“Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.” —King Solomon
We tend our vegetable gardens by weeding, watering and feeding them with the best fertilizers we can buy. We lament when the pesky gophers pull our bush beans down their hole while vowing to rid your garden of this varmint.
We watch cooking shows on TV, buy cooking magazines, and then rush to the market to buy the ingredients for the new recipe we have chosen for that Thanksgiving meal. And when we have found that perfect recipe, we invite friends or family to share this wonderful, prepared dish, basking in their ohhs and ahhs, and when the door finally closes behind your guests, you happily set your table and kitchen back in order.
You fill your family dog’s bowl with leftovers, and ready yourself for bed filled with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. You have fed your body well, and another Thanksgiving dinner is now over. While watching a little bit of the evening news, you look at the line of people holding their plates out to the volunteers serving food at the Salvation Army Hall. Shaking your head, you shut off your TV and climb into bed and fall asleep. Or do you fall asleep?
Has the evening TV news left you troubled? Is it perchance you have forgotten to feed your soul as well as your body over this last busy week?
Food for the body is easy. We go to work to earn money, we go to the store to buy food, come home, cook the food and eat it. Simple as that. However, food for the soul, that’s a different and more complex matter.
You may be thinking, “OMG, we are going to be held captive here in this column and will have to read a religious sermon.” Not true, however, there are good reasons to think about food for the soul.
Now, please understand, I am not a religious zealot, but when I see the arms of children, men and women alike, reaching for the free food and gifts being donated during the holidays… well, going to bed and falling asleep doesn’t happen easily for me.
I have a friend, let’s call her Lucy. Lucy was unhappy with her job; she quit her job and is still unhappy. Lucy and her husband have plenty of money and travel extensively. Returning to her beautiful home from a trip abroad, Lucy is still unhappy. Lucy visits her grandchildren. But Lucy is still restless and unhappy, and until Lucy begins feeding her soul, I believe she will remain unhappy for the rest of her life.
As children in catechism classes, we were taught the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy… feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the prisoners, bury the dead and give alms to the poor.
How simple food for the soul can be… a gift of a smile or a warm coat for the poor, cooking a meal and taking it to a family in distress, or volunteering some of your time at any one of hundreds of charitable organizations.
I know about feeding one’s soul, for when my Hubby passed, I forced myself to fill every waking hour by thinking of someone other than my own sad self, and believe me as I tell you this, this has been my salvation.
In my circle of friends here in this beautiful valley, each Corporal Works of Mercy are practiced by one of them; how blessed I am to have friends such as these.
Being on the receiving end of a friend’s selfless gifts of a phone call, a card in the mail, a visit, and a huge butterfly tied to my mailbox, which lifted my spirits immensely and reinforced my belief and taught me this… “Feed your Soul, Colly, the rewards will be endless!”
While picking sweet potatoes from the seemingly endless pile next to an equally sized pile of yams, a lovely white-haired woman excused herself, asking me what the difference was between the two piles of potatoes. I smiled, as almost every holiday I get asked that same question.
Carefully, I explained there is a huge difference between the two and no, they are not the same; they are different in color, texture, taste and nutritional value.
Yams are red in color, with a watery and mushier texture and sweeter as well.
Sweet potatoes are very pale in color, almost like cream, and have a dryer texture and are less sweet than yams. My preference are the sweet potatoes that I use in the recipe that follows.
Sweet Potatoes Casserole
Serves 6-8
• 4 nine-in long Sweet Potatoes
In a large pot, cover potatoes with cold water, bring to a boil and turn down to a gentle rolling boil. Cook for about 30 minutes or until somewhat firm. Remove from pot and cool. Peel and cut into 2-inch rounds.
Arrange cut potato rounds standing on their edge in a 9”x12” buttered casserole dish. Salt and pepper potatoes and set aside.
In a 1-quart saucepan melt:
• 1 stick of butter with
• 2 Tbsps. white Karo syrup
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar (do not pack)
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 Tbsp. orange zest
• 2 Tbsps. Brandy
Bring mixture to a high simmer and turn off heat. This will be grainy in appearance.
• 1 Cup of drained Pineapple Tidbits
• 2/3 Cup of Pecan Halves
In the casserole of potatoes, put the pineapple tidbits and pecan halves between each round of potatoes.
Pour the butter/sugar mixture over the sweet potato/pineapple and pecans. Cover dish with foil.
Bake at 400 deg. for 30 min. Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer.
Colly Gruczelak, a Ben Lomond resident, loves people and loves to cook. Contact her at cz****@co*****.net .
