Mom's Favorite Sayings: Bread Is The Staff Of Life

Bread is the staff of life!

I can't tell you the number of times -- but it was a vast multitude of instances -- I heard this phrase from Mom extolling the virtues and strength of our daily bread. Staff of life indeed, the spiritual connection of it, was not something to be trifled with, as Mom loved bread and featured in all of her dining experiences.

And her all time favorite was Italian bread... and she ate it with everything... and so did we. Nary a day and a meal went by, when we didn't have Italian bread.

Mom being a full-blooded Italian (who knew the old ways of life and could speak some of the language) loved  her Italian food and featured it in many of the meals she prepared for us. I mean there was spaghetti and meatballs, mom's unique spaghetti and tuna fish, spaghetti and sweet Italian sausages, spaghetti and clams... Lordy, we ate a lot of pasta!

But it didn't stop with spaghetti, Mom rolled out the Chicken Cacciatore, the stuffed peppers with sauce and rice, the pizza, the lasagna, the veal cutlets at times, the chicken cooked in vinegar (not my culinary choice of the week), calzones, the fried peppers in olive oil (one of mom's favorite dishes)... and on and on.  So we always had lots of Italian bread ready to serve as as appetizer to the full meal. To be frank, it was coming out of our ears!

And if Italian bread was unavailable, we settled for French bread, though greatly preferred Italian, especially if it was store bought that day: gooey, chewy, hot and fresh.

White bread? Oh, we had a bit of disdain for that. It just didn't quite measure up to overall goodness and chew-ability of fresh Italian bread, and if Italian wasn't available, we preferred that good ol' Mom would make her own rich, buttery homemade bread or rolls for our dining consumption. I still have memories of her in my mind today, kneading the bread dough as it rose up in the big yellow -- inlaid in white -- mixing bowl. Mom was a consummate baker of loafs of bread and generally they came out of the oven, piping hot, smelling of a rich, textured, mouth-watering aroma, and tasting divine... Bread machine? Oh, that was a foreign concept to her, she never used one or would even consider purchasing one. Instead, she made everything by the good old fashion method of using your two hands and all natural ingredients... and was quite blessed at it.

In fact, one of her favorite things to make and bake was zucchini bread. I saw a lot of that, two loaves at a time, right out of the oven. I have to say, I never much cared for zucchini bread, but then again, I was a finicky eater at times. Still, others loved it and she made many loaves to give away at Christmas and other holiday times.

And speaking of Christmas, Mom whipped out the cream and ginger bread during this time of year and we kids loved it of course. And the smell of the ginger and cloves and cinnamon arising out of the oven and enveloping all corners of the kitchen... wow, heavenly reminiscences. And having the ginger bread with a couple of large scoops of vanilla ice cream... oh, you can't come up with a better sublime and superb taste combination.

One of mom's all time favorites was banana bread... and of course we children loved it too. Mom had a craving for bananas, so there were always plenty of over-ripened ones just perfect for creating a delicious tasting banana bread. And I have to say, we were all driven bananas by the amount of tasty banana bread which graced our palates and we consumed.

And Mom, oh she made a wide variety of Banana breads. You could not hold her down when it came to bananas and she got experimental at times. There was plain (very tasty in itself) and banana with walnuts, very yummy to be sure, banana with coconut, oh we all enjoyed that one, but my all time favorite banana bread treat was Banana - Chocolate Chip. The Renaissance Loaf of all banana breads!

Banana - Chocolate Chip was an act of culinary creation which I miss to this day. A true delicacy and harmonious collaboration tasting so divine, the whole greater than the sum of its parts, that I would wolf down slice after slice, hot right out of the oven, and Mom would have to tell me to save some for later, and don't ruin your appetite for supper! But it was so good! Taken right out of the baking pans and placed on the cooling racks on our kitchen table, above the usually Florida-themed table cloth. The flavors melding, melting together, perfection, perfection, a fine exquisite dance across your taste buds. Banana - Chocolate Chip was truly a staff of life, a very satisfying life...

Thanks Mom!
 

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