LAFFlines #11: There’s no cream like snow cream
Rose is skeptical. But, if I’m going to have a vice, let it be eating snow cream.
You take the ladle from the dish rack. A blue cereal bowl from the cabinet. You slide open the back door with your pajama pants tucked into your boots. The cold wipes your face cleaner than it’s ever been. The low white air and high white ground makes it seem like there are two skies. The snow is so soft that you barely hear the crunch of your footfalls. You crouch near the deepest mound and dip your ladle in the fluff.
Back in the kitchen, you pour a few tablespoons of cashew milk over the snow. What starts as a drizzle of maple syrup becomes a shiny lake in which you can see your reflection. Just a little stir with your favorite spoon—a heavy long-handled one that doesn’t match the others.
Like a kiss, snow cream deserves to be eaten with your eyes closed. It’s so sweet and cold and skyward delicious that you hear bells.
Later, you wonder if it’s safe to eat snow. According to scientists interviewed by NPR, risks of snow eating are low depending on context (and common sense).
In other words—you decide while anointing another ladle of snow with maple syrup—safe enough for you. Abundantly so.
Pomegranate Salad with Polenta Croutons and Maple Lime Dressing
Everything you need except mixed greens, salt, and cooking spray (or olive oil).
This flavor-packed salad is a colorful, balanced meal with protein (LAFF), unsaturated fat (avocado), complex carbohydrates (polenta), and antioxidants (pomegranates, mixed greens). Yes, it’s straightforward to make. Yes, it’s customizable. And, yes, it’s got that X factor (the zest factor!) that’ll leave you satisfied and energized—mentally and physically—every time you eat it.
Full recipe on the LAFFlines blog. And here are the Cliffsnotes:
Blast away winter blues or midday morass.
Dice polenta from a tube into crouton-sized pieces. Scatter the diced polenta over a baking sheet; coat with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt; bake for 35-40 minutes at 415, stirring every 10 minutes. Meanwhile, remove the arils from one pomegranate; peel and cube one avocado; make the dressing by combining ⅓ cup lime juice, ¼ cup nutritional yeast, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, ¼-½ teaspoon ancho chili powder, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon water, ¼-½ teaspoon ancho chili powder, ⅛-¼ teaspoon salt in a small blender. When the croutons are done, assemble the salad: 4-6 cups of mixed greens + 1 cup LAFF protein crumbles + the arils, avocado, polenta croutons, and dressing.
LAFF at Eastern Divide
Eastern Divide Brewery (open Wednesdays-Sundays) is offering LAFF protein crumbles as an add-on to salads and their vegan protein bowl, which, by the way, has a fabulous roasted carrot vinaigrette. Eastern Divide has a limited amount of LAFF this week but plans to offer more when the Virginia Tech students are back in town for the spring semester (starting Jan. 21).
LAFF available online and at Eats
Delivery of online orders is free in the New River Valley. If you’re concerned about the logistics of delivery, email me at hello@laffkitchen.com. We’ll figure out a pick-up or drop-off that works for you.
Win an 8 oz package of LAFF
For every 32 oz package of LAFF you order in January, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a free 8 oz package of LAFF. The 32 oz packages have 14 servings (each with 22 grams of protein!) and are freezer safe. They’re a better deal for you AND, with the reduced packaging, the planet.
Final Note
The inspiration for the snow cream came from the poem “You Can’t Have It All” by Barbara Ras. Ras starts, “But you can have the fig tree…” and then lists bits and pieces of daily life…daily life that is inherently limited by our mortality but extraordinary through our opportunities to notice delights. For example, “you can have…the soulful look of the black dog, the look that says, If I could I would bite every sorrow until it fled…You can have your grandfather sitting on the side of your bed, at least for a while, you can have clouds and letters, the leaping of distances, and Indian food with yellow sauce like sunrise.”
To me, the poem is an invitation to savor what we do have. Ras writes, “and when it is August, you can have it August and abundantly so.” This morning I had January and abundantly s(n)o(w).
Cheers,
Abby