Breakdown (Slight Return)

Lawrence Toppman

Once a year, a friend named Katya Lezin throws a dessert party, filling her dining room and kitchen with handmade goodies that would make a supermodel behave like the winner of a pie-eating contest. And, as anyone who reads our South Mecklenburg News section might know, she's recovering from cancer this year and has reason to celebrate. (All signs are positive, I'm told.)

Now, how was I gonna NOT attend that fat-inducing function?

I ate lightly during the day. That had a positive effect, because I ingested fewer calories, and a negative effect: It's always a bad idea to be hungry when you creep toward a table laden with desserts.

Final tally: One mint chocolate grasshopper brownie. Two bites each of apricot cheesecake, bundt cake and pear/walnut tart. Two cookies of small to medium girth. And -- in a moment I'm still regretting -- I refused to take a dessert plate home! (Katya, if you read this: Send something via Tupperware.)

So I got through the year's biggest temptation with minimal damage. Thanksgiving and Christmas loom but now hold no terrors for Mr. Moderation.