It's Important to Plan

I apologize - I hate typos just as much as you do! In reading my post from yesterday, I found that I spelled Tapas incorrectly.

Quoting from my cookbook, "Mediterranean Cooking:"

"In Spanish, "tapa" means a lid and it was the custom of bartenders serving glasses of sherry covered with a slice of sausage or ham which evolved into the most fascinating and imaginative selection of "little dishes" served today. Tapas bars, particularly abundant in southern Spain, serve a variety of such dishes. In these bars you can enjoy pre-dinner tasters or thoroughly indulge yourself with a selection of dishes as a main meal. Fried new potatoes, chorizo sausage in olive oil, garlic prawns and empanadillas are tapas classics."

Oh, I can't wait for Thursday night's wine dinner with Aaron at Emelio's as we celebrate his 47th birthday. It's going to be very difficult to enjoy everything this dinner has to offer and not totally go overboard, blowing the diet and getting an upset stomach - or worse! Aaron and I very diligently discussed our plan this morning. In looking at the pre-set menu for the night, we know there will be 20 wines to sample with appetizers or Tapas; 5 courses of game all with different wines paired with each dish, and dessert paired with a dessert wine. Wow, what a feast. Luckily Chef Emelio stresses quality and authentic Spanish cooking instead of quantity! I know that every bite entering my mouth will be a memory I will have for a very long time and my mouth is watering just anticipating the adventure. We plan to sample only wines we've never tried before and only 1/2 glasses with the dinner courses and a sip or 2 of the dessert wine. We plan to concentrate more on the food and try a little of all of the flavors. I think we'll be ok.

It's important to pre-plan what you are going to eat so it fits in with your diet and you don't get out of hand. In fact, this may sound a bit crazy, but I keep a list of everything that is stocked in my 2 freezers. We have a freezer chest in the garage to hold larger items such as a turkey, ice for parties, and stock up items when I see a sale. Keeping a list helps me control my menus during the week, and then I don't over buy or impulse shop when it comes time for grocery shopping. It's hard to impulse shop on Peapod.com so I try to stick with ordering groceries. You can really get some great deals and they take manufacturers coupons.

My back is feeling somewhat better and I managed to walk 1/2 mile with my DVD today. By the way, the DVD is by Leslie Sansone. She has a great collection of walking at home DVD's. She also includes low-impact aerobics which is great for beginners.

Dinner tonight consisted of 1 pork chop each and 2/3 sausage for Aaron, 1/3 for me. We enjoyed a garden salad and 1 glass of white wine. I also made ratatouille - a vegetable dish from Provence. I sauteed some Spanish onion, red and yellow peppers, zucchini (also called courgette along the Mediterranean), garlic cloves and black olives in some olive oil and sprinkled the mixture with a small amount of salt and some crushed black pepper. Absolutely delicious.

Food For Thought:

In trying to unravel the mystery of what I am doing in this overweight body, I began thinking about my history with food. My earliest memory is when I was 2. My Dad was eating a pizza and drinking a beer. I was very curious what that would taste like so I wandered over to where he was sitting watching TV and asked for some. I think it was more like pointing and whining. I bit into the pizza and grabbed hold of it. My Dad just started laughing then he offered me some beer to wash it down. I think that's when it all started going south!

(10:48 pm)