My Foodie Story: A Little Italian, a Lot of Flavor

My zealous interest in food started soon after my birth. According to my mom, a gourmet cook and lifelong dieter, the only thing my baby belly could handle was beef broth. Yes, beef broth. My early food intolerance, combined with the experience of growing up in an Italian/French-Canadian home where holidays revolved around food and daily life centered around dieting and eating healthy, fresh foods made me into what some people would call a foodie. I always considered myself particular, exacting, and knowledgeable when it comes to the food I prepare, order, or eat.

A little Italian, A lot of flavor

Whenever asked about my heritage, I am always proud to include "one quarter Italian." A guy in an Italian food market once asked me what part of me was Italian. I responded, "The part that can cook." Growing up I remember visiting my Great Aunt Helen who had homemade pasta drying all over the dining room and kitchen. Everywhere you looked there were long strands of pasta.

My Italian grandmother was a talented cook. Every Sunday a delectable aroma wafted out of the small oven in the kitchen wall and into the dining room through the living room and out onto the porch. She used to make garlic-happy homemade meatballs in sauce, perfect pork roast, and moist legs of lamb.

My grandmother passed before I could learn her savory kitchen tricks, or how to bake the best anise cookies on earth. Fortunately my Italian grandmother did teach my mom how to cook, and she taught me.

Perfect Anise Cookie Recipe

Cookie Dough:

1 stick of softened butter
2 large eggs
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon anise extract

Glaze:

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon water
¼ to ½ teaspoon anise extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla and anise with a hand-held blender. Stir in they dry ingredients and mix until the batter is creamy and smooth. Use a tablespoon to spoon a small amount onto a greased pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove the anise cookies from the pan and let them cool. Mix the confectioners' sugar, water and extracts to taste. Add more or less water to make it thicker or thinner. Drizzle the glaze and sprinkle on the nonpareils quickly before the glaze dries.