Elaine's Blog:
Following the Just Tell Me What to Eat! Plan

An A-HA! Moment: Meat / Fish is the SIDE dish (not the MAIN dish)

We had Grouper with White Beans and Tomato Vinaigrette last night.

The market did not have grouper, so I substituted a lovely piece of Chilean Sea Bass which was only available in a 16 ounce piece. Another accommodation I made was to purchase diced pancetta instead of asking the butcher to slice me a 1 oz. piece.

It looks like a meal you would be served in a restaurant, with the colorful bean mixture and white fish and tomatoes on top. I cut a small section of the fish for myself, perhaps only 2 ounces, and had an A-HA moment. Even though I had a small piece of fish, the meal was very filling, which is exactly what the Mediterranean-style eating is all about: meat/fish complementing the vegetables. Vegetables as main dish and meat/fish as the side dish. We have it all wrong in our country, thinking that meat is the main dish and vegetables are the side portion!

Review: Gin and Tonic alternatives

I read about my favorite cocktail, the Gin and Tonic, in the Half Full section of the Wall Street Journal.

I learned that there are more interesting tonic waters than Schweppes. The article recommends using Artisanal tonic water or making your own by adding an ounce of tonic syrup to soda water! Who knew? They say that regular tonic water is sweetened with. . . gasp. . . high fructose corn syrup! The article recommends three artisanal tonic waters (I'm sure none of which are available in New Orleans):

• Fever-Tree

• Q Tonic sweetened with agave and supposedly 1/2 the calories of regular tonic

• Fentimans

And for the gastronique (yes, you, Dr. Gourmet!), they recommend three syrups:

• Tom's Tonic

• John's Premium Tonic

• Jack Rudy Cocktail Company

Oh, the article also features three premium gins: Caorunn, Leopold's, and Nolet. Let's try all these before the summer ends!