1025

There is a lot of food in my life, in my family's life.

I don't eat much, purely because I don't have a great appetite, but I spend most of my days thinking about food or making it.  Baking, cooking, it's a recreation for me.  A girlfriend asked me how I didn't put on weight with all the cakes I make. The simple answer, I make them but I don't necessarily eat them.

When I make something new I share it with my family and my parents.  I will make some for my mum and dad to try and they do the same in return.  Mum and dad are amazing Indian cooks - creating delicious curries from scratch, roasting spices individually, crushing by hand and the results are amazing.  I, however, don't cook Indian, I mean why do I need to when I have delicious curries delivered to my door each time the  fancy takes my parents?

My lunch today was a delicious Middle Eastern flat pie from this book/blog.  Mum delivered my a little pile for the freezer and they are an amazing lunch ready in as along as they take to defrost in the microwave and slightly crisp in the oven.  I topped with salad and felt warm and cared for while eating it.

Food has always been an expression of love and caring for me, even if it's something as simple as making my husband's vegie toast just right.  I don't eat Vegemite and many years back had to be instructed in the special need to kind of scratch up the bread in the middle with not too much salty spread.  I do it for him because he's special to me.

One of our loved ones is facing a health battle and I want to play my part with food and all the love that I can muster into it.  When my brother was ill eating was such a challenge for him.  It wasn't just the pain but also the lack of appetite, all the time balanced against the need to keep up his strength, to have the energy to go on.  With another family member now facing an equally tough challenge, food is going to be even harder to manage.  I'm working on a list of protein rich foods/dishes that are very gentle to eat, tasty and probably most important of all, tempting.  I want to look into eastern dishes that may fit the bill, things I'm not too familiar with, dishes like congee and silken tofu.  I'd love to hear if you have any recipes or ideas you could share, or even a book you could recommend.

So I'll cook, I'll package up small portions of foods I hope will tempt him to eat. Rich beef broth from roasted bones long made into a stock, small portions of cauliflower cheese, homemade chicken noodle soup with super soft vermicelli noodles.  I'll make mini panacottas, baked custards and jelly with poached fruits and hope he has the courage to try and in turn, to hopefully enjoy and have a moment's pleasure in an otherwise challenging day.

Food is love, so I intend to cook, a lot.