You were great, but it’s time to go!
Photo courtesy iGourmet.com.

Good as they were, do you want to consume those calories?

Our solution: Bring the Easter candy to your workplace, school or anywhere else you hang out. Share the wealth: People will appreciate your largesse, and you’ll save thousands of calories.

You can leave the goodies next to the coffee machine, distribute them to colleagues or set them in a common place (the reception desk or lunch room?).

You’ll feel good that you didn’t succumb to polishing it off, had fun passing the candy along and that you made others happy.

If you’re a skinny chocoholic you can ignore this tip.

It made us think about why nobody serves mousse anymore. It’s only found on the menus of old-style French and Continental restaurants, and there are fewer and fewer of those around.

People who used to make mousse (which uses heavy cream) switched to lighter desserts in the 1990s, when warnings to reduce saturated fats became widespread.

It was nice to have this old mainstay for dessert. Consider making it for the next special occasion. Most people can enjoy a small portion—say in a juice glass, and not a jumbo martini glass.

And after the seven courses, the mousse went down as easily as ice cream.

• See the history of chocolate mousse and Julia Child’s recipe for chocolate mousse, plus numerous optional garnishes courtesy of THE NIBBLE.
• Find more mousse and pudding recipes in our Desserts Section.

Enjoy mousse in small portions. Here,
four-ounce juice glasses are used. Photo by
Pink Candy | Dreamstime.

Start dinner with a tomato juice cocktail,
a.k.a. Virgin Mary. Photo by Marlena
Zagajewski | Dreamstime.

Earlier this year we wrote about juice “cocktails,” and how the custom of starting lunch or dinner with a glass of tomato juice had disappeared. On restaurant menus, tomato juice would be listed with the appetizers.

A tomato juice cocktail is simply tomato juice seasoned with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Some cooks would get more creative, adding cumin, dill, onion powder and other seasonings. Some even added chili powder, which, when traded for hot pepper sauce, makes the tomato juice cocktail a Virgin Mary. Some traded lemon juice for lime juice.

Think about reviving the appetizer custom new-style, as a Virgin Mary seasoned just the way you like it. Tomato juice is low-calorie, nutritious and filling; Virgin Marys are one of our favorite diet foods.

The Tomato Juice Brand Makes A Difference

Growing up, our mother, an impeccable palate, served only Sacramento tomato juice. But the juice category has evolved so much since then.

• Read the January post with tips on how to garnish and serve a tomato juice cocktail.
• See review of our favorite juices.

Even among people who appear to be healthy, gluten intolerance is common. Studies indicate that 1 in 167 children (0.6%) and 1 in 111 adults (0.9%) have a gluten allergy—a much more mild condition than celiac disease.

We’re not writing a health column. We just want to tell you about gluten-free cookies, cakes and other traditionally wheat-based products that are so good, we can’t believe we ate the whole thing! But eating is believing, and people who can eat wheat to their heart’s content will love these gluten-free products, too.

If you have friends, family or co-workers who can’t eat gluten, you can bake or buy some terrific cookies or cakes (and pancakes and cornbread and more) and get showered with a whole lot of thanks.

So get clicking and learn about:

• Doodles Organic & gluten-Free Cookie Mixes
• Lucy’s Gluten-Free Cookies (kosher)

Terrific chocolate chip cookies from Doodles.
Photo by Jerry Deutsch | THE NIBBLE.

• Pamela’s Gluten-Free Products: brownie, cake mixes, cornbread and pancakes mixes; ready-to-eat cookies and cheesecake (regular and organic); and more.
• Gluten intolerance. Do you know someone who has it?

Find more of our favorite gluten-free goods.

Well, not really, but it’s a fun concept for Easter cocktails.

FOR KIDS: Serve a Peter Cottontail Cocktail, carrot juice with a squeeze of lime in festive glasses. Garnish with fruit—a strawberry on the rim, for example.

FOR ADULTS: Serve an Easter Mary. Substitute carrot juice for the tomato juice in your favorite Bloody Mary recipe.

If you like, start with a carrot juice tasting:

Buy several different brands of carrot juice, set them out small paper drinking cups or shot glasses and let guests vote on which tastes best to them. It’s an engaging activity as guests begin to arrive.

Find more Easter and spring cocktail ideas in our Cocktails Section.