The importance of family
Most of the important things I've learned in life-about caring, giving, strength and reliance, I've learned from my Italian American family. It has taught me valuable life lessons. I've learned that as long as we have family, we can do anything we set our mind up to do. Family stands behind us and offers unconditional love like no one else in our lives. However, in recent years the family structure has changed.
For example, the all important nightly dinner table, which was ritual to my Italian American generation, has begun to fade from the family scene with fewer and fewer family members upholding this nightly ritual. My family shared a special bond of loyalty to one another, we were close knit and could always be counted on.
Our grandparents were always near by and at all family gatherings would pinch our cheeks and ruffle our hair and squeeze us in jubilant hugs until we squirmed away from their mighty grasp. Today, I would give the world for just one of Papa’s robust hugs - just one of grandma's warm embraces.
They say the two best things you can give your child are roots and wings. To this I add old-world grandparents, mentors who teach, encourage and insure us as we grow; people who touch our lives like no other and whose ways and wisdoms stay with us a lifetime. I was lucky to have been blessed with two sets of loving Italian grandparents.
They bestowed upon me life's lessons, blessings, inspirations, traditions, beliefs and above all else-- magical moments. I offer you my following stories as a source on which to build your own new and lasting family traditions.
Today's young men and women are tuning in to Cable TV "home and garden gurus" to learn what my generation learned at our grandparent's knee: flower and vegetable gardening, sewing, herb planting, carpentry, home repairs, crocheting, household hints and advice. Today’s Grandparents are busy working outside the home, some, even sitting at the head of corporate business.
Too often, to their grandchildren, they are merely known as the person who shows up on holidays and birthdays with a generous gift. I guess my post-war Grandparents were just more keenly adept in the old world ways of running a household. At age 10, my Grandma Isolina knew how to create tender pasta and ravioli from a little water, flour and egg, she could bake bread, plow a field and pluck a chicken for dinner.
She had to, she worked in her father’s semolina mills in Pescara , Italy. And her survival in the Old Country depended upon it. Under grandma and grandpa's watchful eye, we learned how to stretch the household budget by growing and preserving garden fruit and vegetables; how to plant and sow seedlings at exactly the right day to get the best crop and how to use garden herbs for medicinal cures and a miscellany of household needs.
I fondly remember watching my Grandma preparing her nightly meals, quietly working in her tiny kitchen, anticipating the rush of happy faces to her dinner table. A little flour, water and tomato sauce, and a glorious pasta meal was set before us.
It was then I learned that the most important and finest things in life are rarely the most expensive. Grandma taught me early on that fish was the best fertilizer for fruit trees, and cucumbers and beans caught the best sunlight when planted near a northern fence and the best time to plant parsley was on Good Friday.
On the feast of St. Joseph we planted flowering herbs, such as garlic. Webster's dictionary defines garlic simply as "a plant related to the onion; strong in flavor." But for Grandma the flavor and benefits of garlic were irreplaceable. Most backyard gardeners are well aware of this bulbous perennial's reputation and its many attributes.
They also know this fragrant plant has one of our garden's prettiest blooms. A relative of the lily, its huge ball- like blossoms are fused with hundreds of tiny lavender blooms that - like their bulbs - are rich in sugar and almost as pungent in fragrance. With little attention, this aromatic bulb returns years after year. Ancient Romans believed in the power and value of garlic, attributing more than 60 different medical cures to its benefits.
They believed the eating of garlic made their workers strong and their soldiers brave. Medieval ladies believed in the power of garlic so much that they ate it to make the skin more beautiful and smooth. Down through the ages, people have used garlic to treat toothaches, sore throats and earaches and even to ward off snakes, witches and vampires.
After years of watching my Italian Grandma grow and employ the daily use of garlic cloves, I'm not surprised to learn that garlic was held in such high esteem by the citizens of ancient Rome. I grew up in a family that used garlic both as a seasoning and as a medicinal cure for just about everything.
The founders of modern medicine, Hippocrates and Galen, spoke highly of garlic's attributes, it's only recently that modern medicine is rediscovering the curative powers of this plant. Researchers are finding that garlic contains allyl, an antibacterial agent that seems to affect harmful bacteria. Because of its curative powers, many people use garlic to treat the cold virus, diarrhea and poor blood clotting and to lower blood pressure. Another of grandma's favorite garden vegetables was the tomato.
Her homemade tomato sauce bubbled on the stove like an eternal volcano. The pleasant aroma permeated her kitchen. I didn't know, back then, that there was a medical benefit to eating tomatoes, I just knew that I loved the flavor and Grandma told me they were good for me . It wasn't until recently that I discovered the health benefits of tomatoes in our diet.
The tomato has antioxidant properties of lycopene, a carotenoid found in tomato-based foods. It is believed that this may reduce the risk of lung cancer by 25 percent, as reported in the American Journal of clinical nutrition. Cooked tomato products contained the most lycopene. Eating at least five 1/2 cup servings of pasta sauce every week may reduce the risk of of lung cancer.
Lycopene may protect against intestinal and prostate cancers too. Grandma's love of her tomatoes was well founded. Whenever the cold and flu season came around, grandma set a big pot of soup on to boil. A hand full of parsley, garlic, carrots, celery and a whole chicken were tossed in the pot.
Grandma's served her soup in big hearty bowls. Grandma's instincts were right on the mark again. For we have come to know that parsley and garlic contains chlorophyl and antitoxins, carrots and celery vitamin A, poultry meat riboflavin, niacin and biotin, so necessary to utilize oxygen and protein in the body. Some of grandma's cooking skills were an inherited talent.
But mostly she learned by watching and observing her mother and grandmother in the garden and kitchen. A luxury few of today's young women can enjoy. Before turning on that TV set and searching for your next recipe or household hint, why not get in touch with a family member, you'll be surprised at the information and recipes that can be unearthed in an archeological dig through your family history.
Grandma used to say, it’s just as important to begin new traditions as it is to uphold the old ones. So, why not use this book as a foundation on which to build your own family traditions, starting with a well researched family recipe.
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