mimi on the move: prep for party

first off ... i am done!! my paper is submitted, albeit 40 minutes late (deadline was midnight). but i am done with my semester. hopefully something pays off from being in H's class. i am just happy to have a month before school again!

the rest of the day was prepping for our holiday party tomorrow. at last count, we'll probably have 27 people over. that's a lot for our small 1 bedroom apartment! but the more the merrier.

since my husband is professionally trained, everything has to be mis en place (everything in its place and ready to go). he's amazing. here was our to do list, posted to a kitchen cabinet. things we prepped tonight: mushrooms, artichoke dip, boiled eggs, pernil marinade, shrimp cocktail and sauce, brussels, onion dip. things we finished tonight: crackers.

ah, yes, the pernil. some of you probably already know this is a popular dish celebrated in puerto rico and other caribbean nations. so how am i, the supposed vegetarian, serving pernil?

i first became vegan after reading diet for a new america by john robbins at the tender young age of 13. i was shocked to learn about how animals were raised and slaughtered in america. i was never a real big meat eater anyway, so it was easy for me to go green. i was all animal rights crazy, protesting the circus, letter writting to proctor and gamble, debating dissection in biology class.

then when i was around 21ish or so, i started eating meat again. like in a big way because by that time i met my future husband to be and he was just gratified to be serving a former veggie big bountiful meals of meat. i ate meat i never had before, and i was especially in love with flank steak.

but then somewhere in my later 20s, i became morally repulsed by all that flesh eating. because i'm crazy, i asked future husband to be if he would be willing to go vegetarian with me. i expressed how important it was to me, that if i wasn't eating meat, i didn't want it in the house either. and ewww, kissing a meat eater! that was kind of gross too. amazing man that mr. mimi is, he agreed. but we compromised on eating fish.

and then sometime a month ago i realized eating fish, especially commercially farmed or caught fish, is just as cruel in its slaughtering methods and environmentally devastating a process as factory farmed animals. i needed to reconcile this contradiction. either i stop eating fish and truly become vegetarian or i start eating meat again.

so that's why we're serving pernil. i did a lot of research and found a wonderful local farm, herondale organic farm. i made mr. mimi call the farmer and ask him slaughtering questions. i know, crazy! but it was important to know how they did it. honestly, i'm not sure how this will be. i won't be eating meat in a restaurant (unless i can be assured it is local, humanely raised, etc) and i probably will only eat meat once in awhile at home. but for now, this is where i am at.

full recipe for pernil (and other items) will come later. for now, just enjoy the photos! while i try to get some shut-eye before everything else tomorrow.