Born to Cook

      Copyright Pending

      It seems like it is my fate to passionately enjoy preparing food in my kitchen.  I am a ‘foodie’ at heart, and I love anything to do with food and cooking.  I always have and I guess I always will. Being born Italian it is instilled in me as part of my heritage to have a natural talent for cooking, of this I am sure.    My mama was always in the kitchen cooking up fantastic tasting meals and had a reputation in our town as being one of the best cooks in the area. Even now anybody that had known my mother (Mae Cresitello) and experienced her delicious meals still mention what a good cook she was and ask if I can cook like her. Cooking was her life and  she worked in the cafateria  at Alexander Hamilton Grammar School, in Morristown, NJ for many years, preparing lunches, however the food she had to prepared for the kids at school was not the same as the luscious meals she made at home for family and friends.

     One of my earliest memories is of waking up on Sunday mornings to the smell of meatballs and Italian sausage frying in the cast iron frying pan and a large pot of tomato sauce bubbling away on the stove.  I loved to go down the stairs pull off a big hunk of Italian Bread and dip it in the tomato sauce and eat that for breakfast.  Occasionally mama would even let me have a meatball with the bread.  Of course that was not the only things that I ate for breakfast on Sunday mornings. Many a Sunday morning papa would go to the best bakery in town ‘Danzingers’ bakery and buy us iced crumb buns, jelly doughnuts, crullers and cheese danish.  I would eat as many of these Goodies as mama would allow me too, needless to say I was a chubby kid.

Papa Joseph Cresitello & Mama Mae Cresitello
with Uncle Ben and Zizi Rosie

     It always amazed me how Mama could feed a group of people in no time at all even when she was not expecting guest.  She would be preparing dinner for all of us, that is papa (Joe Cresitello), my sister Linda and me when friends would suddenly stop by for an unexpected visit. What seemed to be just enough food for the four of us  suddenly turned out to be enough food to feed a small army with enough leftovers for a smaller feast later on.  I always wonder how she did it all on such short notice.  Now I know she just made way to much food and that is one of the reasons she had two chubby daughters.

       In my younger years I never cared enough to learn how to cook but I did enjoy watching mama prepare meals in our small kitchen. Aside from being an incredible cook she was also a great baker. Whenever anyone in the family or their close friends were having a party or social gathering they would always ask mama to make the desserts and it seemed that no matter how busy she was she would manage  to make time to happily do so. Cookies were her specialty but her sour cream cake was to die for. She was never afraid to experiment.  I remember she would take a recipe and make it her own by making changes to it. It always seemed to make it better.  Her Italian rum cake was her masterpiece with different layers of filling and whipped cream frosting, OMG I’m craving a piece right now.  And soon I will give you the recipe in another story.

      So now you have a brief understanding of why I love to cook and love to eat as well.  My son ‘Scott’ was influenced by his grandmothers cooking, it inspired him to attend Culinary School to become a Chef.  Cooking is in our genes and passed down thru the generations.  When my son comes to visit, he always requests that I make my mama’s linguini with clam sauce, a dish that is a favorite for my husband and I, so I never refuse to make it when requested. It is absolutely delicious especially when you sprinkle it with lots of fresh parmesan cheese.  I serve it with roasted garlic bread and a big Italian salad or as Mama would say a ‘Nice’ salad.  She addressed everything she made as ‘nice’.  I can remember her asking, “do you want a ‘nice’ piece of cake, or a ‘nice’ dish of Spaghetti?” to her guests. But it was more than nice it was delicious.