I'm still laughing! Well, the dinner party went just fine. Thanks to all of you, I was able to relax and enjoy it all. There was no talk about dieting or that he was on a diet. I couldn't wait to tell you about what happened with the food, though. You know what's coming, don't you? Of course you do. Before dinner, I really didn't pay attention to whether "Cuthbert" ate the blintzes or not or if he ate nuts (I decided against serving the salmon spread), and I did overhear him choosing vodka rocks (as lindac predicted). At dinner, I decided just to serve him the same peanut soup as everyone else. He ate it (admirably slowly), although I noticed when I cleared the bowls that he left the coconut/scallion garnish. He was seated at the other end of the table from me, so I don't know whether he took any vegetables. I put that chicken breast on the table near his end of the table, without any comment. Someone else asked about it, and I just said something like, "Oh, that's just if someone wants something plainer." I served that chicken/pastry/mushroom/artichoke/rice dish individually, and Cuthbert did take a piece. Not only did he eat every bite, he later asked if there was enough chicken left for him to have another helping. He finished that one, too. No dessert for him, not even the meringues. My only comment when I served dessert was in answer to "What are those?": "These are sugarless cinnamon meringues; they're an Atkins recipe." "Mrs. Cuthbert" ate those and no pie. She was seated right next to me, so I couldn't help but notice that, and also that she ate all the chicken dish EXCEPT the chicken. Maybe she has become a vegetarian? I did not ask or comment, of course. The dog and cat were delighted, though! So look at all I learned. I worried about entirely the wrong things. Mrs. C had said, "He finds the diet much easier if he just never deviates. But evidently, he was ready to take a night off. I only hope he didn't think *I* was trying to get him to stick to his diet or commenting on his weight! Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart. You were great. I really wasn't as spazzed out as I seemed -- but I still really, really appreciated your support, sympathy, and suggestions. Oh, and by the way, the youth group didn't end up congregating here anyway; their program was cancelled due to the weather, even though it wasn't bad enough to delay our guests. To thank you all, I want to share that peanut soup recipe with you. It is SO delicious, and really easy and fast -- and always gets "Wow, this is amazing!" from guests. I cut it out of the newspaper 2 years ago; it's by J.M. Hirsch, who writes a vegetarian cooking column. (He and his mom have a cookbook out; I've loved his recipes from the paper so much that I plan to buy it.) I hope you all enjoy it, too. I always double this recipe, which serves only about 4-5. Polynesian Peanut Soup 1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut (I had shredded, so I used that) 1 T canola oil 1 c finely chopped onion 1/4 c finely chopped fresh ginger 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 14-oz. can light coconut milk 3/4 c vegetable stock 3/4 c smooth natural peanut butter 1/4 c mango chutney 1 T minced fresh jalapeno chili, or to taste salt to taste 1/4 c finely chopped green onions 2 T minced fresh cilantro [I omit this, as we are "tasters"] sesame oil, for garnish In a small dry skillet, toast the coconut over medium heat, stirring constantly, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes (took less for me). Transfer to a plate and cool. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat.* Add the onion, ginger, and garlic . Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion and ginger are very tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer the onion mixture to a blender or food processor. Add the coconut milk, vegetable stock, peanut butter, chutney, and jalapeno [I chopped the jalapeno in there first and then added the rest]. Puree until smooth (anticipate a little leakage if you're doubling the recipe!). If the peanut butter is too thick, it might be necessary to add more stock (I like it thick, though). Transfer the soup to the Dutch oven and cook over medium heat until heated through. Season with salt to taste. Meanwhile, toss the coconut with the green onions and cilantro, if using. To serve, drizzle each bowl with some sesame oil and top with a mound of the coconut mixture. *I found that the onions stuck too much, even though I stirred almost constantly, so I ended up using another pot after pureeing. Next time, I will use a nonstick pan first to toast the coconut, then use the same one to cook the onions, ginger, and garlic, and not use the soup pot (Dutch oven) until after pureeing. Still a total of 2 pans to wash.

The canola oil is important to the recipe. This was the answer to the same concern about canola oil, from a website that I get sent to Disney for trying to post. The canola oil story is a HOAX!! And that's all there is to it. Any "warnings" from an e-mail are 99 percent certain to be lies and hoaxes. Don't buy into it. "What we have here is a bit of truth about a product's family history worked into a hysterical screed against the product itself. There is no earthly reason to give any credence to this rumor -- Canola oil is not the horrifying product this widely-disseminated e-mail makes it out to be, nor has the FDA turned loose on the American public a health scourge worthy of being named one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. An appreciation of what this scare is based upon begins with a better understanding of what canola oil and how it came into being. The rape plant (Brassica napus) is a member of the mustard family, as claimed in the e-mail. However, before associations between rape and mustard gas set in too strongly, it should be noted turnip, cabbage, watercress, horseradish, and radish are also members of this family of plants. Rapeseed oil has been used for cooking for centuries in Europe, India, China, and Japan. As modern science is finding out, its previous use wasn't necessarily a guarantee of safety. Cooking at high temperatures with unrefined rapeseed oil now appears to be related to an increased risk of lung cancer because at high temperatures cooking oil gives off chemicals capable of causing mutations in cells. Unrefined rapeseed oil is particularly notable for this, but other oils also have this association. Those intent upon doing large amounts of wok cooking with any sort of cooking oil should therefore lower their frying temperature from the 240C to 280°C called for in Chinese cooking to 180°C. Rapeseed oil naturally contains a high percentage (30-60%) of erucic acid, a substance associated with heart lesions in laboratory animals. For this reason rapeseed oil was not used for consumption in the United States prior to 1974, although it was used in other countries. (Americans chose to use it as a lubricant to maintain Allied naval and merchant ships during World War II.) In 1974, rapeseed varieties with a low erucic content were introduced. Scientists had found a way to replace almost all of rapeseed's erucic acid with oleic acid, a type of monounsaturated fatty acid. (This change was accomplished through the cross-breeding of plants, not by the techniques commonly referred to as "genetic engineering.") By 1978, all Canadian rapeseed produced for food use contained less than 2% erucic acid. The Canadian seed oil industry rechristened the product "canola oil" (Canadian oil) in 1978 in an attempt to distance the product from negative associations with the word "rape." Canola was introduced to American consumers in 1986. By 1990, erucic acid levels in canola oil ranged from 0.5% to 1.0%, in compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards. This light, tasteless oil's popularity is due to the structure of its fats. It is lower in saturated fat (about 6%) than any other oil. Compare this to the high saturated fat content of peanut oil (about 18%) and palm oil (at an incredibly high 79%). It also contains more cholesterol-balancing monounsaturated fat than any oil except olive oil and has the distinction of containing Omega-3 fatty acids, a polyunsaturated fat reputed to not only lower both cholesterol and triglycerides, but also to contribute to brain growth and development. In other words, it's a healthy oil. One shouldn't feel afraid to use it because of some Internet scare loosely based on half-truths and outright lies."

I am not a vegetarian, but love vegetables, grains and legumes and am as happy eating vegetarian dishes as meat dishes. I love the two cookbooks produced by the owners of Greens restaurant in San Francisco, titled, "The Greens Cookbook" and "Fields of Greens". They are wonderful books full of recipes delicious to long time vegetarians as well as dabblers or outright omnivores. They are written with a true appreciation for variety and balance, using ingredients that almost everyone would be familiar with. A few years ago, I began to teach myself how to cook the foods of India, and found a wonderful book called, "Dakshin..Vegetarian Cuisine From South India" which is a wonderful introduction to a cuisine and method of eating that is vastly different from what most of us are accustomed to, but quite delicious and satisfying. Be warned that if you are unaccustomed to eating spicy hot food, as in food prepared with chili peppers, you should probably cut down the amounts that are listed in the recipes. Also, you will be using many spices that you might be unfamiliar with and might be hard to find if you don't have a local Indian grocery store. However, there are many sources on line. The cuisine also makes ample use of Curry Leaves, which are an herb that really has nothing to do with what we think of as curry. They are a pungent, strongly flavored tree-leaf that nothing can really substitute for. In fact, the first time I bought some, I thought they smelled like a mix of B.O. and old socks. But cooked into food, they lend a wonderful depth of flavor. Most cookbooks will tell you to use cilantro instead, which is a completely different flavor, but compatible to most recipes that call for Curry Leaves. Again, you can find them in Indian grocery stores. They last quite a long time in the refrigerator, and I have had some success freezing them. Dried Curry Leaves aren't worth the bother.

Tishtosh I can now only buy dress shirts at Brooks Brothers, because I can get a large neck and shoulders, very short sleeves and a relatively very narrow (for the neck size) waist. They are expensive, but less than custom, and probably less than buying a cheaper shirt and then getting them tailored properly Before, where I grew up there was a Japanese woman who would take my shirts apart at the shoulder, move the sleeves up, and taper the sides, and she did not charge like she was making a whole shirt. The first time I tried to get sleeves shortened anywhere else they got chopped off at the bottom with the cuffs moved up and there was no split left above the cuff. ----- Poverty has changed in America. If you look at the films made in Appalachia in the 1960s, the poor were painfully thin for the most part. They were also poor in a different way. I just got back from San Diego, which seems to have a significant homeless problem and I saw several very dirty, homeless lying right on the sidewalk in the garbage/utility areas of a large building---looking at their cell phones. Now morbid obesity and poverty are related, at least where I live. I even see morbid obesity among the homeless, barring the obvious drug addicts. Many of the patients I see in the teaching program that gets referrals from the public health system are obese, and some of them are so morbidly obese they can't walk unassisted. Most of the poor here seem to eat almost nothing but junk food or fast food, and this is a change from the past. And fast food is full of carbs and hormones. But it's all relatively cheap compared to keeping good food around the house. ------ I also think men's bodies are changing and this also has to do with hormones in food. In the generation younger than mine, especially--the first one to grow up on chicken fingers and the like, there are many many body types on males that are feminized. Bottom heavy, curvy hips and thighs, pear shaped, man boobs. (Some of this may apparently have to do with Ritalin or other ADD drugs too?). Even otherwise thin men in this generation seem to have very large asses and hips and little pouchy bellies. This is not how men were built when I was in my 20s, There were thin guys and there were fat guys and there were muscular guys, but there was not the thin with subcutaneous fat in certain areas type of build.