Finding My Roots

Growing up in the South, 

I've learned that feeding someone is 100% a form of love language. It's the way to a man's heart. It's how you say everything you need to when there are no words to express your deepest condolences. It's a way to shut up the chatter for some, because you know "hangry" is a real thing and a force to be reckoned with. 

Good food has great powers.

I believe food is a foundation. It can be nostalgic, adventurous, comforting, erotic, symbolic, medicine, etc.

It's what has brought generations of my family together for every occasion from Sunday Suppers, to passing along recipes in order to carry on Holiday traditions, to Spring and Summer garden harvests.  

 

Shelling field peas, canning green beans, pealing slicing and dehydrating apples, these preparations were the settings of many conversations and opportunities for my NaNa to give me her best marriage advice. In a way, I know that food it's symbolically the source of life... living life, that is, and that is why my appreciation for it has become, Fare Well Dining.

 Most of my earliest memories are centered around food.

My parents, who were very hard workers, managed a family of 5 children. Looking back now that I'm "Adulting" with a family of my own, I can better understand and appreciate that we ate many meals on a budget. And that is a challenge that I still try and follow on a weekly basis, $5-$15 budget meals.

It's actually very humorous that we look back and had believed our mother's heritage was Italian due to the amount of the Spaghetti we ate each week. Through my distaste for eating the same things regularly, especially spaghetti, I had to get creative. My parents were adamant that we didn't waste our food, but encouraged me to use the ingredients from that meal to make something else out of the items we had.  These two lessons, were the roots for my love for cooking and eating well everyday since.

This kitchen creativity was always an adventure, a challenge, and definitely a comedy of errors and the root of some of my family favorite recipes I use today.

Have you ever tried to deep fry sandwich meat in cornmeal? How much cheese can you add to spaghetti noodles... and better yet, how long does it take to hand wash that melted cheese from the bottom of a pot?