nextbet Cook With Warmth and Hospitality. Cook With Vegetables.

jackpot 777ImageCredit...Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.

In a prettynextbet, bucolic North Georgia pasture, where old mine shafts lay hidden (but still accessible, as my crew of bored Gen X teenagers would discover) under the hills, lived a cow I once loved.

I met her through my boyfriend at the time, Paul. Most days after school, I’d help Paul feed the 30 or so cows under his father’s care. (Her tag read #47,panaloko but eventually I started calling her Stephanie — Stef the Heif for short.)

I had been a vegetarian for the greater part of two years, but if I hadn’t already made that choice, Stef’s sweet eyes and lackadaisical nature — much less seeing her be toted down the mile-long country driveway to meet her fate one day — certainly would have made the decision for me.

Babies, let me tell you: The early ’90s were bleak for young vegetarians without many resources. Back then, most of my “recipes” included frozen foods, canned vegetables and easy casseroles. A favorite dish? Vegetarian Bush’s baked beans right out of the can and Saltine crackers.

Recipe: Pozole Verde

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