2016 International Year of the Pulses

Which is dry peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. Check this out for more information of eating Mediterranean.

http://oldwayspt.org/community/blog/8-ways-eat-mediterranean

A cook book my son suggested and I love is Italian Country Cooking  The Secrets of Cucina Povera by Loukie Werle. My favorite being Pancetta,red wine and radicchio risotto.

My Nonna (actually my great uncle's mother in law, my adopted by heart grandma) was from the old country...Italy...Northern Italy. They raised cattle so beef there and here. Meals are more "earthy" in the north than the south that has access to the sea and it's food. More cream and butter in the north with more tomatoes and salads in the south.

I loved and felt more at home at Nonna's than any where else. Looking back I know it was the lifestyle and the food that I was comfortable with.

My parents grew up eating beans, fried potatoes if they had it, bread....and if they had it,milk gravy and bread or oatmeal for breakfast. My Dad never saw a day that there wasn't something on the table to eat.My Mom wasn't so lucky. There was time neither of them got anything for Christmas or their birthdays but felt lucky because the family was together and could sing together. Other families during the Great Depression didn't have their families together.

In that, Mom wasn't much of a cook, Dad actually was better, being the only boy and the middle child he was taught by his sisters(his mom was disabled completely), Mom taught me to read a recipe, Dad taught me to cook without one.

Nonna....raised poor, married poor,  and lived a different way.I learned about frugal meals that were flavorful and healthy. How to grow vegetables that my parents had never heard of and how to preserve them.

Now that I'm older I understand that the convenience of our food has caused our health more harm than it has ever given with easy it was suppose to be.

Check out oldways