A Lighter Cocktail

Alcohol is one of those things we've cut back on since we've decided to count our calories. We haven't given it up completely, but it's now a treat once or twice a week. Matt is typically happy with a beer, but I like a refreshing Gin and Tonic (with Hendrick's Gin, of course). The problem is tonic is quite high in calories. Sure I could use a diet tonic, but have you tasted diet tonic? It's really gross and I don't like the chemicals used in diet sodas. (It's hard enough to find a regular tonic water that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup.) Then I discovered this at World Market.

Fever Tree Naturally Light Tonic Water

This tonic has only 49 calories per 8oz serving (about 45% less than regular tonic)and uses fruit sugars as a sweetener. Their regular tonic contains 9g of sugar while this one only has 4.8g. Best of all it taste great. I would drink this even if I wasn't watching my calories.

Let's face it a cocktail is never going to be diet food, but now I've found an easier way to work one into my day.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2013 Kathy Lewinski

Summer and Fall 2010 in Review

Today we continue our look back in A Good Appetite's year in food 2010....
Click the links to read more & for recipes.

JULY
We hosted a barbecue we called Smokapalooza where we made Smoked Pulled Pork, Homemade Smoked Sausage, Baked Beans & Maple Bacon Ice Cream.

Later in the month we ate our way through Seattle. Some favorite places were Restaurant Zoë, Citizen Coffee & the food truck Skillet.


AUGUST
We headed out to LoveTree Farm in Wisconsin to visit their sheep & eat some wood-fired pizza.

The rest of the month was all about figs thanks to the CA Fig Advisory Board who sent us over 18 dozen fresh figs & 8 pounds of dried! We made Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Figs, Honey Fig & Pistachio Ice Cream, Pork Tenderloin with Fig Sauce, Fig Pizza, Flying Fig Cocktail, Fig Rickeys, Figgy (Bread) Pudding, Figgy Mac & Cheese & my favorite, Fig Jalapeno Jam (this has been a huge favorite over brie for the holidays).


SEPTEMBER
September found us in Holland & Belgium. Of course, food was a big part of our trip. We ate Indonesian Rijsttafe, Belgium Waffles, Frites, Mussels, Toasties, Apple Cake, lots of good cheese & lots of good beer! Next time we need to get some herring.

We got back in time for our second Tour de Farm. This time at the Oliver Kelly Farm, a working 1860's farm. The chefs were Scott Pampuch and Mike Phillips so of course the menu was all about pig!


OCTOBER
The weather stayed unusually warm here in October so we were still out on the patio grilling. We given a Big Easy Oil-less Turkey Fryer from Char Broil to experiment with which was a big success for both chickens & turkey.

We were also part of the Great HalloTweet. Our dishes included Pumpkin Guts, Chai Spiced Pumpkin Cake & Easy Pumpkin Turnovers.


NOVEMBER
We were chosen as one of the 25 competitors in Iron Foodie. Our Sweet & Spicy Spare Ribs didn't win but we certainly enjoyed eating them!

On our way to Michigan for Thanksgiving, we spent the night in Chicago & ate at Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill something MAtt has dreamed of for awhile. It was fabulous!


DECEMBER
The year wrapped up with the opening of a much needed new pizza restaurant in our neighborhood, Pizzeria Lola. We instantly fell in love with their wood-fire grilled pizzas & even tried to make our own version of their breakfast pizza.

There was also time for one more pork filled dinner with Scott Pampuch & Mike Phillips serving us the whole hog at The Local. Making it even better was the beer pairings from Rush River Beer.

Here's to a Healthy, Happy & Tasty New Year!

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

Winter and Spring 2010 in Review

This is the time of year where we find ourselves looking back at the last 12 months to see what we've experienced & learned before we head to a fresh new year. We thought we'd take a walk through some of our favorite food remembrances of 2010. Click the links to read full posts & get recipes.

JANUARY
We invited Cooking MN over to try our hands at making tamales. We also learned to make Pamonhas de Norte, a sweet Brazilian tamale.

We cooked a lot of good food that month but a favorite had to be this Miso Glazed Salmon.


FEBRUARY
We fulfilled one of our cooking resolutions & made Duck Confit. We used the method from Ad Hoc at Home & then turned it into a Pizza & a Warm Lentil Salad.

We celebrated the Olympics with an opening ceremonies party where guest brought food from around the world. We made Piragi from Latvia & Potato-Stuff Parathas from India.


MARCH
We discovered that chai makes a pretty amazing brine for chicken & a lot of you agreed.

We also entered the Eating YOur Words contest with our homemade Polish Sausage.


APRIL
We grilled a chicken under a brick & there was a little controversy about whether or not we were ruining it that way. Our results were fantastic & we heard of few of you had the same juicy results.

Later in the month we made little piggies of ourselves at a Pork Belly Class at Corner Table with Scott Pampuch. We even discovered we liked salad with pig's tongue.


MAY
We ate our way through New Orleans for our birthdays in May visiting John Besh & Emeril restaurants.

I made my first ever cheese soufflé & figured out how to make it just for one.


JUNE
We started the canning season with our first try at mustard. We made two versions, Garlic Scape and Champagne Thyme.

The end of June saw us at our first Tour de Farm. What a wonderful day enjoying fresh farm meats & produce, cooked without electricity, in a beautiful setting.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski