Hello my Foodie Friends!
This past week both my wife and I celebrated our birthdays (having a birthday one day apart from each other was one of the many reasons I married her!). Recently I found a birthday card that my mother gave me for one of my milestone birthdays. I lost my mother in 1999. However, I think about her every day. Back to school time brings back memories of my childhood and the chaos of getting five children to do their homework, eat dinner, brush their teeth and get to bed every school night. I often reminisce about the work my mother had in raising three boys and two girls. In many of my articles I have talked about growing up in an Italian family. I was reminded by one of my customers that Italians are a matriarchal nationality. It’s the women who carry on the traditions and hand out the majority of discipline, wisdom and nurturing to the children. As a child, every room in the house where I grew up included constant teaching and training by my mother. The bedroom task was making your bed, dusting furniture, sweeping the floor or vacuuming the rugs and organizing your clothes. The bathroom was to be kept clean at all times and the living room was “keep your feet off the couch”! The kitchen was the most intense training. Washing and drying dishes to cleaning and setting the table. When we all sat at the kitchen table, our family discussions were learning times. We shared everything from how our day went to how to pass the potatoes. We learned manners, how to hold a fork and at the beginning of the meal watching how much Mom did to prepare the meals and us for dinner. One of my mother’s favorite cooking tools, and is my wife’s favorite, is the wooden spoon. My mother used a wooden spoon for all of her daily cooking tasks. She would let us “taste” her sauce using a wooden spoon. There were wooden spoons for frying the meatballs, stirring the sauce and one that would sit at the kitchen table while we ate.
At Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store, we have Tools for Cooks. Stop by and shop our line of Beechwood and Olivewood wooden spoons and instantly take your culinary, dining, and entertaining experience to the next level. The wooden spoon was a primary cooking utensil used by Julia Child and other great chefs around the world. Each of our Beechwood and Olivewood spoons are made in France where they are lovingly handcrafted to standards of unsurpassed quality. For centuries wooden spoons and wooden cooking utensils have been preferred by chefs for their numerous advantages. Unlike metal or plastic, a wooden spoon can be left in the pot without the risk of melting, burning your hand, or ruining a temperature-sensitive dish. A wooden kitchen utensil will not change the taste of acidic foods the way metal will. Wooden spoons are versatile. Simply wash your kitchen utensil with warm soapy water and allow to air dry. Restore your wood utensils to their satiny finish by treating them with a little mineral oil or beeswax compound.
As we all are working through our hectic schedules, remember that family time is the most important time. Eat together as a family, share stories, talk about your day, listen to each other, enjoy good food, and remember to compliment the chef. Bring your family together for at least an hour a day. Meal time is family time. Remember my Foodie Friends: “Life Happens in the Kitchen.”
Take Care,
John & Paula
