Manage your festive culinary expectations

Here we are in the tail end of the year, with the major feasting days receding behind us in a haze of high-fat, low-health delights. I am displeased to report that my restraint and overall healthy choice focus was wildly unsuccessful, though I was sure that I had been diligent. The extra weight around my flabby middle says otherwise.

But enough about that. There was a positive outcome from this eating season. I came up with a new plan to ensure that the holiday season lives up to my dinner expectations.

You see, gathering with friends and family to eat puts one in a complicated situation. The complexities of social interaction and interpersonal drama make the mealtime experience a balancing act of a host of different desires and preferences. In this maelstrom, your own food preferences can get left to the wayside.

You know what you consider a delicious holiday meal. But at a large gathering, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get everything you want in the right amount. And you probably won’t have a chance to eat the food at a leisurely pace, with all the jostling for portions and interrupting conversation.

Solution? Make a preemptive festive meal for yourself! You can call it “The Pre-Christmas selfish Feast!”. Prepare all of the dishes that signify a holiday feast to you, and enjoy those festive delights at your own speed, in the comfort of your own home. And for the rest of the holiday season, you can relax. No matter what you’re served, or in what conditions you eat what you’re served, you have a foundation of deliciousness to keep you in a good mood throughout the yuletide.

As an added bonus, when you cook and eat the meal in your own home, you have a much better chance of maintaining portion control and making healthier choices in general.

Disclaimer: If you’re like me, though, the real calorie demon will be the long stretches of holiday idleness filled with various snacks and bonbons. The preemptive meal will do nothing to help that. Plan ahead and keep those treats out of the house.

Another year, another book? Yes!

Good gravy, the next book is done and out there in the world. A year of planning, writing, and editing has finally led to a finished work.

Onto the selling part! The book is available at 2 websites right now:

E-book version is at Smashwords  for $7.99

Printed version can be ordered at Lulu.com for $14.99+shipping

What’s that you say? You’d like to save on the shipping costs? You live in the London area? I can help you!

I’ll be taking pre-orders for the printed version from now until January 31st. Anyone who pre-orders a printed copy from me will pay no shipping costs.

Just send me an email indicating your interest in buying one or more copies for $15 each. When the order comes in, I’ll get the book(s) to you. Simple! There may even be a book launch party to coincide with the arrival of the books, so keep that in mind.

As always, I have to thank my wonderful wife for her continued support and faith in me. She’s a great partner and a fantastic human being. And I have to thank all of you as well, because there is no point in doing any of this publicly without an audience to watch. Thanks for watching!

 

This ‘n’ that

I had planned to write a stirring post on civics and politics but I’ll save that for a day where my brain is less mushy.

Instead, I’ll catch you up on the month that’s passed since my last post. I do feel some guilt for not blogging for an entire month, but I’m sure you’ll all forgive me. My time has been held captive by the editing process, as I worked to polish up my second novel to a sheen suitable for publishing. The process has gone well, very well in fact, and I should hopefully have the thing out in the digital world in the next few days.

But as the novel fought for my attention, and as the editing process held me caught in it’s relentless pace, my other pursuits fell off of the priority list. and that includes this blog. I’ve had a handful of topics to cover (though I’m hard-pressed to remember them now) but after a day of editing, I’ve had little interest in getting back onto the computer.

To be honest, I hadn’t realized how much time was passing with the world being deprived of my blogging. I vaguely remember making some kind of promise to post on a schedule, but I say a lot of things. But, as much as its thrilling to focus on one task to the point of fixation, I think it’s healthier to set aside time to blog. And so I shall!