"It's Jell-O, yum, yum, yum!"

So last night's pity party is over for now. It had actually dissipated for the most part not long after the post, as I went surfing the web for a bit and found some things to distract me. I really do think that I should have chose to watch Harry Potter instead of King Kong.

After surfing, I decided that I would go looking for some dead-beast laden recipes among my cookbooks. However, as I have dabbled on the edge of vegetarianism for the better part of 10 years (I'd only been a full-time veg for about 3), I find that I only have 2 recipe books that contain such items.

One is a cookbook put together by the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. There are a few recipes with meat, but most of the food is vegetarian...which makes a certain amount of sense as it is a cheaper diet to live by.

The other recipe is a family cookbook put together by my great-aunt, affectionately known as Auntie Jo. It is a cool little book, and I highly recommend it as something to do if you want a family document that's a bit out of the ordinary. She included pieces on family history and different Danish traditions.

I'd always thought that it was a bit strange, when I went completely veg, that my father's initial response was: "Does that mean you can't eat Jell-O?" I had never been a big Jell-O eater, anyway. But reading through the "salad" section of that cookbook was a glimpse into the culinary experience that shaped my father's past. There were, I kid you not, at least a dozen Jell-O "salad" recipes. There were even Jell-O salads masquerading as "pretzel salads" or, my favorite, a "Sprite Salad."

The other ingredient that seemed to predominate most of the recipes in the book was cream of chicken/mushroom/celery soup. And butter. And cream.

Last week, I discovered a website that talked about the Blood Type Diet. The idea behind this is that certain bloodtypes are suited to certain diet types and it is eating outside of the "diet-of-your-ancestors" predisposes you to obesity. I have some doubts about this because there really is no scientific study to back it up...and then there is this...my blood type is A. Type A's are supposed to be most suited to a vegetarian diet. I felt momentarily vindicated in the last day of my veg-ness. But then I thought of who my ancestors were - Vikings and the people from whom those Vikings came. They weren't particularly vegetarian in the way that they ate. In fact, fresh vegetables were pretty rare for them during most of the year. Hmmm....

I think I'm going to be looking for a cookbook when I get my paycheck on Friday.