This is a picture of the bacon I was cooking for our guests at breakfast.I've always loved pigs. I used to want a pig as a pet, and I can remember crying for two days after reading Robert Newton Peck's A Day No Pigs Would Die in middle school.
Last year once I learned that pigs self awareness ranks among dolphins and apes, I became horrified at the thought of eating pork. (It just felt so cruel to imagine a pig entering a slaughter house, seeing the pig get slaughtered in front of him, and then understanding that he would be slaughtered next.) My goal was to not eat pork in 2010.
For most of this year I've succeeded in avoiding pork specifically- I don't grill pork chops any more. I don't eat ham. I love ham. I stopped eating bacon. However, I've failed in avoiding pork generally - beans cooked with pork, sausage that includes pork, and salads that are sprinkled with bacon. I was warned: My friend Dooley told me it's hard to avoid bacon, because Texas cooks seem to put bacon on everything. Yet, my biggest failure in my no-pork-in-2010-challenge came when I cooked the bacon for our guests and then it smelled so good that I ate a piece...or two.
I ate accidental bacon last week!
ReplyDeleteAnd (brace yourself for the confession) I ate chicken on purpose last month. It was delicious. I got very sick. I am back to being a pickatarian. I don't think we should be too hard on ourselves. It's hard to give things up for the greater good.