My week: Singing at a music camp for adults. When not singing, we are eating and wine-tasting. The setting is Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, home of dense, nuanced wines, which flow each evening at the "Fermata Bar" on the campus lawn. Buffet meals in the college cafeteria, and the food is good (really). What to do when faced with lots of easy-to-eat calories? In general, potlucks, parties and buffets can be especially treacherous for people who love food but want to cut back. So many new things to try, and so many that didn’t require any work on my part. Parties and buffets make food way too easy to eat. Nothing--not even preparation time--stands between my mouth and the food except some good strategizing. Remembering that my stomach is only as big as my fist, I have to be picky about what goes down the hatch. Here are some of my favorite strategies: Only a spoonful. If I don't know I'll really like something, I take as little as a teaspoonful o...
I began this blog when my mother was ill and needed enough of my attention that I could not concentrate on longer-form works I wanted to write. I set those aside to distract myself with cookie-making and this blog. Please find my new blog (2020) entitled "Time NOT Lost" at karenbrattesani.blogspot.com, where I explore the behavior I see around me -- both my own and that of others -- and what it says about our changing culture during the coronavirus pandemic. And, I hope, beyond.