seasons eatings

Food has always been as much a part of our Christmas as it is a part of Thanksgiving. (By the way, I'm watching "Chef Walter's Christmas Traditions" as I type this.) Every year our stockings would be stuffed with fruits, nuts and candies. Well, more like one piece of fruit and mostly candy. For the past ten years or so, I could usually rely on one of the presents under the tree being a box of See's Candies with plenty of Scotchmallows.

This year things had to be different. Today I found several LA Weight Loss snacks in my stocking including a couple of their biscotti, some muffin tops and bags of their toffee popcorn. I am determined to follow the program strictly. Fortunately they gave us some little "tip cards" that are meant to be carried in a wallet or purse. According to the cards, I could have 4 ounces of egg nog and count it toward my starch, dairy and fat allowances. After I finished my salad for lunch, I had four Hershey's Kisses, which count as only one starch. I just did the math to figure out how many M&Ms are equal to four kisses. Anybody have a scale that can accurately measure 20 grams? I still have a big bag of dark chocolate M&Ms waiting for me.

Our best friends from Burbank, Charlie and Anja, sent a great gift box from Mrs. Beasley's. We'll have to freeze some of those treats until my wife and I meet our weight loss goals. My agent sent a nice gift basket from Stew Leonard's, some of which will also wait in the freezer.

Speaking of frozen treats, I did decide to freeze some egg nog and save it for next summer. Earlier this month, my wife made several trips to Weigel's checking for the day that egg nog with a December 25 expiration date went on sale.