I can say from my italian background that cooking is in my blood. At home i cook the meals and i usually have friends at home for dinner. For this reason a friend asked me to make videos with some family repices and i started with the “ragu” which is a tomato and meat sauce from my grandmother’s region in the south of italy. Making this video was a pleasure and made me remember what is so amazing about family cooking. About going to granny’s house on sundays with all the family to eat and chat and have fun. About playing in the garden with the dog and messing with the plants trying to find a four-leaf clover and bugs to capture. After the meal the old folks would tell jokes and the young kids would play until time to go home. It’s amazing how great moments are related to food. Not fast food for sure but food that creates rituals. Food that goes on the table for a big group to enjoy. Family cooking. I really miss that since i’m not a kid and i don’t have a grandmother anymore. My hope now is to be able to renew these rituals when i’m older and maybe my gradsons will remember and cherish this idea. Until then i’m cooking for my friends and i’m thinking about putting a blog about family food together. I’ll start with my “ragu” and it will be open for other recipes. I hope you all like it and participate. Maybe that will make us remember more vividly the good old days.
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I just made ragu tonight. It is a ritual in my home and has been since Ezra was 1 or 2 years old (about 3 years). So badly though I want to think of a version of it that is as satisfying to make and eat that is vegitarian or vegan. I have tried meatless hamburg. That actually is a pretty good substitute. You still get to brown the “meat”.
Okay, when I said “ragu” here I meant I browned some hamburg and added it to a jar of store bought speghetti sauce. I have not tried your recipe yet. Some one please remind me to when I have some money in June.
Tonight as a side with that we had mushrooms sauted in butter from a local Vermont company (Cabot; which is awesome …they also make cheese and they have a history here) and salt and pepper and fiddle heads that Ezra and I picked our selves yesterday and today when we were on out bike ride. My left pocket of my sweat pants was full of the fiddle heads today.
Our neighbor Sandy ate with us. She is 53 years old so I think that incorporates the eating, chatting and having fun aspect that you were touching on. (Sitting down at a big table). I am blessed enough to have the family dining table that I grew up with. Some day when (if) I am rich than I will have it all sanded down and refinished. It needs it.
My post above says that it was written at 10:08pm. It must be 10:08pm your time, because it is only 8:08 pm here.
You are so right about the importance of food, Giula (sp?) —
I’ve always felt that there would be much more peace in the world if no meeting (negotiation/conference/session) were allowed to take place without eating together as the opening part.
Yes…lol… SP would be São Paulo, Brasil! I would really be lovely if food was part of important decisions… My father had an old saying. “To consider someone your real friend you must eat a hundred pounds of salt with him”
I’ll look forward to your food blog.
Thanks Simone!!! I hope you can post a recipe there!!!
It was ragu at your grandma’s; biscuits at mine. I once wrote an essay, “I Am My Own Grandma,” about taking biscuits out of the oven and feeling bad that they “didn’t look like Grandma Sunderland’s.” My sister laughed and said, “You’re Grandma Sunderland!!” – I kept my family name when I married and I was the first of my siblings to have a grandchild. And so, yes, I’m Grandma Sunderland and I cook and tell stories when my kids come home to eat. I think meals and stories at Grandma’s House are pretty universal.The only thing that changes is the menu. We hunted lightening bugs.
Sooo cool… Lightening bugs!!! We didn’t have that on granny’s house. It’s a more urban area and there are no lightening bugs there… I would be amazing! I hope you post a recipe from your family in the blog… When i release it i’ll tell you the adress… Thanks grandma Sunderland!!! 🙂
Hello, I finally came over and read some of your postings, Very good!
Thank you for liking mine so often! I appreciate the attention!
and…love ragu! Keep up the great journey into your mind, life, and kitchen.
Tilly
Thank you!!! You have a great blog!!! I hope you can post a recipe in the food blog!!!
What I loved that my mother used to make was cheese quesidillas with a dollop of sour cream on top and she would only make them in the summer. They were so simple and plain and beautifully delicious in that way.
A blog about family food sounds neat – for me, I grew up eating certain dishes at my grandparents on the holidays, one of them being cornbread stuffing at Thanksgiving. I got the recipe from my aunt who made it, and now I make it every Thanksgiving…it brings back such memories!
Well… It will be amazing if you post that recipe in the food blog!!! I’ll share the adress when it starts…
I want to eat your cooking food. and I’m looking forward to reading food blog.
Thanks my friend… But remember the idea of the blog is that it will not be just mine… I hope you can post a recipe of your own in there…
I must admit to being very jealous of that talent, sir! If it doesn’t fall out of a can or can’t be microwaved, I can’t cook it! 🙂
Well… i really believe it’s a matter of joy. If you dig cooking there’s no way you’ll not cook. Usually people that doesn’t know how to cook don’t enjoy it either. If that’s the case you are fine not cooking : ) … Just get married to someone that cooks !!!! lol
Hi, Giuliano! Gasp – I want to see the video, I’m hungry! Have you posted it yet? This post and some of the comments bring home a truth that I’ve come to appreciate so much more in recent years… sharing a meal, a drink, relaxed conversation with friends… is like a dream. Such a wonderful way to bond with others. It sounds like you have some wonderful memories around that… And “Grandma Sunderland”s comment reminded me of my great aunts: biscuits, fig preservs, and chicken’n’dumplin’s!
What a delightful post!
Wow…i got hungry…lol… Food always make the best bonds. I will tell you when the blog is ready and i hope you can post one recipe!! Thank you my Friend!!!
My grandmother had a huge garden and cooked a lot. The smell of corn makes me think of her. I hate to cook though.
I hope you do at least on recipe for my blog!!!
Mmm, corn pudding. That is one that I want to try.
I had a French aunt, [sadly taken from us too soon] and she taught me the art of making mealtimes into something more than just eating. Now, we make an event out of it and can sit anywhere from 3-5 hours at the table, eating, drinking and just chatting amongst ourselves. Its one of the few enjoyments these days. English people dont really “enjoy” meals, they are just a time to eat, then go and do something else. Maybe dinner parties, held in the evenings are different, but it also explains why we have so many fast food outlets now in the UK?
The food blog sounds a good idea, go for it.
I think it was really awesome that you had a French aunt. I really enjoy this ritual. It’s som important. Unlucky for people in UK that are eating fast food!!! It’s great that you are not. I hope to have a recipe from your family in the blog….
‘It’s amazing how great moments are related to food’ – so very true.
When doe the food blog start? 🙂
As soon as i finish my first post this weekend!!! : )
I am looking forward to it.
SIGHH.. I love ragu! Unfortunately I became vegetarian at the beginning of the year. I miss ragu. You made me want ragu! Damn you.
Ailis, I will make it first and then I have a recipe that I think you can try. It is called Mediterranean Stew.
Please don’t be upset!!! People become vegetarian by choice!!! lol… Looks to me you are not really vegetarian!!!
I was joking about being upset, lol.
Yeah I made the choice to be vegetarian as my new years resolution and it is the only one I have ever stuck too. I wanted to do it for years but loved the taste of meat too much. I occassionally miss it but there are plenty of tasty alternatives…I am not really against meat eating, more against the industrialisation of meat production- I just won’t buy into it. It’s not good for us, the environment or the animals being mass-farmed.
But if I catch my own fish, I will eat them no problem!
I was on the phone with my sons’ aunt who lives in MA who was raised in Miane, USA (she does a lot of cooking) if she knows what a ragu is and she said “Of coarse. It is just a meat sauce”.
sounds delish….i love mediterranean food! i always think it tastes like summer.
Actually, I kind of know what Ailis means. I am a vegitarian. I was in college and then for years, so from 1997-2003. I ate fish, cheese and dairy and I did great, but when I had kids my midwife told me that I would have to feed them how my father fed me to keep them healthy. That is what I have been doing since 2004. That is why I am still 210 pounds. I should be 110. I have been eating meat with Ezra for so long that I forget what it is like not to eat meat. I know that I prefer it. (My thinking mind prefers it) but I do not dare to feed Ezra vegitarian. I think that he needs the protein. He is a growing boy. I can not afford to prepare two meals on social security income. Mothers easily make sacrifices for their children.
that they do…i remember my mother rarely gave herself a portion as substantial as she would give us, growing up. Even now she tries to give the food on her plate to you!
Oh, no. I hope that I do not get like that. I often just eat what Ezra does not eat rather than making my own meal. The health food store behind my apartment building sells some meat from animals that were raised free range.
Chocolate/ Mexico recipe?