Marveling at Mom’s way of cooking

When I was young, one of my favorite meals was a dish my mother called "creation." It consisted of ground beef, noodles, and whatever she had in the pantry. I didn't realize it then, but it was also a way Mom fed a family of six on a budget. She could make her "creation" for about $1.50.

I look back now and marvel at her ingenuity. My idea of a cheap dinner is a box of macaroni and cheese. And there was my mother, Pat DeHaven, concocting her own inexpensive meal and turning it into a family favorite.

Mom made almost everything by hand. She cut her spaghetti - called "macaroni" in my house - the old-fashioned way, and I fought with my three brothers over who could turn the crank. Friday was pizza night, but never take-out; Mom made the dough from scratch. And while my friends at school ate peanut butter and jelly on Wonder, mine was on Mom's home-baked bread.

How I hated those sandwiches. All I wanted was Wonder. I would throw fits, begging for just one loaf. I cringe when I think about that now.

Isn't it too bad we don't know enough to appreciate our moms when we're young?

It's only now, as a mother myself, that I pick up a pound of ground beef and wonder, how did Mom come up with her "creation"? Or when I work late and order takeout, that I marvel, how did Mom find the time to make homemade pizza? Or when I'm shopping in the supermarket that the sight of a loaf of Wonder makes me long for a PB&J - on Mom's crusty bread.

Sometimes I think my generation is not so much trying to figure out how our moms did it all, but how they did it so well. For me, that holds true when it comes to my mother's cooking.

My mom learned the art from a generation of Italians who mixed ingredients by hand until the "feel" was right. If you want to know how to make meatballs or gnocchi, don't ask for the recipe. You'll have to come by the house.

Cooking is a messy affair. We make macaroni by pouring the flour directly onto the kitchen table. My mom would make a well in the center of the flour, add one egg for every person, and then add a few more eggs just to make sure there was enough. My mother said she could never get the proportions of flour and egg right unless she made it that way.

A few years ago, someone gave my mom an electric pasta maker, but she's rarely used it. She insists it's too hard to clean. I think there is more to it.

My grandmother, Lillian Alleva, cut all the macaroni on her own kitchen table when she made the Wednesday night dinners for my grandparents' corner diner, Alleva's Coffee Shop in Berwyn. In the early days, they didn't have take-out containers, so people would line up with their own pots for servings of spaghetti and meatballs. Her children, and then her grandchildren, all helped "Nan" cut the macaroni. And everyone learned to "flip" gnocchi (which required pressing a finger into each gnocchi to make an indentation, then flipping it over.) The technique was dubbed the "Fillippo flip" in honor of my grandmother's mother, Claudia Fillippo, who believed the little balls needed to curl so the gravy could seep into them properly.

Food was the center of my family's life. While I was growing up, dinner was served at 6, and it wasn't unusual for my brothers' friends to stumble in after football, or for coworkers of my father, a Tredyffrin Township police officer, to roll up the driveway at dinnertime. Somehow, Mom always had enough.

When Mom went back to work full-time, making dinner became my job. At first, she would prepare the food and leave me with instructions on how to cook it. Later, she would leave the meat in the package, telling me I could season it however I wanted. One Saturday, when I was 10 or 11, Mom said dinner was up to me. I opened up the Betty Crocker and chose beef stew. Dad drove me to the Acme to buy the ingredients. It took me all day, but I had such a sense of pride when I served that meal.

Even now, at age 65, Mom is still encouraging people to cook. Three years ago, she and my 70-year-old aunt, Joan Stillwell, started teaching a cooking class at Main Line School Night.

Aunt Joan landed the job, but she immediately volunteered her sister to help, thinking it would be a great way for Mom to use her master's degree in nutrition, which she somehow obtained while working and raising four kids.

All of the classes focus on nutrition, such as "Healthy Holiday Cooking" and "Healthy Party Foods." But "Healthy Eating for One or Two" is the most popular.

Mom tries to get her students to eat more vegetables. She introduces grains such as bulgur wheat, quinoa, and whole wheat pasta, and greens such as Swiss chard, kale, broccoli rabe, and collards.

"There's a whole world of greens out there," Mom likes to say. "And you may not like everything. But it's always good to try."

Mom was driven to healthy cooking 30 years ago, as a way to battle her family's history of heart disease. I remember a brief, painful period when she removed the salt shaker from the table, started baking meatballs instead of frying them, replaced beef with poultry, and switched from regular milk to skim.

But it wasn't long before we started enjoying healthier foods. She even came up with a soy version of "creation." And yes, my dad really does like it.

I confess I never mastered that effortless way of cooking by pulling something together from whatever is in the pantry. I don't cut my own macaroni - unless I'm with Mom. I have never attempted my own pizza crust; I don't have the patience.

But I do love to cook with my kids. And I look forward to the day I can tell my daughters that dinner is up to them - and I don't mean takeout.

Until then, whenever I make a meatloaf, I pull up a chair for Lillian, who is 5, and Mae, who is nearly 3, and I encourage them to mix it with their hands, just to get the feel of it. It is, after all, the family way.

Makes 3-4 servings

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2 salmon fillets (enough for 3 to 4 servings)

1/2 cup bourbon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Salt and pepper, to taste

Aluminum foil

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1. Preheat grill.

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan combine bourbon, brown sugar, soy sauce, honey, and ginger. Bring to boil. Lower heat to medium setting, continually stirring mixture until liquid is thickened and caramelized. Remove from heat.

3. Salt and pepper the salmon fillets. Create a foil platter to grill salmon on by folding edges of the foil to create a half-inch lip. Place fillets skin side down on foil and grill on low heat. Brush sauce on fillets. Cook for about 7 minutes. Flip the fillets; the skin should stick to the foil platter. Continue to baste fillets with the caramelized sauce about every 3 minutes until fillets are cooked thoroughly. (About 15 minutes or until salmon is light pink in the middle.)

Per serving (based on 4): 475 calories, 37 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, 20 grams sugar, 20 grams fat, 109 milligrams cholesterol, 395 milligrams sodium, no dietary fiber.

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Makes 4 to 6 servings

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5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided use

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/4 teaspoon dried, crushed red pepper

1 large bunch greens (spinach, mustard greens, kale, or broccoli rabe; about 1 pound), thick stems removed; spinach left whole, other greens cut into 1-inch strips (about 10 cups packed)

1 cup (or more) vegetable broth or low-salt chicken broth

1 15-ounce can cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained

1 teaspoon (or more) sherry wine vinegar

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1. Heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and dried crushed pepper; stir until garlic is pale golden, about 1 minute. Add greens by large handfuls; stir just until beginning to wilt before adding more, tossing with tongs to coat with oil.

2. Add 1 cup broth, cover, and simmer until greens are just tender, adding more broth by tablespoonfuls if dry, 1 to 10 minutes, depending on type of greens.

3. Add beans; simmer uncovered until beans are heated through and liquid is almost absorbed, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, and more vinegar if desired; drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon oil and serve.

Per serving (based on 6): 299 calories, 15 grams protein, 35 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams sugar, 12 grams fat, no cholesterol, 229 milligrams sodium, 13 grams dietary fiber.

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Makes 4 servings

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1/4 cup boiling water

1 mint tea bag

1 tablespoon sugar

4 cups blackberries

Plain whole-milk Greek-style yogurt

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1. Pour boiling water over tea and steep 1 minute. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Cool.

2. Divide blackberries among 4 bowls. Pour mint tea syrup over berries. Spoon a dollop of yogurt atop berries and serve.

Per serving: 90 calories, 3 grams protein, 18 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams sugar, 1 gram fat, 2 milligrams cholesterol, 15 milligrams sodium, 8 grams dietary fiber.

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4 servings

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2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard

1/8 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

1 pound thick asparagus, ends trimmed

3 medium oranges

1 small bulb fennel, trimmed, quartered, cored, and very thinly sliced crosswise

3 quarts loosely packed tender salad greens such as mâche, Boston, or red  leaf lettuce, torn

1/3 cup fresh chives, finely chopped

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1. In small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil, then the zest.

2. In large saute pan, bring 1 inch of water to boil. Add the asparagus and simmer until bright green, about 1 minute. Drain in a colander, then rinse under cold running water until cool. Thinly slice the asparagus on the diagonal and transfer to large bowl.

3. Cut the peel and the white pith from oranges. Working over a medium bowl, cut between the membranes to release the orange segments. Add the segments and any juice in the medium bowl to the large bowl with the asparagus; squeeze the juice from the peels into dressing and whisk to combine.

4. Add the fennel and then salad greens to large bowl. Drizzle with dressing and toss gently. Sprinkle chives on top and serve immediately.

Per serving: 367 calories, 8 grams protein, 23 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams sugar, 30 grams fat, no cholesterol, 371 milligrams sodium, 8 grams dietary fiber.

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