A meat-free weekend, and as much temptation as one can stand.
By: John Dunphy
Well, I survived the weekend meat-free. It wasn’t hard, but there were certainly enough reasons to jump the shark.
On Saturday, I watched the Penn State game with PSU alums who love to have a party when their team is on. Last month, an early Oktoberfest celebration featured brats, sauerkraut, sausage dip and the decidedly un-German but no less delicious Pierogies, kielbasa and feta cheese dip.
So, when I announced to my fun-loving, carnivorous friends that I’d have to pass on most of their food, they decided to support my endeavor by making it an all vegetarian spread. Of course, this still included the very delicious feta dip from before, plus homemade jalapeno poppers, my very own bean dip and the topper – a homemade pumpkin cheese cake. Drool.
Sunday saw me make the trek across the state back to Lawrence for the inaugural (and, according to Mikey Azzara, first-annual based on the visible success of the event) Taste of Lawrenceville, where such delicacies as fresh New Jersey scallops (The Lawrenceville School) and smoked turkey with smoked barbecue sauce (Doug Duda) tempted taste buds. But, so did pumpkin raviolis from Chamber’s Walk, which were delicious, as well as pumpkin ice cream from Peggy Sue’s, a gooey peach dessert from The Village Bakery and penne in vodka sauce from Vidalia. I even asked Gary Giberson to give me some of the swiss chard minus the scallops and it was still pretty darn tasty. You learn to work within the boundaries, like those Swedish alcohol buyers I mentioned last week.
And, of course, I’ve eaten plenty of eggs. That was that cusp food I’d mentioned, yet no one has called me out on it. So, eggs it is. But, I’ll take that with a side of meat-free sausage, thank you.