More on Caponata...and poor Sicilians

     I took a really amazing Sicilian Cook Book out of the Library called Sicilian Home Cooking: Family Recipes from Gangivecchio by Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene. I adore it so much that I ordered it along with 2 other of their Cook Books from Amazon.com. So many of the recipes are almost identical to some of the dishes my own family makes, some with some really interesting differences, like their Frittatini, which they call Fuiulate di Lucia (Lucia's Fritters) uses mint instead of parsley. The book is filled with really funny family stories and great insight into Sicilian culture: "For example, the word caponata ... comes from the word capponi (capons). Cooks liked to serve stewed vegetables with the fowl; since the poor people could not have the capons themselves, they used the name for the vegetable dish to make them feel rich." Sicilians were the original vegetarians. I always say that I could easily be a vegetarian on a Sicilian diet, with so many hearty and nutritious beans and vegetable dishes. Next time I am in Sicily I will definitely visit the Tornabene's restaurant, located in Gangivecchio, a town in the Madonie Mountains.

VINTAGE COOKBOOKS

I was perusing through an awesome thrift shop on 12th St called the Cure Thrift Shop to support childhood diabetes and I found these three awesome old cookbooks. Simple Cooking for the Epicure is from 1948, Julia Child & Company and the Pillsbury Bake Off Desert Cook Book are both from 1978. The food photography inside is truly inspiring and a lot of fun! I will definitely be sampling some old fashioned recipes from all three of these books. Some interesting recipes in Simple Cooking for the Epicure by Jean Hamilton Campbell and Gloria Kameran are: Caucasian Rice, Armenian Dolma, Cheese Dreams and a Lazy Daisy Cake.

From the Pillsbury Bake Off Dessert 

Cook Book I would like to try: Spicey Pear Fiesta (upside-down) Cake, Sugarplum Cake and the Blueberry Boy Bait.

The legendary Julia Child make some complicated dishes, but there are step by step instructions with photos throughout the book plus all of Julia's lovable quotations like, "Without peanuts, it isn't a cocktail party," and "What to do about conversation you can't bear to miss? Cook at the table of course..." As a child watching her show on Channel 13, we never had cable, I remember her saying once, "Never apologize for anything your cook," and I always remember that phrase when I am unsure about how a cake turned out, or worried the sauce is too salty. I look around at my guests and think that I just made all of these people a meal so I shouldn't be sorry about nor should I make them think something is wrong even before they try it.