How do I feel about food? Well, I like it too much and it shows, alas.
Chicken, mango and sweet-potato red Thai curry: A wonderfully succulent mix of exotic spices and comforting coconut milk.
Goulash: As mother made it. I enjoy the soft beef and the strong flavours from the onions, herbs and the paprika.
Chicken livers in Marsala wine: A divine mixture of Jewish cuisine combined with a rich, sweet Italian wine.
Pasta Napolitana: I think the thick basic tomato sauce is always my favourite - rich, tasty and satisfying.
Lockshen pudding: I only encountered lockshen pudding as an adult and loved the mix of raisins, pasta and milk all spiced up with wonderful cinnamon. It's comforting and delicious.
Ann's unalloyed enjoyment of food and cooking for others has generated a wide and varied selection of dishes. Her choices also make good nutritional sense: vitamins and antioxidants are provided by mango and sweet potato in the chicken dish and tomatoes in the pasta sauce. Beef and chicken livers are rich sources of iron. Pasta in tomato sauce, and in lockshen pudding, supplies starchy carbohydrate which gives slowly released energy so that Ann is less prone to snack between meals. Pasta and raisins in the lokshen pudding and vegetables incorporated into other dishes are a good source of fibre. Ann also uses different herbs and spices which reduce the need for added salt in her cooking. In order to make her luscious-sounding dishes healthier by cutting their fat content, Ann could use reduced-fat coconut milk in the chicken curry, semi-skimmed milk in the lockshen pudding and reduced fat sour cream elsewhere when needed. To make a balanced meal, she should serve with vegetables.