The Carlton Varney Birthday Cake

In my youth, there was a local ice cream parlor done up in zingy shades of pink and green. If we were celebrating, the family would sometimes gather for sundaes in that invitingly garish interior. I still remember my favorite confection was a sundae named "The Daisy Almond"...but I digress.

Later in life, I helped my events-planning impresario sister with an important shindig at the world-famous Greenbrier Hotel. At that time, The Greenbrier, long a luxury favorite with statesmen and sportsmen alike, had recently had its previously outdated decor updated in a style fit for a destination that had a storied history of re-energizing its guests. Interior designer Carlton Varney did the old hotel up in vivid springtime hues of lipstick pink, grass green, lemon yellow, and citrus orange...with plenty of blinding gloss white trim to better make the happy cacophany of colors sing.

I found the dizzying brightness brought back the yummiest memories of that ice cream parlor, and gave me the same sort of delighted feeling a kid has while anticipating a special occasion dessert.

So what better color scheme could there be for decorating a birthday cake? I made a splendid-smelling red velvet cake and did up the icing in colors that would make Carlton Varney weak in the knees. I know my frosting flowers are not as artful as a full-time pastry master's, but looking at this cake, I've got that giddy-little-kid-at-the-ice-cream-parlor feeling. And I hope the birthday girl will feel the same.

Happy Birthday MeeMaw!

Fish Tacos Encore...Because it Bears Repeating

This blog post is a re-post from January, 2011. I am making some fish tacos right now and I can hardly wait. They are so mind-bogglingly delicious to me, I am almost confused by the fact that they are also so virtuous--low cholesterol, low fat, low calorie, high protein, and high vitamin. Mmmm! Here's your re-post...I have to get to the table!

"My first fish taco was in Santa Monica, California...because what good, middle-class girl from Cleveland, Ohio had ever heard of a fish taco? My sister, who lived in Los Angeles, drove me straight from the airport to some boardwalk stand, with a line a mile long, and made me try me try this culinary oddity.

I was skeptical. Tacos were GROUND BEEF...jeez, everyone knows that. Putting fish into a taco was weird. Possibly wrong. Potentially gross.

But, on the contrary! Fish tacos are delightful. They are light and slightly sweet. They smell like a perfect afternoon at the ocean-side. They are enhanced, but not outdone, by sour cream, salsa verde, or guacamole.

I had some very sad-looking frozen pollack fillets in my freezer. I had tried to dress them up as Dover Sole and Trout Amandine on other occasions, but I finally gave up. I bought pollack specifically because it is not over-fished, not farmed, and generally responsibly marketed, which attracted the responsible omnivore in me, but it is a totally boring fish varietal, which saddens the aspiring gourmand in me.

I decided to put the last two fillets to rest by making fish tacos. I didn't have a recipe. I didn't even have very much motivation. I just had some fish, some cabbage, and some tortillas.

And Great Scott! You can make an awesome dinner with not much more than those pathos-inspiring ingredients. Scour the internet. Bobby Flay has a good-looking recipe. As does Martha Stewart. My methods were slapdash at best, and if I can achieve such greatness without much effort, imagine what might come together if you actually try, under the direction of a bona fide TV expert??

The tacos are light. I steamed my fish, so I felt no guilt about having 3. Fish tacos often include cabbage which is a "superfood"...the high fiber, high-vitamin, high-mineral, low-calorie stuff practically guaranteed to make you live one hundred years. I paired mine with full-strength Greek yogurt, which tastes an awful lot like sour cream, but it's a little less fattening and has all of those beneficial bacterias that are supposed to cure all your ills.

Tell me a fish taco story if you've got a family-friendly one. 'Cause boy-howdy, are they good and I want to know about everyone's favorite. "

Open Letter to Anyone Trying to Drop a Few Pounds

"There is no weight loss lottery."

I read this sage epithet in a comment written by someone who lost a lot of weight. Although she had lost significant poundage years ago, she still haunted weight loss forums and programs because it still took lots of focus to maintain her hard work. She advised newbies to the health/weight loss/nutrition scene that there was no such place as easy street. Just as most of us have to work to make sure we are financially fit, most of us also have to work to make sure we are physically fit. Of course, in the financial realm, some lucky schmo wins the lotto every once in a while. But no one ever hits the weight loss jackpot. That's all work, all the time.

Anyone who is at odds with some odd pounds will often lament the unfairness that there really are beanpole-types who can eat whatever they want and never gain an ounce. Not so, says I.

I say this because mi esposo is one of those tall drinks of water who looks like he can shovel in a truckload of cheeseburgers without showing any bloat. He even tells people that he never has to worry about his weight. But the truth is, the good man does not overeat. He stops the meal the instant he gets full (much to his chef-wife's chagrin!) Similarly, those skinny-mini model-type girls I have known love to make much of how they DON'T diet, how they DON'T starve themselves, and all of this may be true. But when I was roommates with them in my younger years, I saw firsthand that they also did not take second helpings. Those skinny folks are not pigging out. The beanpoles just don't have big appetites. Anyone with a bigger appetite has to work every day at reminding themselves that second helpings, high calorie indulgences, big portions, and the like will not serve their health well over the long term. The folks with bigger appetites have to work at it every single day for the rest of their lives.

That's the big "lifestyle change" that all of the weight loss experts have failed to define. The rest of us out here in "TV land" thought the experts meant we have to eat a few more vegetables, carry around a water bottle, and get mad at the concept of high fructose corn syrup. While we have made those lifestyle changes, we still remained culturally obese. So, when that didn't work we may have thought that the concept of lifestyle change meant we had to be on a fringe extreme diet. So we tried them, but maybe could not cotton to the whole concept... plus, it really got too cumbersome while traveling or being a guest in someone's home. So we flat-out quit. While it is completely right-on to embrace fresh vegetables and pure water in our diets, and I even think that dabbling in some extreme diets can be educational as a short-term experiment (so long as our physicians do not see a health risk), I don't think those actions are the essential lifestyle changes we need to make. The essential lifestyle change is making your food choices and portion sizes mindful and focused, every day for the rest of your life. There is no absently munching cheese-puffs during the Clint Eastwood movie marathon in the new lifestyle. The new lifestyle is aware of the pros and cons of those cheese puffs. Armed with the knowledge of what's in them and how those ingredients affect your health goals, you may go ahead and munch away if the craving just won't die. But now you only indulge in one cup of them because you know the fat/sugar/chemical/calorie content.... You no longer polish off the whole bag because you are blissfully ignorant to the facts and you are enjoying the crunchy texture and orange fingertip effect.

That's the lifestyle change. That's the "new normal". You just have to think about it every day until the day you die, if you are serious about achieving your goals. Just as you think about going to an unrewarding office plaza every day if you are serious about ensuring that your bills are paid and there are no collection agencies with your number on speed dial. Just as you think about going to that tedious required class every day if you want that degree. Just as you think about walking your dog every day (rain or shine!) if you care about preventing stains on your new living room carpet. No one may really want to go to a lackluster job, or sit through a snoozer of a class, or walk Fido in the sleet, but you do it anyway to ensure that your goals, no, that your needs are met. It becomes an automatic part of your life...er, your lifestyle.

If you need to be healthier and weight loss is part of that health need, then you may have to do some draggy things that ensure that your needs are met. Just look at it that way and it will become an automatic part of your life(style).

Because not one of us has the winning ticket for the weight loss lottery.