Food is Love

My Sicilian Grandma, Santa Barranco Conti, taught me a lot of lessons, but none more so than this: Food Is Love.

She took pride in making delicious food, and her tables were the stuff of family legend -- ample spreads of antipasti, followed by pasta, roasts and dessert tables that put all the previous courses to shame.

But her pride as a chef was a distant second to her real goal . . . to nurture those she loved and to gather them all together at her dining room table where they would sit for hours . . . . talking, laughing, eating, drinking and loving.

Many of my best memories from childhood are from around her dinner tables . . the endless Christmas feasts where my cousin Sean and I would compete to see who could eat more of her delectable manicotti . . the huge platters of crabs cooked in her tomato sauce, the same sauce that would cover us from head to toe by the time we were done eating . . . and the routine Sunday dinners that were anything but routine as we dined on her sumptuous food.

Of course, the food was memorable, but more memorable are the bonds that we built that neither time nor distance can break.

As I've grown older, I readily embraced the concept of Food is Love and beginning in high school, continuing in my dormitories in college, my first apartment in law school, up through the home where I started my own family, I've enjoyed few things more than dinner parties for family and friends. My hope is that through this blog, I can inspire some to embrace or re-embrace the joy of cooking, whether it's a quick and delicious meal for the weeknight, or a sumptuous dinner party for the extended family. You're never too busy to cook, and it's a skill that everyone can learn. I hope to share recipes, tips and experiences, and reactions to my own culinary experiences.

Believe me, there's no better way to show your love than to feed people well, and create a joyous experience of eating for them and yourself.

This blog is dedicated to my Grandma Santa, who I still miss all these many years after her death. I hope she enjoys reading my posts and any comments that follow from her place in Heaven.

Love, Judy