Torture

So tonight, I had the experience I had been dreading all month - the one I thought would be utter torture - and I didn't even flinch. This? Has me worried. Tonight was the banquet for my mother's photography club that I promised her I would attend. This was BEFORE I found out the event was being held at The Montgomery Inn, aka "The Ribs King." I'm not just talking about a local favorite here - this IS the ribs KING. You can ask Andre Agassi, John Glenn, Oprah, Bob Hope, and countless other celebrities. He is the ribs KING and I am not kidding. To be fair, there are some purists out there who disagree with his method of ribs preparation (the whole boiled vs. grilled argument) but that's completely beside the point of this posting and I'm not even going to go there.

Yesterday, knowing I would be there for dinner tonight, I took a look at their menu on-line. As I suspected, not a single vegetarian entree other than the basic side salad. Which is not an entree anyhow. Now as a meat-eater, I sincerely have to apologize to the vegetarian world for the rudeness and presumptuousness of the restaurant industry. I really had no idea. So I called them and discovered that while it is not on the menu (it's a dirty secret), they DO have a vegetarian offering - it's a veggie pasta dish. I was satisfied. At least I would have an actual meal vs. side salad and dinner rolls. And wine.

You know what was so weird? I didn't even care that everyone around me was eating ribs! How weird is this? At one point, I noticed my mother had a little morsel of uneaten ribs on her plate and I instinctively thought to grab it and eat it but I didn't.... and I didn't crave it either. I was able to satisfy my need for the flavor by ordering some saratoga chips with a side of the BBQ sauce and it was perfectly satisfactory. In fact, the only thing about the dinner that left me wanting was the lack of dessert. There was none. What kind of banquet does not serve dessert? This one, apparently. I could have used a bit of chocolate but whatever. Damned photographers and their "we don't want dessert" nonsense. Pft.

This is not to say that I have not been without torturous moments. In fact, I almost gave up on the entire thing last Saturday. We hosted our running group at our home and I could not run because of strain to my IT band. I played hostess (with the mostess!) instead. While everyone was running, I baked an absolutely delicious breakfast casserole for everyone that is my step-mother's signature dish and one that we request every single time we visit her. This was my first attempt at making it. It contains copious amounts of chopped ham.

After everyone finished running and started eating the casserole, and commenting on how delicious it was, I had the worst "gotta have some" moment I think I have ever had. I've had some pretty fierce "gotta have some" moments in my life (specifics withheld), and this was definitely near the top of the list. I succumbed. I had some, but carefully picked out the ham. This borders on sacrilege, but I did it. Felt like an idiot with a big pile of diced ham on my plate, but I did it.

THAT was torture. But if I can eat Windsor casserole and pick out all the ham, and I can sit in The Montgomery Inn watching everyone eat ribs and not care, I can do virtually anything. In fact, I think maybe I'll try walking on hot coals later this evening.

Veg on.