There seems to be a growing theme of Italian food here. Actually when I was growing up we would often have an Italian dish alongside the traditional holiday turkey, whether it be Thanksgiving or Christmas or another holiday. This was often done for me, I know that, because I was almost as picky of an eater as my youngest son, but everyone enjoyed it. You would think we had at least an Italian grandparent to thank for this tradition, but there’s not one Italian one in the bunch. (German, French and Irish, but I’d take pasta over sauerkraut, fois gras or potatoes any day.) While living in Prague I did have a group of Italian teenagers run at me yelling, “Italiano!” as if I were their salvation. When I just smiled and shook my head one disappointed lad said sullenly, “Oh. English?” Yep, I do know English. He then asked me for directions, something no one who knows me would ever in their right minds do, but I tried my best to direct them along the winding cobblestone streets through old town. The truth is that I only navigated that city at all because I had a visual-spatial queen as a flatmate who made me a map pretty much every single day we were there for the entire year. Without her I’d probably still be roaming around the outer limits looking for a decent cup of coffee. Prague is awesome. Their coffee generally is not. Anyway, the fact that Italian food is generally relegated to the lower end of the “good food” spectrum really bothers me. Most people love it, it is relatively healthy (unless you are on your fourth helping at the Olive Garden), and it is incredibly diverse, especially when it comes to using local, in season, real ingredients. Best of all, the Slow Foods Movement started in Italy, which is just brilliant. I love the ideas behind this movement and really would like to be a whole lot better at living them. Oh, and their wine rocks~ can’t forget that. And espresso was invented in Italy. Goodness, I think I just talked myself into moving there.

There’s been this idea rolling around in my head for a week or two that I need to flesh out. I have been thinking about starting a ‘cook club’ as opposed to a book club, where people can go to each others’ houses and cook. One person in the group would host at a time, showing the others how to make a dish that is either one of their weekly specials, or maybe a party favorite, or whatnot. Cooking with others is such a great way to spend time with people, and it happens less and less in this frenetic world, as do so many other things. It is one thing to exchange recipes, but to actually cook together…there’s just an intimacy in that. Plus, I for one know my friends routinely make things that I would love to try, such as sushi, or using a slow cooker. While living in Prague I initiated something similar where there was a group of four expats from various countries who always ate dinner together~ almost always out at a restaurant. I suggested that we each be responsible for making a meal once a week, or was it once a month? I don’t remember, but I do remember it worked out quite well four times exactly. After that we had pretty much exhausted our young minds’ recipe repertoire and the ingredients we had to work with were slim, as I have bemoaned before here. For the area in which I live now, it would be a good thing to do for the stay-at-home moms during the day. It would be nice if once a week you knew dinner would be something you already made with a group of friends. A slow foods idea in a fast paced world.

There is a constant discordance around mealtime here. I long to have sit-down dinners with the whole family eating the same healthy meal. I am enchanted with the slow food movement but cannot seem to get remotely close to practicing it in everyday life. The kids are picky, especially my youngest, my hubby works late and likes different foods than I do, and then there is the whole no meat nor wheat thing that isn’t exactly what everyone else wants, so what normally happens is I make some sort of meal that is tweeked for each member of the family. I hate it. Every once in a while we’ll all sit down together and eat the same meal, namely pasta (though mine is corn or quinoa or rice of course) but those times are rare. Maybe Thanksgiving could be the start of trying to get everyone on the same page, at least once a week for a nice slow meal we all enjoy. We do buy organics and try to get local food as much as possible, but the actual cooking and sitting down part are steeped in frenzy, not enjoyment. I’m seriously going to make more of an effort trying to get the boys to eat some of my kind of food. It’d be healthy for them anyway. I need some good ideas. They are tough customers.