And let me add that you sell yourself short when you talk about cooking as your only creative talent. From what I can see in this post, you’re a pretty darn good writer too. I’m glad to know about your blog & look forward to reading it.

Great choice Cathy!

Bravo from a fellow in-eatting, slow-fooding, art-seeking creativity-deprived food geek. Jess’s blog is up there with my heroine Shauna “The Gluten Free Girl” Ahern.

And bravo to Cathy for her commitment, creativity and willingness to open her blog up to guest writers!

Then about a year ago, I got married and moved to New Orleans. Buried in that sentence are three good reasons for not eating out: first, thanks to our wedding registry, I now own the right pots, pans, and other accoutrements that make eating at home easier. Granted, I could’ve acquired some of these things on my own, but I spent the money on eating out instead.

Second, I live in a house that’s much larger than my former East Village ‘squat,’ and though I still don’t seem to have enough counter space, I do make my coffee at home every day (Cafe du Monde’s chicory of course), sometimes twice a day. Now the daily routine goes something like: set up automatic function on coffee maker the night before, wake up to aroma of brewing coffee, stumble toward the kitchen in mismatched or scanty sleeping gear, extract milk from fridge, pour, shuffle to bed/couch/kitchen table/front porch. Repeat.

And, I’ve been known to turn the top of the trashcan, washer, dryer, or even the top of the coffee maker, into those extra inches of necessary counter space.

Third, and most important, so many of the restaurants here serve fabulous, traditional New Orleans food, aka the kind of food that makes you gain weight just by looking at it. Not eating out has become a 6 out of 7 night necessity in order not to gain the “New Orleans 15,” which is easily acquired when you move from a walk-to-survive city to a driving one. By not eating out, I can better control what I eat and make sure I put enough vegetables, whole grains and lean protein (not just fried protein!) into my body, to make up for all the po-boys, Muffalettas, and beignets I eat as part of the new New Orleanian initiation rites (who am I kidding, I’m not so new here anymore!).

I’ll admit, however, that often after one of those super-healthy, cooked from scratch meals, I take a leisurely walk over to the local ice cream shop and get a scoop of Red Velvet or Chocolate Chicory Caramel ice cream. Maybe for my one –year wedding anniversary, I should request an ice cream maker.

Yes she does. Jess blogs about vegetarian cooking over at http://lavidaveggie.blogspot.com/

I highly recommend!

I highly recommend!

BTW- There should be contact me link somewhere. Or did I miss it?