Ask and you shall receive…

See?  I can quote scripture, too. 😉

I haven’t forgotten my promise to answer reader questions.  So here goes:

Georgie:  “If you could have dinner with one famous person past or present who would it be and why?”

Ooh, that’s a tough one.  I’ve thought about this off and on since you posted the question.  I didn’t want to pick one of the obvious ones like Jesus or a famous political figure.  I’m really not all that enamored with celebrities, either, so this is really hard for me.  If you’d left out the “famous” part, I think I’d say my maternal grandfather.  He was a fascinating person but I only got to see him a few times a year while I was growing up and then he died shortly after my first child was born. 

But you did specify “famous”.  My answer might be different tomorrow but right now I think I’d like to have dinner with Anne Lamott.  I love her books but more than that, I think she’s funny and has an interesting outlook on life.  I’d like to pick her brain for writing advice and hopefully hear her say something…anything…that would jump-start the stalled writing process for me. 

Bryan: “How’s that book coming?”  

Bryan, did David put you up to that? 😉  I have to be honest; I haven’t worked on it at all for ages, other than to do a lot of thinking about it.  I really can’t explain why.  Oh, I have plenty of excuses but they are just that.  Keep asking and hopefully one of these days soon I’ll be able to say, “Why, yes…I’ve written three more chapters this week.”

Cherie:  “You post some very delicious sounding vegetarian dishes on your Menu Monday. What’s your best source for these recipes?”

Good question, Cherie.  Many of my recipes are simply adaptations of non-vegetarian dishes.  For instance, I now make my chicken enchiladas sans chicken.  I’ve altered the sauce and spiced it up for more flavor and then fill the tortillas with grated cheese rather than chicken.  Mexican dishes now contain beans rather than meat.  In fact, many ethnic dishes are easy to make minus the meat.  I’ve also gotten some vegetarian recipes from Meatless Mondays.  I receive a weekly email from them that includes recipes.  And then sometimes I make a meal of several things usually thought of as side dishes.  That’s especially easy to do this time of year when there are so many wonderful fruits and vegetables available.