. 
I work at an awesome restaurant.  We raise the majority of our produce and even our own animals (and next year plan to become the only restaurant in the nation with it's own dedicated slaughterhouse on this same farm).  We use fresh, local, organic produce.  We have an extensive cheese menu (and a creamery that makes our fresh cheeses).  We print our menu twice a day because items change as the chef shops.  We have a dedication vegetarian section on our menu, but we are known for MEAT:  We do whole hog BBQ on our pit every day.  We butcher and grind our burgers daily, made from steak scraps.  Brisket.  BBQ Ribs.  Homemade sausages.  Steaks.  Fresh seafood.  My boss won a 2011 James Beard award.  Oprah Winfrey raves about our BBQ beef.  Food Network called our mac & cheese "the best in the nation".  I gained 15 pounds when I started working here.  There isn't one menu item I don't LOVE.  I've relied on our chefs and our incredible produce and grains to satisfy me since giving up animal products, and it's worked.  Until last night.

I was working as "expo".  This is the person that acts as an intermediate between the kitchen and the servers.  One of the main roles of the expo is to make sure that the plates that the kitchen puts up match the order on the tickets (properly cooked, properly plated, correct sides/substitutions, etc...).  This means getting up close and personal with each dish that comes up into the "window".  The burgers the grill station was turning out looked AMAZING.  Hot, juicy beef.  Beautiful char.  Melty cheese. 

My mouth was literally watering.  I didn't crack, but I sure did think about it!  Once I made it home, the craving was easy to ignore.  My husband has hit the 25 pound weight loss mark, and I've lost over 10 pounds, so we're sticking to our guns and continuing on.  In the meantime, I'm staying off the expo line for a while!     
  

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