Michael and I are trying to make a conscious effort in the new year to eat less meat and Melissa Clark’s NYT article about eating less meat in 2020 got us thinking…about faux meat or meatless meat. Is it good? Is it actually healthy? Will the kids eat it? Will we like it and replace meat with it?

On date night, in Pleasantville, we bemoaned our current Williamsburg-less life and instead went out to eat at a lively upscale pub where Michael ordered… a plantburger. The first bite screamed Boca Burger to me— a frozen convenience that I frequently ate when single. It wasn’t terrible, with plenty of fixins, it could fulfil the burger craving. But it easn’t yummy and neither of us finished it.

The first cooking experiment was Saturday night when I replaced our normal beef tacos with Beyond Beef Tacos. As a pushed the mush around in the pan, trying to mask it with lots of taco spices, memories of my microwaved plastic-y Boca burgers flooded back. It looked fairly repulsive and the ingredient list was long. Wasn’t this against my resolve to eat REAL food, something I’ve stuck to for years? I forged on and as the burger cooked and slightly browned, it started to look and smell more appetizing.

We didn’t tell the kids that we were substituting meatless beef— I just set the table as always and told everyone to dig in. Michael and I exchanged glances over the boys but neither said anything like this tastes weird, or I don’t like this. Nate, uncharacteristically, only ate one taco but no complaints were uttered. Still, it just wasn’t as delicious and hard to know if it was a success. The next day, we noticed a high volume of gas eminating from ourselves and our kids and vowed to not make meatless meat a habit.

bringing home the veggies

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So Nate is now playing on a soccer team that Michael coaches and I "manage" which brings the entire family to Mccarren Park every Saturday morning around 10am. Which means, of course, we are obligated to go to the amazing weekly farmer's market there that we too often avoid out of sheer laziness.

Last weekend we hit it after a winning game and Michael and I separated, each buying way too much produce. When I told Michael that we could not buy any more vegetables because we didn't have room in our fridge and it would all go bad before we could eat and what was the point of buying it if it was going to go bad...he said, "I love you very much." And then proceeded to buy more carrots.

We are a good match because Michael curbs my neurosis with passion and good humor and I fulfill his culinary dreams often based on too much of a good thing. He is the dreamer and I'm the doer. And of course I made it my mission this week to eat, cook, serve or preserve all the many veggies we bought which started with Michael cleaning and cutting the carrots and celery. Huge help!! The only way the market load every really works is if you get home and do all the primary prep work so you see beautiful clean colors and not bags of dirt when you open the fridge.

Anyway, I was on a mission so every evening we had cut up veggies and dip to tide everyone over until dinner. Mack must have eaten 60 carrots this week. Next best use: soup. I made a beautiful zucchini soup which lasted us all week. And finally, this incredibly delicious spaghetti squash with garlic and cheese.

a smokin brunch

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Friday morning Mack and I hit the soccer field at Bushwick Inlet Park. After kicking the ball around and yelling "GOAL" about 500 times, I had the idea to visit the Acme fish market's "Fish Friday" where all the smoked goodies are available at lower prices to the public.

I’m always trying to turn sports outings into food outings and Mack’s too young to complain. So far. Plus he was fascinated by the bubbles on the factory floor, which were hiding all the fish guts and goo under them. We waited in line with a lot of polish people who knew exactly what they wanted and since we’d been before, I could sort of sound authoritative when it was my turn to shout “Pastrami smoked salmon, Whitefish salad, Whole trout and Honey baked!”

The only person, maybe in the world, who can eat all this smoked fish is my brother-in-law, Avi. So we invited Avi and family to brunch.