FARM FOOD

Cloudy with temperatures rising towards the upper 60s. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Growing up in an Italian family we very rarely strayed from a meal consisting of Italian food. My husband is from a little rural town, where he grew up on a farm and meat and potatoes were their staples. They milked cows and had chickens and a vegetable garden full of vegetables our family never had very much experience with. If my mother ever cooked a roast and mashed potatoes she would surely just serve either peas or cream style corn. Our garden consisted mostly of tomatoes. When my daughter was born she was greatly influenced by my family in the food area. There was even an Italian dish served at Thanksgiving before the turkey. My family lived very close by and my parents were key part in helping to raise my daughter. I still say to this day the reason my daughter is so good at math is because my father taught her how to play poker (for money!) when she was barely able to talk. My daughter never took a liking to the meat and potatoes thing that usually we were served when visiting my in laws. She called is farm food and still does at 26 years old. It certainly is not an insult, they were very good cooks and everything was fresh or canned from fresh out of their garden.

So, it surprised me one day when we were out shopping and my daughter says to me, mom I want to take you to this Dominican restaurant that her and her friend discovered. I was excited to think she was broadening her horizons and trying new foods. So we went there for lunch last week when she was home from CT. She so amazed at how clean the restaurant was that's all she kept raving about. The food was very good, we had roasted port and yellow rice with black beans and best lemonade I have every had.