I am the voice of a "modern day mammarella."
By this I mean: I am like your old Italian Grandma, except I'm not old, and I'm not a grandma.....
hmm.....?
BUT - I am loving, I give good, long hugs, I love to feed you, and I probably always think you look too skinny. I have been known to give the occasional beating with a wooden spoon (one constantly hangs on my kitchen as a threat to the bambini).
I like wine. I'll always welcome a paisan to stay for dinner. I can be found in the kitchen often - not because I am a gourmet chef, but because I take pride in feeding my husband and five children (not so prideful when it comes to cleaning up after them, though).
In our family, every holiday is an enormous production as we cook for days and days. Why? Because I love good food, even if I am sometimes too busy to serve a gourmet spread. Still, I love the chaos of the never ending laundry and the sound of a 4 year old trying to sing "That's Amore" as we roll up the meatballs on Sunday morning.....
Sound a little more familiar now? If you grew up Italian, or grew up around Italians, then you know what I'm talking about. That is the real Amore.
The tastes, the smells, the feasts....I guess I am just an Italian-American mother who is trying to carry on the same Italian traditions that I grew up with. I was so blessed with the strong influence of my grandparents and great grandparents, who taught my impressionable lessons on life, and my parents who loved me as much as they loved a good Sunday gravy (thankfully).
These are the memories I am working hard to provide for my children. It gets more difficult with the passing of each generation, because we lose a little bit of the tradition. So it's up to us to celebrate being Italian in simple ways that will always remain with our kids.
This blog is my way of doing that. You'll likely learn some new feast days and Italian Festivals to celebrate. You'll find a plethora of recipes (some traditional and some just plain easy). You'll find family stories (some entertaining, and some quite disturbing). You'll have access to an archive of all my previously published articles and random, opinionated rants....
And don't forget to check out my "Mamma Meets the Cucina posts, in which I collaborate with fellow paisan, Dominic Condo of Cucina Domenico. With food battles and recipe face-offs, you are sure to enjoy our virtual dueling!
Tune into Cucina Chatter every Tuesday from 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Dominic Condo and I appear in the Upstairs Kitchen at the end of the hour. You can also find my writing in Las Vegas' local Italian-American newspaper, "La Voce" under the "Mamma Mia" tab, and in my column, "Una Mamma Italiana" on Italiansrus.com.
Ciao & Benvenuti a "Una Mamma Italiana!"
