On Being a Grateful Foodie

For many of us, it starts when we are young while some people grow into it. Some inherit it from their parents while others find it as they visit some new and possibly exotic location. I suppose I could be talking about anything, but I am not talking about just anything. I am talking about becoming what the media and so many others call "foodies". It frustrates me that those who don't understand the inner joy of being grateful for what our Creator has given us would call us "food snobs". This is so not the case!

I am starting to realize more often than not how so many things in my life revolve around not just food, but the joy I get in choosing recipes, buying ingredients, preparing said recipe and finally getting to eat it. It started when I was just a little girl with not only having parents who enjoyed food, but coming from a long line of food-appreciating ancestors.

Our family jokes about us being "Heinz 57" in our heritage. Could this be due to our Italian, Croatian, Austrian, Irish, Scottish & Arabic ancestry? This has definitely helped me in learning to enjoy almost every type of food (eventually I will have to confess the few food items out there that I just can't seem to eat). It also helped that my grandparents on both sides were and are still amazing cooks~ home chefs would be more accurate. I've had the opportunity to eat food from around the world~ most of it in a home of a family member!

This past week, my son has helped me to put photos of food we've been cooking on my Facebook page (http://www.facebook/mangiamamma). I've gotten so many comments that I have decided to start this blog. We'll see where it leads, but for now, how about a breakfast recipe for my Grandpa Pitalo's Pancakes with a Mangia Mamma twist. It'll make you think twice about picking up the Bisquick!!

Mangia~

Nanci

All sorrows are less with bread. ~Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

P.S. The delicious photo is our dinner from tonight made by Mary~ a delicious Cobb-Style Rice Bowl with a little help from Rachael Ray (her recipes work great for the kids to start learning to appreciate what we eat)!