Dreams and Horoscopes

I was talking with my mom in the kitchen this afternoon while having a snack. She said she'd read my horoscope. She didn't say whether it was yesterday's or today's. Doesn't matter, since Time is an illusion. :-P

Anyhow, she said my horoscope said something along the lines of improving my culinary skills, wanting to try new recipes.

Whoa.

For once, a newspaper/internet-based daily horoscope was accurate. But since nothing is written in stone with regards to one's chart, astrology mostly represents potentials for this, that or some other event or occurrence.

Still, I found it interesting that the most recent horoscope was actually reflecting what I have been thinking about lately: looking through my Vegetarian Times magazine issues for relatively easy, budget-friendly recipes.

I have been wondering also what it would be like to go to culinary school, especially one that focuses on healthy eating. I have no problem fixing meat for others if they want to eat it, but I choose not to eat it myself, for personal health reasons, let alone the ethics of vegetarian/pescatarian cuisine. But I would *prefer* learning at a vegetarian-centered school. But the only one that *I* know of, that's been advertised in "Shambhala Sun," "Vegetarian Times" and "Yoga Journal" is this one that's way out in New York.

And finding a veg cooking school in the Midwest, a region known for beef, pork and chicken, is likely slim to none. :-/ And finding a place that also focuses on organic? HA! I might as well start my own school here in the Midwest with those objectives, because in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, vegetarian eating, let alone organic fare is usually only found in the larger cities.
But it would be great to get more Midwestern people hooked on organic eating at all, let alone the vegetarian path.

I think if I was going to start a school like that, and I went ahead and featured a vegetarian/pescatarian frame of study, with a meat option (for those who insist on using beef, pork and chicken), I would want to try to get my meat from free-range and even kosher-kill sources. Because if I cannot hunt for it, it has to be purchased. And if I purchase it, I want also to be sure that the animal is kosher killed (plus find a way to learn kosher cooking), so if there were any observant Jews in my school, they would feel comfortable being there.

Also, because I would be cooking some amount of purchased, albeit free-range meat, I'd want to try to observe some sort of ceremony before the meat gets placed in the freezer. Because the animals, after all, would have given their lives to feed people and be something of a source of nourishment (for those who still choose to eat meat). That is not a sacrifice I can take lightly. Not as someone who respects the animal kingdom as much as I do.

And if someone had a problem with that sort of thing, they would sooo be in the wrong cooking school.

Anywho, I'm just sort of daydreaming at this point, because while I love to cook, I don't know if I'd have the passion to start such a thing, just because stress is NOT my friend.

I think for now I will stick to learning the tricks and tools of cooking, and not worry about the business end of it.

But that's not to say that someone else reading this blog can't take my ideas and run with them! ;-)

BB,
Rev. Kat ^.^