Italian Family Favorites

I have always loved to cook and been fascinated with how our ancestors prepared food without all the conveniences most Americans have today. Growing up, I helped my family raise vegetables in our kitchen garden, butcher hogs on my uncle's farm, and can endless jars of food for what I jokingly referred to then as our “Armageddon Pantry.”

In my 20s, I taught myself to cook classic French cuisine and treated my friends to lavish multi-course dinner parties. In my 30s, I learned to make sushi and curries and began exploring my Pennsylvania Dutch and Italian food roots. In my 40s, bread baking, cheese making, lacto-fermentation, canning, and other lost arts entered my culinary repertoire. Throughout, I have sought whole organic food, out of concern for the health of farmers, the Earth, and my family. I believe that conventional farming practices and the industrial food system contribute significantly to the environmental and health crises we face today and that we must return to sustainable organic farming practices and regional food systems to save our planet and ourselves.

As the mother of two young children, I have had to adapt my cooking to my busier life and to find developmentally appropriate tasks for the eager sous-chefs who are often by my side in the kitchen. I have learned to simplify meals, for the sake of both time and the preferences of my children. I have also come to better appreciate the rhythm of the seasons, in cooking and home life, as the turning circle of the year guides what we eat and what we do, giving us changes to celebrate and familiar pleasures to enjoy.

Now, with the specters of economic recession, climate change, and peak oil looming, I am more concerned than ever about saving money by preparing food at home, supporting my local food system, and living lightly on the Earth. I started Lost Arts Kitchen to help people in my community who want to do the same.

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