I recently had my cousins over for dinner, and out of consideration for his wife’s failing kidneys, I made sure the food was low sodium, low potassium, low phosphorous and high protein.
This is what you get when you age. Body parts start breaking down.
It happens to almost all of us, so it’s smart to adjust our lifestyle appropriately. As the saying goes: “It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” My ‘candle’ just happened to come in the form of a truly yummy apple and cream cheese torte for dessert. It met all my cousin’s dietary requirements and everyone loved it! My parents always taught me to share, so that’s what I’ll do now. The recipe comes from Northwest Kidney Centers.
Apple Cream Cheese Torte
Ingredients:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup sugar, divided into ¼ cups
- 1 cup flour
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon. vanilla extract
- 1 to 2 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 450F
- In a medium bowl, cream butter and ¼ cup of sugar
- Blend in flour
- Press that mixture into a springform pan
- Beat cream cheese, ¼ cup of sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth
- Spread this filling into the springform pan
- Toss peeled, sliced apples with remaining ¼ cup of sugar and cinnamon.
- Arrange apples over cheese filling and bake for 10 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 400 degrees F and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes until filling is firm and the apples have softened.
I guarantee this dessert will impress your guests and keep your kidney-challenged friends and family happy. My father, may he rest in peace, also had renal failure, but his approach to life was different. He was of the belief that we’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time. So, he ate what he pleased despite his doctors’ orders to do otherwise. At age 83 he was going to go out swinging and eat whatever the heck he pleased. My dad was a realist; he knew his time was limited. So he wanted to enjoy what was left of it. And if that meant eating greasy hamburgers or mussels and fries, he was darn well going to eat them. No amount of pressure from his doctors was going to change his mind. Being a doctor himself, he knew all too well what was in store for him, but he chose to live life on his own terms.
Each of us makes our own mistakes, so I can’t fault my dad for wanting to indulge the one pleasure he had left: food. Let me correct that. He had two pleasures left: hanging out with me and my sister, and eating his favorite foods. When life is winding down, it makes sense that we’d want to squeeze as much joy out of it as possible. Life gave my dad lemons, so he made lemonade. With a side of fries.
Shelley Civkin, the retired “Face of Richmond,” was a Librarian & Communications Officer at Richmond Public Library for nearly 30 years, and author of a weekly book review column for 17 years.
