Ya'll Come Back Now

Alright, I'm really not that country. My husband and I were born and raised in Charlotte, NC, and just a handful of years ago I would have laughed in your face and moseyed on my way to posh South Park mall had you told me that I'd be living an hour outside of any major city, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, surrounded by cows and chickens, not a Taco Bell in sight.

Of course, back then, I also ate and wore animals. So my priorities were a bit wacky about what "location, location, location" really means.

Since going vegan in 2007, my husband and I have really cleaned up our lifestyles. Realizing that we were each sentencing about 180 animals each year to unnecessary and horrid death for the sake of palate and fashion really was a reality check. We re-prioritized our lives as newliweds. We ditched our house in cushy Piper Glenn and lived in apartments for a couple of years, figuring out who we were and what we really loved. We certainly didn't love keeping up with the (unhealthy, nature-deprived, addicted-to-stress) Joneses. While figuring things out, I became a Certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant through American College of Healthcare Sciences, in an effort to communicate the human benefits of a vegan diet (seems some people are only convinced to do a good thing if it makes them skinnier, shinier, or sexier).

My husband and I began searching for a large, private piece of land in the country. We eventually stumbled upon a cabin in Western NC, nestled on 10 wooded acres, overlooking a rushing river scattered with boulders. No neighbors, unless you count the cows. David promptly began digging a garden and composting with a worm farm, while I became Suzy Homemaker, chopping, slicing, dicing, sauteing, seasoning and baking.

Historically, I've been rather flaky about keeping up with my blogs. However, I'm excellent about posting quick pictures on Facebook chronicling my culinary creations. After multiple requests to start instead collecting my recipes into a blog, I decided that perhaps I could keep up with this. After all, cooking doesn't demand lengthy philosophizing about ethical dilemmas in thought-provoking essays, therefore, my posts should be trim.

I should, however, here disclose that I actually am a philosopher. A graduate student, actually, at UNC Charlotte, studying Ethics and Applied Philosophy. Case-in-point, this little welcome post should have been a couple of sentences to explain that I'll be posting some of my delicious cruelty-free recipes I've created over the past several years being vegan. But instead, I've written far too much and can only thank you and apologize if you've read this far . . .