Mary Ann’s Italian

Home Cooking

Introduction

Enter your kitchen with your heart in your hands.

Be willing to experiment and have fun.

Cooking is love and creativity.

First, learn about flavors, textures and aromas then discover which you like so you can abound and which you do not like so you can avoid.

Next, notice the bright and exciting colors, textures and aromas of fruits and vegetables, spices and herbs, meats of all kinds. Touch them, smell them, taste them. Feel their crunchiness or softness, smoothness or roughness. This is a sensual part of cooking. Heighten your senses and use them in everything you cook.

The textures are incredible. Feel the smooth surface of a tomato, an apple, a persimmon and the prickly feeling of a cactus pear or the fuzziness of a kiwi or a peach.

Let’s look at the shapes. Nature has a boundless amount of shapes which keep us curious and make us notice and look for more.

 The deep green leaves of spinach, purple and light green or white leaves of cabbage tightly wrapped one leaf over and around the other as in a loving enbrace. The sweetness of a yellow pineapple hidden under a geometric design on its outer part, and tough straight proud leaves on its top.

Take an artichoke in your hand, look at all its small leaves lined in green circles round the delicious pulp hidden in its heart along with whiskeriness the of its center. Red, green, yellow, white and brown are all present in the fresh leaves of radicchio and the many tender and crunchy lettuces and leafy greens, full of nutrients that we can delight our senses and nurish our body with. Take time and explore.

Let your senses enjoy the vastness of all the delicious foods we have to chose from. Go to a Farmer’s Market, talk to the farmers and vendors. Find out where their produce comes from. Learn more about what you are going to cook. Make cooking a voyage into adventures. Make it the most fun you can give your taste buds.

Cook because you want to delight yourself and others. Learn how to nourish your body in the most healthy way possible with your own creations in your own kitchen.