What I have learned so far about Weight Watchers...

Lesson 1: You can still eat rich foods, you just have to eat less of them, less often. 


It's a good thing that you don't have to cut out anything entirely when you are on Weight Watchers (WW), because I was sitting on 3 and a half cups of the most delicious duck stock you ever tasted and about 1/2 cup of duckfat too.  Both came to me by way of the ethically-raised Tangletown Farm (Middlesex, VT) duck my friend Ben brought by a couple years ago.  I finally pulled it out of the freezer to make us some confit with duckfat-braised parsnips, brussel sprouts, potatoes, and garlic cloves when he visited several Sundays ago. That left me with plenty of rendered fat. Afterward, I simmered the carcass into stock with the heads of leeks, a few chunked up un-peeled carrots, and onions.

Armed with that duckfat and rich stock as well as a bag of chicken livers from my friends at Scout's Honor, I set out to challenge the WW system with the kind of meal I seem often to have occasion for and probably could not live without: a proper feast.  

The occasion was the retirement dinner for my former boss Denise.  Those of you who have read my post "Bill's 89th Birthday Fiesta" know that Denise and her husband Tom are deeply skilled in the culinary arts.  Some of the best feasting I have done anywhere has been at their table.  For this dinner, I wanted to go big. I knew there would be wine flowing and grappa too.  So, could I create dishes worthy of the occasion, enjoy the wine and spirits, and stay under my WW points?  

Here's the menu:

Champlain Farms Triple Creme cheese with home-made pear jelly from one of Joslyn's co-workers.  Only two per person trying to stay under WW points.  The people at Champlain Farms aren't kidding around when they say its triple the creme!  So hard to eat just two...I knew I needed to save points for the decadent duck and liver fare to come. 

First was the red-wine, duckfat sauteed leek and cippollini onion, garlic and sage risotto cooked with the duck stock from the picture above.  If you read my first post on WW, you can probably guess that the points are starting to add up with the ingredients in this dish.  Yet its intensity and diversity of flavors lent itself well to being slowly and satisfyingly savored (more about that in lesson two) in a smaller portion.

This sage-fried chicken-liver olive-oil crust tart came next and offered little slices of heaven (WW emphasis on the "little"--my slice was roughly a 1/10 of the tart).  I dredged the livers in a bit of flour mixed with dried sage and fried them lightly in a mix of safflower and olive oil, removing them while they were still rare in the middle. Then I baked them off in the tart shell at 350 for 35-40 minutes with eggs and cheese.  The tart crust recipe--a real keeper--is made with olive oil instead of butter and comes from the Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook by Jack Bishop. The overall concept for the liver, egg, and cheese tart came from viewing a photo of a similar version that the "Offal Chef" posted here.  Eggs, romano cheese, white flour for the crust, 1/3 cup olive oil also for the crust, and fried chicken liver also coated in flour--the WW points keep adding up relentlessly... 

...That's why dessert was mostly fruit.  Honkin' slices of sweet pineapple topped with orange and kiwi slices that we garnished with shredded mint and spearmint before serving.  Ok, there was some vanilla frozen yogurt with pureed mango in there too.  But for the most part a low points dessert.

Still, there were a couple of glasses of wine consumed over the meal's course (4 points each) and prosecco before that (6 points) and grappa afterwards (I forget how many points).  Add all those together and I was well over the 39 points I get per day and all out of the 49 weekly "bonus" points I had held in reserve all week in anticipation of a Saturday feast.  I had even cashed in the day's "Activity Points" I earned on a roughly 5-mile walk up and down hills.  Yet, I was still slightly under my budget...

...until they put the free pizza slices on the bar at the concert later that night.

Stay tuned for Lesson 2 on eating slowly, savoring food, and the fantastically low point value of raw oysters.