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Parents, Please Stop Creating Picky Eaters

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A foodie’s biggest pet peeve is the picky eater. The picky eater who will remove several ingredients out of their meal before eating it, who doesn’t “like” things without ever trying them, and who shares a negative judgment about a restaurant after selecting the most mundane item on the menu. To put it lightly, it can honestly drive you nuts! But I think there’s a way to help prevent the creation of those picky eaters…

I don’t believe picky eaters are born, but developed. Most people of course don’t have a taste for one particular food or another (no one likes everything!), but truly picky eaters, I believe are created overtime often due to their childhood habits and their parents’ strategies on teaching them about food and eating. So for current parents and future ones, this article is for you.

When someone hits their twenties and enters adulthood, they are thrown into a fun fury of new social experiences-dinners, dates, events, travels-many of which involve food.  To get the best out of these experiences, one has to be open minded, which includes an open mindedness about food. Food is such a central focus in social gatherings in many cultures. Less so in America, but as an Italian American I was raised on this belief. The dinner table was the center of an event, where people socialized and shared a memorable experience of eating together. Food, culture, tradition, and people are intimately intwined.

Give your kid their best chance at truly enjoying these experiences when they’re older by starting open minded, healthy, and positive eating habits when they’re young. I owe my insight here to my amazing parents, who gave me such a fantastic opportunity to love food and the experiences surrounding it. Their strategies, and my own below.

1. “You can’t say you don’t like it if you haven’t tried it.” My parents lived by this rule. I remember sitting at the dinner table when I was young telling my parents I didn’t want to eat something, and this was their response every single time. My closed mindedness to not trying things didn’t last very long because I came to learn I was never going to get out of trying it. I’ve never forgotten this rule, and it’s stayed with me through my twenties. Even when my parents weren’t with me, I constantly reminded myself of this rule if presented with a odd, exotic food experience. I’ve tasted so many wonderful and fantastic things because I understood the importance of this rule and kept an open mind.

2. No kid meals. My parents never believed in making both a “kids meal” and an “adult meal” for dinner. I recently had an interesting discussion with my mom about the negative effects of  parents making separate meals for their kids versus themselves, and my mom’s stance was simple: “you and your sisters ate what Daddy and I ate.” There were no options; you ate what you were served and once again, you couldn’t say you didn’t like it unless you tried it. There shouldn’t be such a thing as “kid” food anyway. What does that even mean? That kids need to eat simply and not have the same variety of food as adults? And don’t tell me it’s because your kids don’t like the same thing as you….because if that’s the case then it’s probably due to you not following rule #1 and you allowing them to have the option to opt out of what you’re serving. Not to mention, isn’t making two different meals time consuming?! You’re not doing them, or you, any favors here…stop with the kid meals.

3. Develop their taste buds for a wide variety of healthy foods. Kids won’t ever develop tastebuds for healthy, fresh foods, as well as for complex flavored foods if they aren’t given the opportunity to have them, hence again rule #2. Every time you serve your kid food, you are adding to the development of their taste buds. You can either develop their taste buds to like sweets, processed food, and simplistic “kid food,” or you can develop their taste buds to enjoy savory, fresh, green, and complex foods. I honestly don’t believe the stereotype that kids don’t like veggies. I think parents assume they won’t like veggies so therefore aren’t taught from day one to like veggies. If your kid has a sweet tooth instead, consider it may have to do with what you’ve been feeding them. If you start on the right foot with a low sweet diet from birth, my bets are your kid won’t have a “sweet tooth.” #naturevsnurture

4. Inform your kids about food. My parents are both in the food industry, and my Dad a cooking enthusiast, so it was normal at our dinner table for him to tell us about the food we were eating. He would tell us about where it was grown, what part of the animal or plant it was from, or what culture the food originated in. This gave us an appreciation and understanding of our food, that I don’t think enough kids are exposed to early on. You don’t have to have deep food knowledge to do this; just look it up! Chances are you’ll learn something about food too in the process.

Overall, creating an interest, appreciation, open mindedness, and understanding about food in your kid will resonate with them, and play a significant role in how they approach food and social experiences involving food as adults…more than you may think. Be the next parent to create a foodie instead of a picky eater. Your kid’s future adult friends will thank you. 😉

I’m interested in hearing your strategies on this subject…feel free to share in the comments!

Italian word of the day:

Buon appetito (bw-ohn ah-peh-teet-oh) = Enjoy your meal; happy eating! (Or in my family, let’s eat!!)

 

Handmade Gnocchi with my Italian Grandmother

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I didn’t make gnocchi with my Grandma until I was 22 years old, despite being surrounded by her Italian culture and traditions since I was born. It was one of those experiences we unfortunately never made time for; either school, sports, or childhood activities got in the way, filling up my sisters’ and my own schedule every weekend. There are always moments like these that are regrettable, but in the same thought though, I feel truly blessed to have finally had this cooking experience with her, even though it was much delayed.

Although my Grandma enjoyed cooking and had her share of family recipes, I wouldn’t say she was the typical Italian Grandmother in the kitchen, the cooking guru who cooked day in and day out, teaching the rest of the family these important skills. I actually learned most of what I know about cooking from my dad; a bit of a break away from the tradition of the Italian mother or grandmother being the family cook. My dad fulfilled this role instead, passing on the necessary skills to prepare Italian cuisine to my sisters and I. What my Grandma contributed though was the culture, the language, and the tradition behind the cooking. A significant aspect that could only be taught by someone from the older generation, who lived the first generation experience in America, directly learning all she knew about Italian culture from her immigrant parents.

This is what made the day my sister and I made gnocchi with my Grandma so special. Not only did we learn how to make gnocchi, we learned the tradition behind the process from the way you knead your dough with your hands, to dropping the egg into the middle of the flour, to the use of the fork and rolling the gnocchi down the fork, “giù,” to create the authentic indents in each gnocchi piece. As the four year anniversary of her death recently passed, I dedicate this July post to her and to our once in a lifetime experience of making gnocchi with our Italian grandmother.

Now, we begin! This recipe will feed a family of 5. (Gnocchi is very filling; servings are not as large as other types of pasta)

Tools you will need: Flat workspace (pastry mat works well, cloth or silicone), potato masher, knife, table fork, baking sheet, large pot

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Ingredients:

2 pounds brown russet potatoes

Pinch of salt

2 cups all purpose flour (*this is not exact; may need another 1/4-1/2 cup if dough is still sticky)

1 egg

1. You will begin the process by boiling the potatoes. To prep the potatoes for boiling, wash, peel, and cut the potatoes into halves. Place the potato halves into a bowl of cold water, and let the potatoes sit and soak for 30 mins. This is a trick I learned to ridden the potatoes of some of their starch. As you are waiting, fill up a large pot with water, a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Drain the potatoes out of the bowl of cold water, and add them to the pot with the boiling water. Cook potatoes until tender. Test tenderness by sticking a fork through a potato piece; the fork should easily slip into the potato. The potato should not break apart though and that would be a sign they are too soft and overcooked. Drain potatoes into a strainer and let cool for a few minutes.

2. Move to your work surface: place about half of your flour (1 cup) on the surface. Then directly on top of the flour, take your potato masher, place one potato half at a time in the masher, and squeeze out over the flour. Repeat this until all the potatoes have been mashed. Add the rest of the flour (1 more cup) on top of the mashed potatoes, and mix the heap of flour and potatoes with your hands. Mix just until ingredients are combined. (In the photo below, the potatoes are being mashed into a bowl first, and then transferred to the flat mat. This is not necessary; they can be mashed right onto the flour.)

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3. Make an indent or small hole in the middle of the mixture with your hand. Drop the egg into the indent, and slowly mix egg into flour and potato mixture. It is crucial you make an indent to add the egg. Otherwise it just slips off the top of the mixture and runs all over your work space. This part can be a bit messy! Knead with hands until dough is no longer sticky. Test by poking with your finger- the dough should not stick to your finger. This is where you can add a little extra flour if the dough just won’t loose it’s stickiness. Be careful to not over knead; stop as soon as the dough is not sticky. I find it helpful to wash my hands at this point as there’s usually dough all in-between your fingers. This will make it easier to handle the dough in the next step.

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4. Clean or wipe your workspace, or move to a new one if you have the option. Lightly flour the workspace. Divide the dough evenly into four parts. Working with one part at a time, roll out a part with your hands into a log about 3/4in-1in in diameter. Apply pressure evenly with your hands, and roll by moving hands from center towards the roll’s ends. Repeat this until the log has lengthened and about the diameter mentioned above. Log should be even from one end to the other.

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5. Take a knife and cut the log into approx. 3/4in long pieces.

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6. Now it’s time for “giù!” As my Grandma and her mother did, the traditional way to shape each piece of gnocchi is to push each piece down the ridges of a table fork. As my Grandma taught us this motion she would say “giù, down the fork!” as giù in Italian means down or downwards. This is a tricky motion that takes some practice; I squished enough gnocchi pieces in my experience by applying too much pressure. Be light with your hands and find a consistent pressure and motion. Here we go-

Hold your fork in one hand and lean the bottom of the prongs against your work surface. Take one of the 3/4in pieces of dough and place at the top of the fork’s prongs, holding it with your thumb. Then with your thumb, press lightly and roll the piece of dough downwards to the bottom of the fork’s prongs. The piece of dough should roll as it’s moving and when finished is covering your thumb. And that is how gnocchi pieces have lines on one side and an indent (from your thumb) on the other side! Cool huh? There are lots of tools and makers available these days to assist you, but I think it’s much more rewarding to do all this by hand, knowing your hands created the design and shape of each individual gnocchi piece.

  

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Repeat the motion of rolling the dough pieces down the fork until you finish the roll you cut up. When finished repeat steps 5 and 6 for each dough part, until all dough has been made into gnocchi pieces. After 100 or so giù motions down the fork, you will be an expert! 😉

7. Line up the gnocchi pieces as you work on a baking sheet; there will be many pieces and you may need more than one sheet. Do not stack the pieces as they will stick and their forms will be ruined. If you want to freeze the gnocchi and save for later cooking, place gnocchi is large, flat container with lid, keeping the gnocchi in flat layers, dividing each layer with wax paper. This has worked very well for me in keeping the gnocchi separated.

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8. If you want to cook immediately, boil a pot of water with a pinch of salt. Add gnocchi pieces to the boiling water. They only take a few minutes to cook so don’t walk away! As soon as the gnocchi rises to the top of the water and floats on the surface, they are done. Using a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the water and place into a large bowl. Do not drain water as it will take many batches to finish boiling the gnocchi; you do not want to boil them all at once and crowd the pot. As you are working on the batches, add a little olive oil or butter to the already cooked gnocchi in the bowl to keep them from sticking.

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Cover with your favorite sauce, and your gnocchi is ready to eat! Sauces for gnocchi can range from simple, like butter and sage, or olive oil and herbs, to more complex, such as a red tomato sauce or Italian cheese sauce (usually a mix of Italian cheeses and referred to as “quattro formaggio.”) I will cover some sauce recipes for pasta in a future post.

You will never look at store bought gnocchi the same way again! Homemade pasta is a truly authentic experience, and I am grateful I have experienced this tradition to be able to pass this on to my own kids one day. Molto grazie Grandma————————♥

If this post has inspired you to try making gnocchi, please post a picture of your own gnocchi making experience below- I would love to hear about it!

Enjoy & mangia!

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Italian word of the day:

Cucinare (v) = to cook  *(pronunciation: coo-chee-nar-ay)

 

Italian Style Fondue: a summer dinner favorite

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The origin of the name Bagna Cauda, the northern Italian olive oil fondue dish, means “wet or warm bath,” which perfectly sums up the dish in a few words.

In my last post I wrote about “pucha” or the cold olive oil and vinegar mixture in which raw vegetables, cold cuts, and bread are dipped into. Simply put, Bagna Cauda is the warm version of “pucha.”

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Bagna Cauda has been a family favorite for generations, and passed down from my grandparents to my parents to us kids. This regional dish originates from the Piemonte region (in English, Piedmont) of northern Italy. Back in the day, this dish was traditionally eaten during the winter and by the “working class” such as farmers and field workers, as this dish is hearty and hot to help cope with the cold winters and relatively cheap.

Growing up, we prepared this dish to enjoy during winter, but summer as well. I personally think it works perfect for both. For winter you have the hot olive oil to help warm you up, and for summer you can enjoy the cool crunch of the raw vegetables on a warm summer evening. This is also the perfect family dinner dish as it creates a true family eating experience of sharing and dipping into the one big dish in the middle of the table. Personal plates are merely for piling up and saving all the goodies you want while eating so they don’t run out (if you hesitate eating with a table full of Italians, the food will be gone before you know it!) 😉

Bagna cauda recipes will vary, but I will share my family’s personal recipe, one that we’ve tweaked over the years. It is quite DELICIOUS! The amount of ingredients will depend on the number of people. This recipe below will feed about a family of 5.

You will need the following:                      

1 ½-2* cups extra virgin olive oil

1 stick butter

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 pack canned anchovies

1 cup sour cream

Assortment of vegetables & bread

Fondu pot & sterno or if you don’t have one, just a regular cooking pot & hot pad

*Olive oil amount varies a bit; if 1 ½ doesn’t look like enough to feed your family, add another ½ cup.

Making the Bagna Cauda:

First, grab a pot.

1. Pour in the extra virgin olive oil. (Remember in the last post we talked about high quality olive oil? Well that isn’t necessary for Bagna Cauda and can be expensive because you are using so much. Just buy a cheap bottle, but still imported from Italy and extra virgin. )

2. Add the butter, chopped garlic, and anchovies to the oil. Do not stir.

3. Heat over medium heat for about 20 minutes. The anchovies should break down, garlic soften, and butter completely melt. Not too high heat as you don’t want to burn the oil; keep at about “3-4” if working on an electric stove.

4. Stir in the sour cream and keep on the heat for a few more minutes.

5. Remove from the heat and transfer to fondu pot or place cooking pot on hot pad in the middle of the table.

The vegetables, bread, & setting the table:

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Place dishes of raw vegetables and basket of bread around the fondu pot which is in the very table center. Each person should have a plate and either a regular fork or fondu fork for dipping.

Vegetable recommendations are similar to when eating “pucha.” You can have cold cuts or meat as well, but in my family we mostly stick to a large variety of raw vegetables for Bagna. Below are just suggestions- experiment and try other vegetables too!

Vegetables Bread
Green onions Sourdough baguette
Fennel (anus) Rustic Italian baguette
Tomatoes
Boiled potatoes
Mushrooms
Broccolini
Radish
Endive
Raddichio
Bell pepper
Artichoke hearts
Avocado
Cauliflower

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Your Bagna Cauda is ready to eat! Make sure to dip in your veg and swirl around, picking up some of the sour cream, garlic, and anchovy mixture. Tip: the bread is used as an oil catcher. Hold the bread in one hand, and as you dip your piece of veg into the oil with your fork, hold it over the bread as you pull it out and move it to your mouth. The oil soaked bread is an extra delicious treat to bite into afterwards!

Dietary restrictions: Being lactose intolerant myself, I will often share some alternative options when making recipes with dairy. Bagna can be made without the butter and I have done so before; it is still very tasty. As for the sour cream, a lactose free version is available at most grocery stores.

Enjoy and Mangia!

Italian word of the day:

Bagnare (v) = to wet, soak or moisten  * The “gn” sound is like a long “n” with your tongue against the roof of your mouth. You do not make a hard “g” sound as in the word “great.”

The Famous Italian Lunch Spread: A How To.

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Have you ever seen a picture of an Italian lunch spread sprawled out across a table and wonder what goes into creating it? I know the food options seem endless and it looks like a lot of work, but it’s actually quite easy if you understand the main concepts and ideas behind it. In this post, I’m going to share with you those concepts, so you can attempt to put together your own Italian lunch (or dinner) spread, and have an authentic Italian eating experience. It’s more than just the type of food included in the meal; it’s the way we eat it that makes the experience complete. So get ready……to eat A LOT.

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One of my favorite and most exciting foodie memories were the occasions my Dad would call home from work and ask my mom if we all wanted “pucha” and cold cuts for dinner. We would be soooo excited, as this was a once in while treat and our absolute favorite. Then there was the most exciting moment of all, when we would come to the table and give drooling stares to the plates of meats, cheeses, vegetables, and breads lying out all over the table.

“Pucha” in my family means “to dip” but overtime it also became the noun we called the olive oil dip that we would dip our food into when having a large Italian spread for dinner. I can’t say where it’s derived from. I can’t locate it in the formal Italian language, but it is a term my great grandparents and grandparents used which was passed down to my dad and us kids over the years. I’m assuming it was short for a word in their specific Italian dialect. Either way, it stuck and I’m going to use the term throughout this post.

Ok, so let’s start prepping our spread by beginning with the dipping oil!

The key to good “pucha,” or the seasoned olive oil that food is dipped into, is to use high quality olive oil. Cheaper olive oils can be used for cooking, but you’ll want to buy a higher grade for dipping. Some tips on how to determine and buy a good olive oil-

1. Higher quality oils usually start at about $12 and go up from there. They can be extremely expensive, but I usually stick to around $12-20 and have found some great options such as: Lucini (any large grocery store), De Cecco (any large grocery store), Colavita (any large grocery store), Sicilian Olive Oil (Trader Joe’s), and Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Trader Joe’s).

2. If you want a traditional Italian experience, always buy oil “imported from Italy.” Be diligent about checking the back of the bottle for this information, because it’s not uncommon to turn the bottle over and read that the olives come from various different countries even though it’s called Italian olive oil on the front of the bottle.

3. Try specialty food stores- they will have much more variety than a large chain grocery store.

4. Buy extra virgin!

Once you have your oil, it’s time to prep it:

  1. Start with olive oil and pour as much in a shallow bowl as you think you’ll need for the amount of bread you have or the amount of people you are serving.
  2. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar; not too much as it will be too acidic and salty. Sometimes balsamic isn’t added and you can just do olive oil and seasonings, but this is to your personal liking.
  3. Once you have the oil and vinegar splash, add in seasonings. There aren’t rules on exactly what to put in your oil. The best way is to experiment and try different variations each time you make it. Again, it’s all to personal taste and liking. Here’s some suggestions though: pepper, sea salt, dried basil, dried italian seasoning, dried herbs de provence, or dried thyme.

Tip: Don’t add all of these- just a combination of a couple to a few. Growing up, we sometimes just added salt and pepper and that is delicious alone; but some dried green herbs add great flavor. I also sometimes add chopped garlic, and if you’re a garlic lover like me, this is the way to go!

 Now for the huge table spread!

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Us Italians love our variety, which is why our spread usually takes up a whole table. You can break up the variety into four groups: vegetables, cold cuts (meats), cheeses, and bread. When planning this for a group of people, make a grocery list of what you want to buy, but you can also just do this on the whim at home for you and your significant other by using what you have. This has always been my dad’s biggest rule. You obviously have to shop in a way on a regular basis so you have some of these options lying around, but once you introduce these things into your diet and shop in this manner, you can open your fridge at any given time and throw together a spread. There are endless options for each group, but here are my family’s favorites:

Vegetables Cold Cuts/Fish Cheeses Bread
Green onions Toscano salami Blue cheese Sourdough baguette
Fennel (anus) Soppressata salami Pecorino Focaccia
Tomatoes Genoa salami Mozzarella Rustic Italian
Garlic Prosciutto Parmigiano Bread sticks
Mushrooms Coppa (hot or mild) Brie Sicilian parchment crackers (my new fav from TJ’s)
Broccolini Mortadella Swiss
Radish Head cheese Goat cheese
Endive Sardines Munster
Raddichio Anchovies Really any fun variety you find!
Sundried tomatoes
Marinated peppers
Raw peppers
Artichoke hearts
Marinated button mushrooms
Olives (all kinds)
Avocado

Once you decide on the options you want, pull out large serving platters. Ones with separations in them are good for the marinated veg so their juices stay contained in one place. As for the raw veg and the cold cuts, put all veg on one or two platters and the cold cuts on the other (usually we keep the fish like sardines and anchovies separate from the cold cut platter.) Fyi, all these items are served cold- there’s no cooking involved! To save room and for nice presentation, cold cuts can be folded in half or rolled up as placed on the platter. The picture below is of our Palm Sunday lunch this year……for five people. Bet you can guess we had quite a few leftovers…..

photo-4Lastly, how to eat it! Yes, I am giving you tips on how to eat because as I mentioned in the beginning, this is significant to the experience and the best part! The idea behind the variety of cold cuts, veg, bread, and dipping oil is to be able to make endless combinations as you eat.

Simply do it in this order: pick, dip, combine, and eat.

Then you repeat, switching to a new combo. A combo usually consists of a piece of bread, hunk of cheese, piece of cold cut, and maybe veg on top, which are dipped into the oil. Sometimes in between my mini open face sandwhich combos, I pick up a strand of green onion or other veg, pucha (dip), and eat. This is all done with your hands. The only silverware present are the cheese knives or the forks to pick up marinated veg. This is not to be a super neat process, have fun and get your fingers oily!

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Since my blog also focuses on healthy eating and being aware of processed food, some tips: Pay attention to the quality and ingredients in Italian cold cuts you buy. Cheap brands will have unnecessary added ingredients like corn syrup….(really!?). Unfortunately, a lot of types of salami have some sort of added sugar for preservation reasons, but just try to find brands with as little as possible. As for prosciutto- there should never be any other ingredients except pork and salt. Traditional prosciutto is made through a curing process, where the ham is cured with salt, making no other preservatives necessary.

Also, you may be thinking “those cold cuts sure have a lot of fat.” I’m here to remind you that some fat and especially healthy fats, like those found in avocados and olive oil, are not your enemy- sugar is! So enjoy your fatty prosciutto, cheese, and olive oil- just do so with the meats and cheeses in moderation. This is why this kind of spread isn’t eaten every single day, and is a once in while lunch choice. There’s a reason 90 year Italians in Italy are riding bikes and zooming past out of breath tourists up steep staircases……..

I hope this has helped and that you enjoy creating your own Italian eating experience. After a few dips of this or that, don’t forget the most important part, which is to wash it all down with a big glass of vino!

Mangia.