Food Fest!

When I changed my eating habits and lost a ton of weight several years ago I made a deal with myself. On Friday night I can eat anything I want. And I can eat as much of it as I want.

That was always chips. Sometimes dip. Bags of Oreos. Ice cream sundaes.

Then about a year ago I started to feel like crap on Saturday morning. Well...anything I want is...anything I want. So I started fixing healthier things to eat that I wouldn't normally have. Big bowls of pasta with cheese. Baked breaded fish with lemon butter sauce.

And that evolved into my weekly 5 course extravaganza I call "Friday Night Food Fest". I do this every week.

Is this a course?

Havana Martini
Maybe not if you look it up on Wikipedia but it is to me! A Havana Martini is a Bacardi Cocktail served in a martini glass. I like some lime zest in mine. I don't drink rum very much. It's hard for me to take rum drinks seriously. Probably because we drank rum when we were teenagers. But every once in a while when I'm in a tropical, island kind of mood I like a rum drink.

Strictly speaking antipasto means "before the meal". I often have a plate of roasted vegetables before the main course but sometimes it's a cheese plate. Yes cheese plates usually come after the main course but it's a light cheese plate. On the left is a bowl of sliced tomatoes with chopped red onions and in the middle is a bowl of marinated mushrooms. Favorite things to nibble.

Cheese Course
That's a bowl of olives off there on the upper right.

I love olives!
Third course! In the wintertime I usually have hot soup here or, at the height of summertime, a cold soup. A fish course is good any time and this is a classic.

Shrimp Cocktail
Never buy cocktail sauce. Just mix a little ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice and worcestershire sauce in a bowl. It's especially nice because you can tweak it to your liking.

By the way. You want to have a sauvignon blanc with a shrimp cocktail. I didn't want to open a bottle just for shrimp cocktail. As far as I'm concerned chianti goes with everything. Except artichokes and asparagus.

Grilled Chicken Salad
Grilled chicken salad with tarragon mayonnaise dressing.

• 2 cups grilled chicken, chopped
• 1/4 cup each chopped celery, chopped yellow onion, chopped walnuts, white raisins
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise. I like Hellman's Light. I still don't have the trick making my own. Every time I try to make mayonnaise it's a disaster.
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Tarragon, dry or fresh, to taste

Mix the last 4 ingredients into a dressing and mix thoroughly with the other ingredients.

Serve on a bed of chopped lettuce and have a couple of whole wheat pita breads with it. Just scoop some of the salad into a half a pita. It's light, it's refreshing, it's satisfying.

Remember. Dessert is important!

Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with hot fudge and walnuts
The very best hot fudge sauce is from Brigham's.

I really look forward to Friday night.