Howdy there! My name is Marissa and I'm so happy to have this little corner of the blogosphere to share with you. If you've been to the library, you probably know me as the Shirley Temple doppelganger who worked out that pesky kink on your eReader or helped you sign in to your Gmail account.

In real life, I do other things besides fix computers, and one of those things happens to be eating. And boy, do I love to eat. I get giddy when it's time to go to the grocery store. Eating a good tomato can transform my week. Most nights of the week I get home from work, kick off my shoes, and head into the kitchen to chop up a big mess of veggies. The only thing you might notice that's a little different about my kitchen is that you won't find meat in it. In fact, because I also don't use dairy or eggs, I'm properly called a vegan*.

I hope to use this blog not to try and "convert" you to veganism, but to share my love of delicious, fresh, healthy food. Hopefully, along the way, I can also show you that it is possible to make vegetables the centerpiece of every meal and still end up with delicious things to eat.

Since I'm a librarian, I'll also make an effort to post recipes from vegan and vegetarian cookbooks that we have in our collection here at the library, making it all the easier for you to check these books out for yourself and give the recipes a try.  In the meantime, let me post the answers to a few questions I get asked a lot, just in case you had them on your mind:

Why go vegan?

For me, going vegan was the culmination of several years of research and lifestyle changes, and there's really no single reason why I decided to make the switch. For me, it's a combination of wanting to feel and eat healthier for my body, to protect the environment, and to act more compassionately towards animals. There are a lot of great books that talk about all these reasons and do so more eloquently than I can do here. So, I'll just list the books I read that really changed my thinking (all except for "Farm Sanctuary" are available in MPL's catalog), in case you'd like to do further research for yourself.

• The health argument:
  • Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease (Ornish)
  • The China Study (Campbell)
  • Vegan for Life (Norris)

• The environmental argument:
  • Diet for a Small Planet (Lappe)
  • The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World (Robbins)

• The animal argument:
  • Eating Animals (Foer)
  • Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food (Baur)

Really? You don't eat cheese? At all?

Nope! No cheese for me. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but now I don't miss it. If I really want cheese, I buy a bag of vegan cheese and incorporate it into my recipes. Or use ingredients I have lying around the house to mix in to a convincing cheese substitute.

Animal products are everywhere, and are unavoidable - why bother?

This is a true statement. Eating animal products, and using them in everyday life, is a way of living for most people, and I can't stop that. But the way I see it, I still get to choose what decisions I make, and that means living free of animal consumption. All I can do is strive to be a good example, and that's what I try to do. It never feels futile to me.

Well, I think I'm about finished with this first tome of an entry, but I'll be back soon! In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on veganism. Have you heard of it? Itching to throw out a question of your own? Make sure to comment below!

*I still consume honey/bee products and refined sugar (which is processed with bone char from animals), though, so a lot of other vegans would claim that I'm not a "real" vegan. You can judge for yourself.