The great vegan followup, AKA college reflections

Last week, I was happy to have a college friend and his girlfriend come to visit. Only problem is, he's a vegan! Gasp! Let's be honest, I cook vegetarian meals quite often, but they are almost always drowning in cheese. Or eggs. Or cheese. Mmm, cheese.

So, I had to come up with some cheese-free dishes, as I'm not big into cheese-replacements (I mean, I love soy and I love cheese, but soy cheese is one unholy union. And nutritional yeast? Doesn't taste like parmesan cheese, no matter what you try to tell me.)

I made a ratatouille and a delightful corn and black bean salsa and a salad. I thought it all turned out pretty well, although the ratatouille could have used some Parmesan and the salad desperately needed some crumbled bleu cheese.

Then, after dinner, do you know what my friend told me? That he doesn't eat vegetables very often. Oh dear. Did I just out-vegetable a vegan?

It was a very fun visit although it's so hard to believe it's been over ten years since we graduated from college. He hasn't changed a bit, and I highly approve of his girlfriend, who would have fit right in to our college group.

I don't know if you're reading, Vegan Dude, but it was great to see you and Effectively Vegan Girlfriend. Do you like the nickname I gave you? It could be abbreviated as VD. Hee, I said VD.

Totally related random thought: Another of my college friends has started a blog, Writer Dad. He's a writer. And a new dad. And he's blogging about writing. And being a dad. Good blog name choice, huh? Anyway, he's one of the best writers I know, far better than I am, so check him out. Just don't bother reporting back that I'm right, he is a better writer. I know. I took a creative writing class with him in college where he turned in vast quantities of highly polished prose while I churned out a bunch of shlocky garbage. Although in my defense, I wasn't the worst writer in the class. That distinction was won by Cliche Girl, who wrote completely autobiographical pieces and then tried to pass it off as fiction. "Oh, it wasn't Cliche Girl. I meant to say it was PLEESHAY Girl." That's what her readings were like. My favorite cliche she used:

I, oops, I mean SHE, was happier than a pig in shit.*

I'm not sure if Writer Dad (or Vegan Dude, who was also in the class) even noticed, though, as Cliche Girl was actually Extremely Good Looking Cliche Girl. I'm not sure the boys ever made it past the "extremely good looking" part.

*Note: she didn't actually write in the first person corrected to the third person. That actually would have been funny and kind of interesting if she had.