Background

I really never intended to write a blog about my current goal of cooking vegetarian meals at least once a week until a cousin recommended I do it. That planted a seed -- not that I think anyone will be interested in following this blog (other than me).  The main purpose, at least at this point, is to put down a chronological footprint of what I am cooking, along with the recipes so that I can look back for ideas -- my scrapbook of ideas/recipes is already completely disorganized and it's only been 3 months since I started #plantwedesdays.

  In the unlikely event that someone else is reading this other than me -- here's a little bit of background on how this started.

  I decided to try and change my diet a little bit on September 1st, 2016 -- mostly at the behest of my GP who didn't like that my cholesterol had been jumping up bit by bit over a period of 15 years. Without getting into the details,  it never really concerned me (or him, for that matter) because my ratio (total cholesterol/HDL("good"))  was good.  But I like a challenge and decided that maybe it was time (being in my mid 50s) to start eating vegetables.  Variety for me has generally been who cooked my hamburgers (5 Guys, The Habit, In'n'Out, me -- on the big Green Egg -- so good!!). Vegetables were always something that seemed to be a waste of time to cook since they were such a small part of my meal and didn't particularly get me thinking "oh, I can't wait until I have some really good broccoli!".

  I've been the primary cooker in my household for decades -- it started out of necessity at a young age. My brother (3 years older) and I would frequently have to fend for ourselves while our mother worked and pursued higher education -- so I started cooking occasionally when I was 8.  My first hamburgers were black inside (we threw them outside instead of eating them) and when I went to cook pancakes my first time, I didn't know what shortening was so I left it out. We tried to eat those (unsuccessfully) and our dog couldn't even choke them down either.  But those first experiments led to my first original recipe (there was no way to google things in 1970) which I later termed "Burger Bean Thing", best described as an attempt at Chili -- before I had even heard of Chili -- using hamburger, baked beans, onions, green peppers, brown sugar and ketchup.  I still make this dish today -- albeit, only about once or twice a year --  almost 50 years after the first time I made it.  I cooked it for my kids (now adults) and, maybe someday, I'll cook it for my grand kids.

Cooking has always been a big part of my family culture -- primarily from my mother's side. My maternal grandmother was a chef.  Her parents were from Hungary (actually, technically part of the Ukraine now:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turi_Remety)  and her dishes were influenced by this. My favorite dish of hers, growing up, was "Frankfurter goulash" but she cooked a lot of dishes that I remember fondly:  veal parmigana;  turkey with a gravy that is still the best (and easiest to make) gravy I have ever had;  and sandwiches that tasted better because she made them.   I did not inherit any cooking genes from my father's side of the family.  His parents were Irish immigrants and all I can remember my Nana  "cooking" was toast and that I "shouldn't eat the crust lest it make my hair curly"  (what would be wrong with curly hair?).

My biggest cooking hobby of the last few years has been baking breads and, unless otherwise stated in following posts, all of my breads either come directly from, or are inspired by, recipes from Ken Forkish's  "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast"  (http://kensartisan.com/flour-water-salt-yeast/).

I am happy to say that the cooking gene continues.  My (vegetarian) son does all of the cooking for himself and his wife and he cooks some amazing tasting and looking, primarily Indian and Japanese, dishes (I, personally, do not spend much time on appearance) and my (not vegetarian) daughter loves to cook as well -- she loves to bake and drink beer with her dad. I get great ideas from both of them.

That brings us to #plantwednesdays -- which has become my designated day to cook vegetarian. Forcing a specific day helps me to keep it going.  I picked Wednesdays because it is currently my one day of rest -- between playing ice hockey and tennis.  And my daughter-in-law suggested I call it "plant Wednesdays" rather than "Vegetarian Wednesdays" because my real goal was to have a "plant based diet" (including legumes and such) rather than strictly just vegetables.

Now I am about to embark on this blog journey... I have no idea where it will go. My intention, as I said, is just for me to look back over the weeks at what I made and how I made them. I really do not plan on writing out recipes or step-by-step instructions for someone to follow along so it's not going to be much of a blog.  But who knows...  I am currently motivated to keep #plantwednesdays going because after changing my diet (quite drastically) for 6 weeks,  I dropped "bad" cholesterol 25% (bringing my total down to the upper limit of acceptable).