Break Out!

Maybe it's all the homemade cookies I've been eating...

Maybe it's the fact that I was forced to eat a pimento cheese sandwich on bona fide white bread for fear of going hungry yesterday...

Or maybe it's the, ahem, numerous cocktails I've been downing since reuniting with my joie de vivre family-

whatever it is, my skin has certainly seen better days. Break outs are happening and since I highly doubt anyone wants to see a close up of the new zits forming on my forehead and left cheek, you'll just have to take my word for it.

In an attempt to battle the onset before it gets out of control, I headed to Earthfare with the 'rents today to procure a little green juice

and spotted this genius idea upon entering the store:

.... I love that there are actual used "unhealthy" items in the container!!

I wish I had more food pictures to show you from the debutante ball last night-

but seeing as I was already having a hard enough time explaining to everyone at the table just how I could ever give up eating meat, I didn't really feel like going off on a tangent about why I photograph my food.

I will say that it was easier to have my pescetarian-eating needs met at the cotillion hall than my grandfather's house.

Being the full blown Southern carnivore and host that my mother's father is, as soon as we arrived at his house yesterday, lunch was offered.

On the menu: hot dogs, local barbeque, hamburger pizza and bologna for sandwiches.

"Okay," I'm thinking, "I just had a heaping bowl of protein/flax/banana-filled oats for breakfast before leaving home...

I bet that'll hold me over until cotillion later tonight."

Wrong.

While everyone else munched away on their lunches,

I really started to fiend for some sustenance.

When homemade pimento cheese was mentioned, I knew it had to happen. Against every fiber in my nonwhite bread-eatin' body, I gave in... I figured one time wasn't going to kill me and, as my mom said, "When in Rome..."

Besides: eating white bread when you have to is exponentially better than going hungry.

This brings me to my fascination with eating alongside non-vegetarians last night. While no one in my immediate family (including my boyfriend, Alex) is a vegetarian or vegan, I think they've all gotten pretty used to the fact that my eating habits are different from theirs.

But justifying those choices to my Southern extended family proved to be quite an interesting feat.

I plan to write an entire post about my thoughts and reflections on this when I return to LA.

Today my parents and I enjoyed a lovely winter lunch of 3 bean chili, bread and cheddar cheese

+ salad

After lunch, my dad and I headed out to the dead looking yard

to rake some leaves

for the outdoor winter solstice gathering we hosted earlier tonight.

At 6:40 pm Eastern time, winter officially rolled in... we greeted it with community candle lighting around a bon fire, along with a ritual in which each of us wrote negative thoughts/feelings/problems in our lives on small pieces of paper and threw them into the fire as a sort of "release" for the impending year.

Quite liberating, I must say...

Alright, I'm off to eat a cookie and spend some time by the fire.. It's nice to be home.

Stay tuned for mucho baking tomorrow- can't wait to see what's in store!