My name is Jamie and I love food, everything about food. I grew up in Huntington West Virginia where comfort food was and is the name of the game. Not fancy no fuss, just great food, from pot roast and mashed potatoes to chicken and dumplings, everything that people loved was just plain ol' good and terrible for you. Although I did have a health nut for a mother, love you mom, but I went crazy as a child trying to explain to the other kids why I had to eat wheat bread sandwiches instead of lunchables. My mom is still a health nut and is now a vegetarian and will probably out live us all, but her mustard tomato sandwiches on whole wheat juts don't cut it for me.
I became a vegetarian my freshman year in college after watching Paula Dean pick out her Christmas pig. The light turned on, meat comes from animals...hello...where had I been all these years?
I have always loved animals (see picture above for proof) and wanted to do what I could to support animal rights but for some reason, possibly never have known a vegan or vegetarian it just never dawned on me until that point. Although, I do have to say that Paula and all the food network shows are still my favorite and continue to inspire me today.
After a few years of being vegetarian I heard a speech by Russel Simmons, as you can see I am greatly influenced by pop culture and then became vegan. From that day forward no meat, no eggs, and lots of subway sandwiches. I had always loved to cook but it was time to figure out how to make it work in my new life style. It became my mission to recreate everything I saw on the food network that I knew my family at home would love but make it vegan and fake them out.
Therefore, my faux comfort idea started. I wanted to figure out how I could make great, healthy, tasty food that would be perfect to serve at any family holiday party without them asking you 5 billion questions about the ingredients.... quinoa and raw zucchini wraps would have never flew in my family. So I started making vegan wings, and potato skins, mac and cheese and biscuits and gravy. To this day my Dad is always surprised, "Wow this really doesn't taste like tofu", to which I usually answer "Because it isn't". I am out to prove not all vegans live on tasteless tofu and you can make responsible ethical choices and still eat great.
Oh and I love to laugh. It something isn't fun I usually won't do it. I got in trouble once in the third grade and my teacher called my mom and said, "Jan, you are going to have a lot of trouble with this one some day, she just goes from one place to another having fun." It is true, thanks Mrs. Martin for the inspiration!
