Wine Diet

In my last entry, I mentioned Mari's "Wine-d Down" parties. They are a lot of fun, but I really overdid it on Saturday. I know it's not a good idea to overindulge like that on a regular basis, but I think every once in a while everyone should blow off some steam. Believe it or not, my job is pretty intense. I have students communicating with me constantly. So, in a way, this is a good occasional occurrence.

However, one unforeseen consequence of this hell raising has been that it's affected my appetite. Only now, 3 days later, am I finding myself hungry in the least. But, by this time, I've grown comfortable again with a slight gnawing in my stomach. So, I've been eating very small meals. In addition, I've been walking a lot! I walk to and from school which is a little over a mile one way, and then I walk Joey twice a day. I don't know how far our regular route is, but I've guesstimated that I've been walking about 3.5 miles a day, and sometimes farther if I run an errand in the process. In addition, I've been starting to work on the yard...which looks like a long process. My lilacs really took a beating this winter. I have a lot of dead wood to clear. So, if it's not apparent, I'm burning off far more calories than I'm consuming. I expect the weight is dropping off. But I haven't been weighing either. I'm going to base my progress based on how my clothes fit.

For now, I've given up the "diets." I'm just going to try to eat light and exercise more. If I find myself drifting into my old bad habits, I might need to put myself back into a more regimented program, but I'd like to try this for a while.

Wish me luck, or maybe "Cheers!"

House Cleansing

A week ago last Saturday, my friend Mari had a house cleansing. She had a rather tempestuous break up and divorce. She brought family members and friends together to help cleanse her house emotionally. I think it was a great success. The peals of laughter virtually shook the roof and those bad feelings were forced out through the cracks...this is despite the fact that Mari does not know what direction counterclockwise is. For those of you who don't understand the reference. When cleansing a space, you use a smudge stick (a bundle of burning herbs, mostly sage)and walk around the space counterclockwise and go around any openings counterclockwise. The great thing about this kind and gentle type of witchery, the spirits are very understanding and aren't demanding task masters.

So wine flowed and food was consumed...that's where I come in. Mari asked me to make something for the occasion. We chose the menu because of it's light spring-like nature. We chose Chicken Oscar. I've had Chicken Oscar several times, and I love it. I attempted to find a good recipe, but none of them seemed on the mark to me. A Chicken Oscar is primarily made up of chicken breast, English muffins, crab meat, asparagus, and Hollandaise sauce. Not too hard. I think most restaurants grill their chicken, I'm not the slickest griller. But I do a bang up poached chicken. Real crab is very expensive out here in the plains. Besides, we don't get enough the real stuff to know the difference, so we settled on faux crab. The English muffins and the asparagus were no big deal. So, I made everything except toasting the muffins and the Hollandaise sauce before I got there. It was a little busier than I expected when I was cooking for anywhere between 9 and 12 people.

So, for a Hollandaise sauce I just went to The Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, on page 450 of the 1996 edition.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
3 beaten egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Dash of salt
Dash of white pepper

Preparation
1. Cut the butter into thirds and bring it to room temperature.
2. In the top of a double boiler combine egg yolks, water, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Add a piece of butter. Place over boiling water (upper pan should not touch water). Cook, stirring rapidly with a whisk, till butter melts and sauce begins to thicken. Add remaining butter, a piece at t time, stirring constantly till melted. Continue to cook and stir till sauce thickens (about 2 minutes more). Immediately remove from heat. If sauce is too thick or curdles immediately whisk in 1 to 2 tablespoons hot water.

We're not even going to discuss nutrients of this stuff. In this case, who cares? I felt really good about the sauce. I had been told by someone in the La Chiesa cooking class that I had to worry about it separating. I've made it a couple times now, and it's never separated. That includes the night of the cleansing when I prepared a triple batch.

I think one of the things that helped with that success is that I have a really nice whisk with which I whipped the hell out of it, and rather than a small little double boiler that doesn't really allow me to whisk well, I used a big aluminum pan set on top of a pan of boiling water. It worked beautifully. It tasted good too.

As a matter of fact, I've found that it's an easy meal to make on the spur of the moment, but then I always have these ingredients around. When I make it for myself, I cut way back on the Hollandaise, although it is soooo good.

I should add that Mari's friend Barb brought this delicious salad with spinach, pecans, and strawberries. It was lovely. And Mari made these beautiful cheesecakes for dessert. We had the leftovers at the party we had last Saturday night. Mari calls these parties "Wine-d Down parties." The name is very applicable, and they are a lot of fun. :)