Save your meal til after dessert — yes, AFTER dessert

I wasn’t really ins the mood for a holiday party. Well, actually, my mind was but my body wasn’t. In my mind, I could still fit into the teeny, tiny sparkly dress that holds a place of honor in the back of my closet. But my body knew the truth.

“Nothing fits!” I told my husband, Mark, who was dressed and ready to go.

“We’re late, Michelle. Just throw something on.”

I settled on a bright blue dress with a ruffle at the waist. The ruffle would serve as camouflage, allowing me to eat without sucking in.

And off we went to the annual TWM Holiday Party — a lovely soiree held at Bellecourt Manor in Belleville. My husband and I attend this event every year, and every year, I look forward to the pies.

Normally, I am not a pie person. But these pies are delicious. I noticed one of TWM’s founding fathers, Bill Moerchen, eating pie when we walked in the dining room.

A fisherman with a heart of gold, Bill knows the importance of dessert:

“You have to eat it now,” he said. “You never know when you’ll get your next one.”

I sipped my wine and nodded in agreement.

“My friend, Anna, eats her desert before her meal,” I told him. “She says the French do it that way.”

My wine wasn’t French. But, boy, was it good. We’re talking Cabernet, which pairs perfectly with chocolate. I headed for the dessert table and grabbed a slice of chocolate pecan pie.

“Do you mind if my husband and I share your table?” I asked a middle-aged woman I’d never met before. The room was crowded and she looked pleasant enough. I set down my pie and my wine and followed Mark to the buffet.

“I told my husband that you have to be at least 50,” the woman said, upon my return.

“I am,” I said. “At least 50.”

“Only a woman over 50 knows the importance of getting her wine and dessert before her meal,” she said, matter-of-factly.

Talk about your back handed compliments! This woman was my tribe.

Janice shares sentiment of going after dessert first

I soon discovered her name was Janice Eveker — and like me, she loved red wine and chocolate. She also loved talking about naïve young women who foolishly say no to dessert.

“When you’re young, you waste too much time dieting and worrying about stuff that doesn’t matter,” Janice said. “Life is too short. Go for the pie.”

If Janice is ever near death, she wants her husband to put chocolate syrup in her I.V.

In my life, I don’t think I have ever had a more compatible dinner companion. The next day, I friended Janice on Facebook and called my twin sister, Melanie, to tell her about my evening.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I went to the Blue Owl Restaurant?” Melanie asked. “I heard they had good pie so I ordered three pieces: One for my appetizer. One for my main course. And one for my dessert.”

She was only 46 at the time.

Janice would be proud.