I feel like a horse at the racetrack. The gates are opening, and BOOM! We’re off and running into the holiday food season.

Our holiday season gets a slow start a few weeks early. Hubby’s birthday is at the end of October. He gets a special chocolate cake that I make. It’s one of those complicated recipes from Joy of Cooking that involves making a custard, and then you blend things in as you go along. I think the only compliant ingredients in the thing are butter and the walnuts in the frosting. Hubby says it’s the happiest three days of his year when he gets to indulge in that cake. This year I was able to hold off eating much of it. Just a tiny sliver here and there.

It was my birthday on Monday, so hubby took me out to dinner at a local seafood restaurant. I was able to choose wisely from the menu. They offered Hawaiian Nachos as an appetizer. It is Ahi poke with a wasabi cream topping on taro chips. It was very tasty and light, following the true meaning of an appetizer. After a green salad with raspberry vinaigrette, we both chose a macadamia nut buttered mahi mahi with rice and squash for our entrée dishes. They came out overcooked and we had to send them back. The second time was perfect. I was too full for dessert, but they offered us free desserts because we had to wait for the meal. The apple crisp seemed the most compliant, if you can say that about any restaurant dessert. It was nice and tart, and the two of us barely finished half of it. Anyway, I like going places where I can choose compliant food and enjoy it. Heck, even the martini was neutral!

Now, today is Thanksgiving. We have been invited to eat at a friend’s house. He is an excellent cook. I will not worry about compliance. But, I will try to keep the portion sizes down. We don’t have to cook anything. We just have to bring the wine. Hubby wanted to take champagne, and I wanted a Riesling. We compromised and are taking both.

My modest goal for this holiday food season is to not put any more weight on. I have been very bad at keeping it off and have put on two permanent pounds this year. I am increasing my aerobics and hopefully this will help keep me steady. I see the calendar filling up with parties and other eating opportunities. To paraphrase someone famous:

“I will stay the course”.