at table - Ken asked for meatballs!

Tyler's first meatball shared with his cousin, Michaela

Cape Cod, 1989

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Food is and should be satisfying and delicious.

Food is and should be comforting.

But above all, food should be about sharing......

Those times "at table" when we share food and conversation are moments that are stuck in our hearts forever. It is what we recall with fondness and those memories make the food taste even better in retrospect.

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In the early 1950's when on a Sunday afternoon the Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cushing, visited my great-grandmother - who did not speak a word of English - she was cooking at her stove. As he walked up and introduced himself to her, she wiped her hands on her ever present apron, smiled, picked up a fork, stuck it in a meatball and handed it to him.

The rest is history.

My dad, Tony, became the next meatball king. Picking up the torch from his mother and grandmother before him. Sunday morning meatballs was a tradition carried from our homes in Malden and Stoneham to our summer home on Cape Cod. And slowly even the blue blooded New England Yankees were on board - showing up at our door, like clock work, when the smell of garlic wafted over the neighborhood.

Countless friends, children and grandchildren all talk about their first .... meatball. Just out of the pan, stuck on a fork and eaten naked, with a bit of tomato sauce, or rolled in a slice of Italian bread.

Memories created one yummy bite at a time.

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Delicious as they are the meatballs were really about the camaraderie. Standing around the kitchen, forks in hand, talking and sharing time as the meatballs were slowly cooking in the skillet on the stove. You did not want to miss that part of the experience. Yeah, the meatballs were good later in the day - but they were best in shared company. 

Grab a fork. The memories are worth a lifetime.

Have a meatball Ken! 

Thanks so much for being a part of so many Sunday mornings - and
asking me to make you meatballs this week.
Shared memories.

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