Seasonal scones -- lightened up

More comfort food made healthier: pumpkin scones.

I love the scones at the Cake Rack at Findlay Market, and none more than their (only once in awhile) pumpkin scones. But their version is a once in awhile treat. How nice to be able to have this lighter take on them, and perhaps eat them for breakfast every day. More good news: they freeze well, so you can put half the batch away for later enjoyment.

Whole-wheat flour, lowfat buttermilk and a judicious amount of butter makes this a healthy-foodie style scone.

Recipe: Pumpkin-Ginger Scones

(Makes 12)

Ingredients:

1 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup regular flour

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 T cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not seasoned)

1/4 cup lowfat buttermilk

2 T maple syrup

1/2 cup chopped candied ginger

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sift together the first five ingredients, through baking soda. Place in the bowl of a food processor, add butter, and pulse a few times until mixture is the consistency of coarse cornmeal.

In a separate bowl, beat the pumpkin, buttermilk, and maple syrup. Scrape into the food processor with the dry ingredients. Add candied ginger and process until the dough is mixed.

Scrape onto a lightly floured surface and shape the dough into a square about 3/4-inch thick.

Cut into triangles, 12 in all.

Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned.

Avoiding the (inevitable?) dreaded HOLIDAY WEIGHT GAIN

We're into the thick of it now -- and I can already feel the thickening around my middle, too. I sure don't want to wake up on January 1st with extra pounds, and so I try to look at the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve as a time to be as vigilant as possible about what goes into my mouth -- and of course the calories burned in exercise.

Here are eight proven strategies for avoiding packing on weight during the holidays.

1. EXERCISE more faithfully than ever. If you usually walk, run or work out three times a week, increase it to five. Or if your workout time is about 30 minutes minimum, up that to 45 minutes. How? Use your imagination. Park as far away from the mall entrance as possible and hoof it, and come back with your packages a couple of times at least. Take the stairs, no elevators. Hire a personal trainer. It can be done!

2. EAT FRUITS AND VEGGIES. Count up your servings and make sure you have at least 6-8 per day. This isn't hard either, just remember to have a couple of servings of fruit for breakfast daily and at least one kind of veggie at both lunch and dinner, and you're mostly there.

3. LIMIT YOUR TREATS. No way we're going to pass up all the special goodies that pass before us this time of year. But how about allowing yourself one treat a day? And keep it to one cookie, one piece of fudge, a small piece of pie, etc. -- not a binge.

4. DON'T GO PARTYING HUNGRY. Whether it's a house party or a night out clubbing/dining with your friends and family, eat something before you go. This is easy, too. Carry cereal bars in your purse or car, or a small baggie of mixed nuts. Those are somewhat filling and generally healthy, and will cut your appetite for the high-calorie stuff you'll encounter.

5. CHOOSE CAREFULLY AT THE BUFFET TABLE. Use a small plate, avoid anything that looks greasy, fried, or floating in mayo or cream. Go for those veggies. If it's a potluck, make your contribution a tasty but healthy vegetable dish or fruit salad, and eat lots of it yourself. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll post some of my favorite potluck recipes.

6. PLAN AHEAD TO AVOID TEMPTATION. Here I'm thinking about bringing treats to work and passing them around, or letting yourself eat everything anyone offers you. Pop a stick of sugarless gum in your mouth before you walk into your office, for instance, if you're pretty sure there'll be holiday goodies in there to tempt you. I am amazed at how well gum can make me uninterested in food, for a few minutes at least. Sometimes that's all it takes.

7. FOCUS ON THE PEOPLE YOU'RE WITH. Step away from the food and drink tables and chat up the folks around you.

8. JUST SAY NO, BUT NICELY. Learn to politely refuse extra helpings or more than you know you should eat. They'll get over it.

Cooking with leftover wine

Did you open too many bottles this weekend that didn't quite get finished? Were some of them brought by guests who didn't know how to select a decent wine? Rather than dump it down the drain, Food & Wine has some ideas for cooking with leftover Thanksgiving Weekend wine.
For instance, the recipe for Poached Salmon with Corn and White Wine-Butter Sauce can be a healthy foodie winner if you just substitute canola or olive oil for the butter, or at least for part of the butter.
You poach the salmon -- cook it very gently -- in a wine-infused broth. Corn, shallots and zucchini add to the health profile of this tasty dish. Click here for a link to the recipe.

Quick test of heart health

Whether you overdid it just a litle, a moderate amount, or a whole lot yesterday (Thanksgiving), your heart probably dealt with a heavier than usual load of saturated fat.

Here's a surprising (to me) way to test how well your cardio system is working: try to touch your toes.

A new study suggests that whether or not you can touch your toes (especially as you get older) might reveal something important about your heart, and about how stiff the arteries are that supply your heart's blood.

Somehow -- and researchers aren't sure about the reasons for the connection -- flexibility in your muscles also correlates with flexibility in your blood vessels.

For more details on why flexibility is so crucial to heart health, click here

Surviving Thanksgiving Day, Healthy Foodie Style

Next Thursday, millions of Americans will consume literally thousands of calories, overeating to the point of feeling ill. For those of us so blessed with material abundance, the meal on Thanksgiving is the holiday season's greatest health challenge. How to cope? Here are some healthy-foodie ideas for a Thanksgiving without guilt.

1. Eat a full breakfast and a light lunch. Don't "save up" for the big meal--you'll be famished, a perfect recipe for overindulgence.
2. Take a walk before dinner, weather permitting. Even if the weather isn't all that great, get off your duff for at least a half hour of exercise--more if at all possible. It can be before noon, while the turkey is in the oven, or during half-time if you're involved in watching football. Find the time!
3. Lay off the booze until dinner is served. Pre-dinner alcohol lowers your inhibitions and leads to useless extra calories, not just in the drinks themselves but also in snacks you'll likely add on.
4. Decide in advance whether and how much wine or other alcoholic beverages you will drink. Then pace yourself so you can stick within your pre-set limits.
5. Eat only your favorite dishes, and pass on the others. Pick only one out of these three: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and bread stuffing/dressing. Easy on the gravy, too!
6. Wait at least a half hour between dinner and dessert. If this requires a request to your hostess before the meal, go ahead and ask. If you have no influence over the timing, step away from the table and come back later. Make up an excuse if you need to. Waiting for dessert is crucial--your brain will have time to get the message from your full stomach, and you won't want as much dessert, or maybe not any.
7. Pick one dessert or very small portions of more than one.
8. Take a walk after dinner.

Remember, the fat-producing, health-sabotaging culprits in this meal are alcoholic drinks, gravy, sauces (such as that superfluous stuff people put on green beans at TG), toppings (I'm thinking of marshmallows on sweet potatoes, horrors) and desserts. Minimize those!

Take larger portions of turkey (especially the white meat), baked potatoes, roasted root vegetables, green veggies with as little sauce as possible, salads without mayonnaise, fruit salads, and just a little bit of cranberry sauce (too much sugar).

We have so much to be grateful for, including the amazing bounty that makes not eating too much such a concern. On Thanksgiving Day, let's appreciate the love in our lives, our family and friends, the pleasure of sharing this wonderful meal--and eat mindfully while we're at it.

Wine Guy Dining -- Not So Much

We ate a light dinner Saturday night at the new Wine Guy Wine Shop, Wine Bar and Bistro in Rookwood Commons, Hyde Park/Norwood. Based on this one visit and an earlier browse of the wine shop half of things, my initial impression is that the wine shop might be the best part of the operation.
While the place was being renovated and readied for opening, I had perused the posted wine and food menus, and frankly was rather underwhelmed, especially by the wine choices. While I was thrilled that someplace in Cincinnati finally was going to offer a selection of wine flights, so many of the offerings are rather boring, widely available and unadventurous choices. Click here to read the wine menu.
I ended up with a glass of the Firehouse Red from the red wine flight, something I hadn't drank before, and it was fine. But none of the flights did anything for me. That could just be me, but I predict that this is not going to be a destination for the area's wine cognoscenti, who'd be better off schlepping out to Milford to 20 Brix or checking in at Clifton's new La Poste, where even though our newspaper's dining critic was not wild about the food, sommelier Bryant Philips has made it an exciting wine venue.
Back to Wine Guy: my daughter's risotto of the day (top photo) was supposed to have chicken, mushrooms and several other ingredients but it was mostly rice. Her husband and I both ordered a nice-sounding Osso Bucco ravioli (tapas portion for me, second photo), and while it was tasty enough, it was overpriced IMHO.
The only house offering was a puny plate of a very few pita triangles with a mound of flavored butter -- any one of us could have polished off the plate, no problem. Although our server asked when our main food came if we wanted more pita, it was kind of too late for the bread to do our hunger much good.
The place is one very large and very noisy room, and it was hard to hear my companions across the table from me.
On the plus side, the wine shop is attractively designed and organized in a customer-friendly way, and I did notice a few interesting and unusual bottles here and there.
Time will tell whether they do well here; apparently, their Columbus area locations have been successful, and Hyde Park is probably their best bet in our area.

Curried Cauliflower and Squash

I made this for dinner, with brown rice and naan bread, the other night. We had plenty left over to go as a veggie side later in the week.
My husband said it was scrumptious!

Recipe: Curried Cauliflower and Butternut Squash Serves 4 as a main dish, 6-8 as a side
Ingredients:
3 T canola oil
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup sliced carrots
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets
2 cups cubed butternut squash, steamed or microwaved until not quite tender
2 T curry powder, or more to taste
1 cup water
1 14-ounce can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup bottled mango chutney
1/4 cup sliced nuts (preferably cashews, peanuts, or pumpkin seeds)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:
Heat oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium-high heat.
Add celery, carrots, garlic and onion and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes until veggies begin to soften. Add cauliflower and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, until cauliflower starts to brown just a little. Add squash and stir well.
Stir in curry powder, water and tomatoes. Cover the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 5 minutes, remove cover and test cauliflower for tenderness. When it's the way you like it -- not too soft -- stir in raisins, chutney and nuts.
Season with salt and pepper, and add a little cayenne pepper if you like more spiciness. You can also add more water if too much liquid has cooked out.
Serve as is, or over rice.