Vallata, Italy where my family originated

As Father’s day is fast approaching, I can’t help but think about my father who passed three years ago. When I was little he used to call me Mariooch, hence the name of my blog “Mariooch’s Kitchen”. He would quite often say, “Mariooch mange cabooch”. I never really knew what it meant as a kid, I thought it was some endearing Italian phrase, but came to find out years later he was really saying “Mary eats cabbage.” Cabooch is not Italian for cabbage anyway, but it was his way of being funny. When I think about it, it makes me laugh.

A little about my father. His number one best attribute was being a good listener, and never, ever did he talk over you. He would only let you speak until you determined on your own, with his kind fatherly guidance, what you needed to do. This is a trait I truly try to adopt in my life. After all, I am a mom, and as a mom our children will come to us for advice, we have to be open to just listening, and sometimes through that process they figure things out on their own. Nine times out of ten we sit around the kitchen table (hopefully sans electronics but not always) with lots of yummy food present. Listening is an art, and can be a valuable learned skill.

It’s only apropos that I share his tomato sauce recipe. He was the Italian in the family and would be in the kitchen a lot making meatballs, tomato sauce, eggplant parmesan – all his specialties. It was so fun to watch him cook because I think he felt connected in some way to his roots as he cooked. His “Spaghetti Sauce” recipe as he called it, was given to my dad from my mom’s best friend, so it’s quite different from Mariooch’s Homemade Tomato Sauce If you are blessed to have your parents (and your grandparents), take the time to write down some of their recipes. I’ll post his recipe this week. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads!