Archive for the ‘Marbleware’ Category
Every Thanksgiving, mother would send me down to the store to purchase items on her holiday grocery list: gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, sweet potatoes, cornbread mix, stuffing, squash, and the biggest turkey I could find. After I returned home, mother would set the turkey aside, and have me retrieve her roasting pan from the basement.
These days, I’m the one cooking the turkey. Although I demand a quality roasting pan, I refuse to pay a lot for something that sits in the basement for most of the year. Fortunately, I found an economical pan with heavy duty construction, large stainless steel handles, and a “V -rack” that easily holds a full size turkey. In addition to making Thanksgiving turkey easy, my pan prepares meats, poultry, and fish; gravy and pan sauces; vegetables, and big batches of lasagna, enchiladas, shepherd’s pie, and cobbler. My pan is absolutely essential for the holiday season!
My mother has always been a wonderful hostess. During the holidays she’s seemingly always busy in the kitchen, cutting up meat, cheese, and preparing appetizers for our guests. She calls it a “labor of love”. This year, mom requested a marble cutting board for her Christmas present.
Of course I would do anything to make mom happy, but I couldn’t help but wonder “why anyone would want a marble cutting board simply to cut vegetables, meat, and cheese”. Mom patiently explained that she didn’t want the board only for cutting, but to roll dough, and to use as an elegant serving board. She continued to explain that, in contrast to wood and plastic, marble is not porous. This means you can cut meat on it, wash it, and not have any danger of salmonella and other “nasties” surviving on its surface.
Cooking just comes naturally in my Italian family. Ever since I can remember, my relatives have traveled from miles around to converge on my grandmother’s home during the holidays. The kitchen is more than just the place where we pitch in to prepare delicious dishes – it’s the social meeting place in the home. I still harbor fond memories of arriving at grandma’s house hours before dinner and being greeted by at least four tempting aromas at once.
It became a tradition that my brother and I would sneak into the kitchen to eat one of grandma’s special chocolate chip cookies before dinner. She would always pretend to be surprised by this development and would jokingly chase us around the room with a marble rolling pin in one hand. These days my brother and I are doing most of the cooking when the family gets together, and we like to recount such stories as we prepare each dish.