Surf Cat

Recipes handed down through the generations have a special feel about them, even when they don’t belong to our personal family clan.

This is what local home cook Rosemary Cibrario had in mind 13 years ago when she published a cookbook titled “A Harvest of Our Family’s Favorite Recipes.”

Published in 2006, the spiralbound book contained hundreds of recipes, some going back 100 years.

Hot off the presses this week is “A Harvest of Our Family’s Favorite Recipes II,” featuring updates on former recipes, new cooking tips and techniques and 45 new recipes.

As with the first edition, recipes in the current cookbook are arranged by season rather than by the more standard division of food group or genre.

In both books, Cibrario marries her love of cooking and family with the craft of writing.

She walks readers through cooking techniques in informal language, often sprinkled with personal asides.

Describing the process for making ravioli meat filling, she writes: “In a large mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until blended. Before there were spoons, people used their hands. We still do!”

Some of her family recipes are fairly simple, with few ingredients and easy instructions, but when it comes to “Our Favorite Italian Recipes,” such as lasagne, homemade dough and raviolis, the ingredient lists are longer and production techniques more involved.

The cookbook suggests that readers explore making their own health-conscious choices with newer ingredients like coconut flour or olive oil.

“Any changes will be good changes, as our optimal health depends on it,” she writes. “Try to buy organic whenever possible, read the labels and use a good fruit and veggie wash whether cooking or eating raw.”

She also frequently sprinkles in sage advice from a lifetime of cooking practice, like microwaving bananas in their skins to maximize flavor before using in banana bread.

“Cooking should be so simple, not so taxing!” she says.

New recipes include Baked Zucchini Parmesan Crisps, Black Beans Brownies, Cousin Larry’s Italian Chicken, Sweet and Spicy Chicken and Bacon Bits.

Cooking is in her blood, said Cibrario, 77, who lives with her husband John in Pleasant Prairie.

“I was a first-born child and the only girl in an Italian family, so I had no choice but to cook!” she quipped.

A native Kenoshan, Cibrario is the daughter of the late Mary and Vincent Zarletti. Her first career was in cosmetology, and she owned a beauty salon in Kenosha for several years.

As she began raising their three sons, she frequently called and wrote her mother asking for her recipes.

In both editions, Cibrario gives credit to her mother for her recipes and inspiration.

In addition to recipe writing, Cibrario has penned poetry, short stories and sayings. Poems that speak to the seasons of food introduce sections in her cookbook.

Writing is an interest Cibrario encouraged by her brother-in-law Dominic Cibrario, a local author who has written several books.

The first edition of “A Harvest of Our Family’s Favorite Recipes” was published by the Nebraska-based Morris Press Cookbooks Co.

For the book’s second edition, Cibrario chose a local Kenosha printer, Minuteman Press.

Asked why she came out with a second edition of her cookbook after 13 years, Cibrario said, “After I sold out of the 500 copies of my first book, my friends kept asking for copies.”

For Cibrario, both cooking and writing are means to the ultimate end: connection to family and carrying forward food traditions to future generations.

“Gathering around the table, enjoying homemade foods, especially with family and friends, should be one of the most rewarding experiences in life,” she writes in the second edition.

Although she enjoys putting on a big spread herself — at Thanksgiving she hosted 18 family members — Cibrario says she takes even greater pleasure in teaching the younger family members the tricks of the kitchen trade.

“I’m really happy that my nieces and daughters-in-law are learning how to carry on these traditions,” she said.

Holiday menus are “like a tapestry of favorite family foods,” she said. At Thanksgiving, her grandchildren clamor for her homemade applesauce, and a must-have for her husband is her banana cream pie (see Recipes sidebar).

“No matter how big or small your family is, the important thing is to take extra time to be together,” Cibrario said.

A week before it was available for distribution, Cibrario said she was already fielding orders for her new book.

She attributes interest in part to the ties between family and food at the holidays.

“When you think of all the events — baptisms, funerals, holiday times and picnics — the main question is ‘What are we going to serve?’” she said. “Food is an important part of all family gatherings.”