A FAMILY OF GOOD COOKS

I'm guessing you are wondering how I held up over the Fourth of July holiday? The answer, superbly!  I had a very good week leading up to the weekend which allowed me a little leeway on the holiday itself.  I stuck to my fruit breakfast, vegetable lunch, and meat dinner, as well as, my double trips to the gym.  I took a break from working-out just about every other day, giving me 4.5 days total at the gym last week.  Again, baring in mind, that I did double work-outs on the days I was there, and took walks on the days I wasn't.

I saved my carb eating for Sunday when my mother-in-law had a pool party for the family.  There were only ten of us present, but enough food for fifty. Now I know all family gatherings include a cornucopia of temptations, but this is no ordinary family of cooks.  Most people would barbecue; throw some hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill; toss a few two-litters of soda on the table and call it a day.  Not my family!  We broke with tradition and took full advantage of my husband's Italian heritage by making Italian sandwiches.  I want you to envision me slicing two-foot long, fresh-baked, baguettes of bread, stuffing them with a variety of imported meats and cheeses, and then toping them with roasted red peppers and a homemade olive tapenade.  I could smell the carbs infiltrating my nostrils as I sliced open each loaf.

Paired with the sandwiches was a three bean and rice salad with avocado and cilantro.  I made pasta salad with feta cheese, marinated asparagus, and yellow tomatoes which was soaked in lemon zest and olive oil.  I also contributed a homemade chip dip of caramelized shallots and blue cheese and some cumin and tomato infused deviled eggs.  I could name the other twenty items on the picnic table, but we'd be here all here day so I'll jump right to the dessert.

My mother-in-law was wafflling, that is, churning out hot waffles which were dusted with powdered sugar and stuffed with vanilla ice cream.  Say your not a waffles and ice cream person, not sure why anyone wouldn't be, but for arguments sake let's say your not.  As a back-up, she baked peanut butter cookies which she stuffed with her own peanut butter ripple ice cream to create homemade peanut butter ice cream sandwiches.  No dried out Chipwiches for this family!  The cookies were buttery, and the marriage of flavors, salty-sweet.

As I attempted to soak up what little bit of exercise I could in the pool, the hostess came around with trays of frozen margaritas.  Now this is how a pool party was meant to be!  A few sips of the alcoholic beverage and calorie counting became a distant memory as we dunked gourmet strawberries in a fruit dip of vanilla and marshmallow.

As the day grew long and we called it a night, I escaped home having had a sandwich, some chips and dip, a little bit of bean salad, and an ice cream sandwich.  I skipped a lot of the side dishes and managed to duck the waffles. I had a refill on the margaritas, but drank water the rest of the day.  It could have been a lot worse!  I yielded no damage from the Sunday picnic.  Weigh-In Tuesday showed I shedded the extra pounds from my husband's vacation week, plus two more, putting me on track for my twenty-five pound goal.  I hope everyone had as fun and tasty a holiday as I did!

“The biggest seller is cookbooks and the second is diet books - how not to eat what you've just learned how to cook.” ~Andy Roone

Leftover Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches that made it home to my freezer!