Tuesday June 05, 2012
You may be able to take the girl out of the country but you cannot take the country out of the girl! Belinda Di Giambattista is a living breathing example of that quote! Belinda grew up in North Carolina and was exposed to farming and farmer's markets as a little girl. She went off to pursue her brilliant career in finance and found herself craving more spiritual and meaningful work. Belinda still lives in NYC but she has found a way to connect with her farming and healthy eating roots. She started a business making healthy food for kids called Butterbeans Kitchen.
I aksed Belinda for her grandmother's "Apple Moon Pies" and in true granny form, we got the "non-recipe, recipe!" Here's her note to me:
Hi Carole! My Granny wrote me the following note:
"They were dried apple fried pies, I never had a recipe. If you put a cup of firm pack dried apples in a sauce pan and a cup of water then bring it to a boil turn the heat down to low, you might have to add more water just a small amount depending on the apples, cook to mush, stir often. When cooked enough add spices and sugar to taste, I used bread dough. Take a ball the size of a walnut and roll it like a thin pie crust, spread the apple mix on 1/2 of the dough not to the edge of the dough, fold the other 1/2 dough over the apples with a fork press the crust together to seal in the apples then lay it carefully in a frying pan with some oil and fry that side then turn the pie over cook. I used to make a big stack of pies and my family loved to eat them." Izula Fentress
I thought it would be better to leave her version of the recipe as is to preserve how she thinks of it instead of writing it in a traditional style."
I spyed some dried apples at the farmers market last week and will pick some up on Friday and try to create a recipe to share this weekend. SOostay tuned!! In the meantime, here's her interview - enjoy!!
Tuesday May 22, 2012
If you tuned into the middle of this show you would be sure you were hearing the story of someone who grew up in Italy, however, my dear friend Donna grew up right around the corner in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to a Venetian-born father and a mother who was also from Northern Italy. Making Dandelion wine, siphoning vinegar from the barrel in the cellar and stocking up on specialty salame in Springfield were all a routine part of Donna's childhood. Listen in to hear Donna Kresiak reminisce about the age-old practices her parents brought with them from Italy, some of which she continues to do today. Listen in to Donna's show and you might even learn a thing or two about vinegar making!
Tuesday May 01, 2012
Sometimes it is the stories our relatives tell over and over and the ensuing laughter that helps to create the indelible bond to our family food heritage. This is the case for Stephanie Plunkett, niece of Agnes Djaha who I interviewed a few months ago. Although Stephanie does not remember being at a celebration for St. Barbara Feast Day(which her Aunt talks about in her interview) she has heard many of the stories of her family's past celebrations, allowing her a glimpse into the experiences of her relatives. Stephanie joins Heirloom Meal's Radio to tell us about how everything in her household growing up was about food and the ways she shares her Syrian and Lebanese food traditions with her own son today.
Monday April 30, 2012
Beth Bader, author of The Cleaner Plate Club: Raising Healthy Eaters One Meal at a Time
joins me to talk about her upbringing in rural Missouri. Describing herself as "one of the first of the latchkey generation" Beth's story of transitioing after her parent's divorce and moving to a farm at age 10 was truly a transition between the burgeoning canned/convenience food life and a life where everything was raised or grown locally or on the farm where her family lived. Later, on her own journey into motherhood she became even more concerned with the source and quality of what she was feeding her children and how to handle the challenges of encouraging kids to try new foods. Listen in to hear Beth tell us her story of growing up and share tips and advice for getting kids to try new foods and expand their palates!
Wednesday April 25, 2012
Listen in to Part 2 of Food Memory Lane with AnneMarie DeFreest as she illustrates the importance of paprika to her favorite Savory Hungarian recipes - Goulash and Chicken Paprikash and talks about the importance of knowing what kind of paprika(smoked, sweet, hot and more) and where it came from would go into different Hungarian recipes. She also tells us about her favorite Hungarian sweets – Kifli and Kalacs - whose recipes, techniques, and variations she learned as a child from her Aunt Betty.
Monday April 23, 2012
My best friend, AnneMarie DeFreest, joins me in Stockbridge for Part 1 of her 2 part show. While AnneMarie's most vivid food memories are passed to her from her father Jack Simko and his Hungarian heritage, the pleasure and importance of gathering at the table with cloth napkins and everyone in their specific seat, has left its own important set of memories and practices for her. As she and her siblings grew up and her father took over the cooking from her mother AnneMarie was able to experience again the smells and tastes she remembers of her Grandfather's cooking of recipes like Kifli and Kalacs and expose her own children to these recipes which had been so important to her upbringing. Listen in to hear her stories of growing up and savoring her paternal Hungarian food heritage in Part 1 and to Part 2 for more about the recipes she savors.