If You Haven’t Had Barbequed Pizza, You Haven’t Lived

We made homemade vegan pizza this weekend. Homemade pizza is awesome and easy to make. Then we got the idea to grill it outside instead of turning on the oven and making the house hot. We ended up with vegan pizza that could convert any omnivore on the spot.

Even the steak-lover (read: husband) in my life hogged it all. We used Daiya’s new shredded ‘mozzarella’. Daiya has come a long way in recent years. Their mock cheeses – which were once grainy, mostly tasteless, and overpriced -  are now amazing, affordable, and made from good stuff.

Still, I’m definitely moving away from ‘mock’ anything – meats, cheeses, and the like. But since going vegan 13 months ago, I have to say that cheese is a hard habit to break.

However, I’m having fewer feels for those products that are designed to emulate the taste and texture of animal products. It’s not appealing to me. My thoughts on it now is that they serve a great purpose when you first go vegan and are grappling with the animal products addiction. It’s like methadone for a heroin addict: effective during the transition/withdrawal period, but something you want to wean from in the course of time.

Because the fact is that the taste and texture of animal products (in my case, dairy, as I never ate meat) becomes repugnant to you once you face the reality of what you’re taking into your body, grinding up with your teeth, swallowing, and processing. As you wake up, as you become enlightened on the subject, the thought of any food at all that has its origin in the body of an animal makes you want to throw up.

That, I’ve learned, is how it goes: at first, like any addict, you crave. Then, once you travel past the cravings, and your mind purges darkness and contravention, you would no sooner eat a cow or a pig any more than you would eat a Labrador retriever.

Back to that pizza, though. If you haven’t grilled a homemade pizza outdoors, stop what you’re doing and get one on your grill before summer is over.

Everything in the gardens has hit this wonderful stride. All the veggie plants are getting burly and blossom-covered. We put no greater effort into this year’s garden then in years before, but somehow, this year’s food crop is turning out great. I think this is the result of six years of amending the soil with our own compost, local manure, leaves, and coffee grounds. The effects are cumulative. The absolute foundation of a successful food crop is vital, nutrient-rich soil. And if you use the same plots year after year, as we do, then soil amendment is required. A good summer food crop will deplete the soil’s components quickly.

I’m getting psyched for this month’s weekend Buddhist retreat. Looking forward to returning to the Zendo for some group meditation, fellowship, reverence, and discussion. It’s always an elevating experience, a weekend recharge in the middle of summer, a chance for some deep meditation, and an opportunity to deepen Buddhist studies.

We hung a hummingbird feeder out back over the weekend: my husband loves watching hummingbirds flit around. The lemongrass is as big as a bush. I gave a big bouquet of garden basil to a friend this morning. We should have garden cucumbers coming in by the end of the month. My husband and I are anxiously waiting for those. Summer is in full swing here at the homestead. Thank you, Mother Earth!

Live in peace.