Shared thoughts, inspirations and recipes of a food lover
Full disclosure: I’m a tiny bit obsessed with food. Growing , cooking, savoring, admiring, and sharing it all gives me such pleasure and cleaning up afterward is less of a joy, but lacking staff I make the best of it!
Food brings a rhythmic order to our days. The shared connections over breakfast, a quick coffee break, to a grand dinner- they all provide the opportunity to stop, relax, talk and engage. All things we might not do otherwise. I don’t mean a TV dinner, I mean at a table, with conversation and eye contact!
At its most basic, we must eat to sustain and maintain our health. I have seen firsthand, as a primary teacher, how nutrition, or lack of it, plays a huge role in successful learning, concentration and relationships. The correlation between what is in a lunch bag and how that student functions is very obvious in most cases.
If food sustains our bodies, does it sustain our souls as well? I think the nurturing act of preparing food for others “feeds” me and enhances my relationships and experiences. For me it is an act of love. To sit back and gaze around a crowded, candlelit dinner table filled with special friends or family, satisfies me at my core and fills me with a sense of well-being.
How important is the bond between a mother of any species and their young as they anxiously wait to be fed? Any parent who has fed an infant cannot help but be touched by that all encompassing feeling of connection, and mutual adoration. Food is love as far as tiny infants are concerned!
If food is a tangible way to express caring, then surely the recipe that comes to mind for me is my grandmother’s “Lemon Snow”. An airy, custardy, soufflé -like concoction, it has always been comfort food at its finest. Over the years, my mother made this many times – to console a flagging appetite, a broken heart or a weary soul. I have made it often now to comfort her as she no longer cooks. Together mom and I share a bowl knowing that it is a symbol of love and comfort.
Give it a try if you love lemons like I do. I hope you will enjoy sharing it with someone – if only so you aren’t tempted to eat it all yourself!
Lemon Snow
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease an 8” soufflé or casserole (deep enough to allow for the sponge to rise).
Ingredients
- ¼ cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of white sugar
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 3 eggs, separated
- ¼ cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice from 2 small lemons (don’t even think about using the stuff from a bottle- just don’t!)
- 1 ½ cups of milk
- Grated zest from one large lemon or two small – about 1 tbsp.
Directions
- Blend flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
- Beat 3 egg whites till stiff peaks form.
- In a separate bowl beat egg yolks, milk, juice and zest.
- Add wet ingredients to dry and stir and then carefully fold in the beaten egg whites, just till blended. Don’t over stir or all the air incorporated in the egg whites will be lost.
- Pour into a greased 8” soufflé dish and set in a preheated oven. Close the oven door and set timer for 30 to 40 minutes. 30 minutes gives it a light sponge on top with lots of sauce (mmmmmmmm), and 40 gives it a fluffier sponge with a creamy bottom. Your choice! Enjoy a little bit of love!
