Parade12-06 by The Southern Illinoisan

S U N DAY, D E C E M B E R 8 , 2 0 1 3 | PA R A D E .C O M

Christmas With

Lidia

I want my family to think about GreatGrandma, Grandma, and the importance of living well and enjoying it.

Chat live

The beloved Italian chef on her favorite Old and New World traditions

WITH LIDIA ABOUT HER HOLIDAY TIPS AND RECIPES. SEE PAGE 10 FOR DETAILS.

T ’S

WALTER SCOTT ASKS...

JENNIFER ANISTON

The actress, 44, has We’re the Millers out on video and a line of hair-care products from Living Proof.

Drew Carey with Bob Barker

Q: What’s Bob Barker doing these days? —Connie B., Amarillo, Tex. A: Barker stepped down as host off CBS’s The Price Is Rightt in 2007 after a nearly 35-year run, but he’s back on an episode airing Dec. 12, saluting his 90th birthday. Says Barker of current host Drew Carey, “Drew was just charm-ing. I’m going to cherish it for the rest of my life.” Read more at parade.com /barker.

Enter for a chance to win Jennifer’s favorite Living Proof products at parade.com/hair.

Lots of women envy your hair. Have you had a favorite style? I just chopped it all off, to sort of right below my ear! I do that every couple of Do you years, because color really puts your have a hair through the mill. But at the end question for Walter of the day, I’m a long-hair girl. Scott? Post it at What made you pick Living Proof as facebook.com an investor and spokeswoman? I used their [anti-] frizz products at ﬁrst /parademag and I was impressed. Other hair companies have approached me, but I didn’t just want w wa nt to be a face of a brand. I said yes y involved in the because they let me be involve ideas. smells and new product ide What’s your hanging-at-home hanging-at style? I usually put on jeans and a T-shirt. Very casual. casual most When do you feel mo beautiful? b be autiful? At home with [ﬁancé] Justin Theroux Thero in the time of day morning. Or any tim I’m with him. Do you ever watch Friends stop and reruns? Yes, I’ll sto watch, though not the whole thing. It’s fun for a second— what’s this one? yyou’re yo u’re like, what’ February. You’ll be 45 in F know now What do you k didn’t at 25? that you didn to That there’s nothing n about—although worry about— I don’t think I had a at 25, care in the world w in either. That started s my 30s, my awkward a phase. I’m a bit b of a late bloomer. But it i just gets better. My life is i fantastic. I’m so happy. happ

Q: Does the new Bonnie & Clyde tell the story differently than the 1967 ﬁlm? —Troy W., Reston, Va. A: Star Emile Hirsch, 28, promises “a fresh take” on bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in this miniseries airing on Lifetime, History, and A&E (Dec. 8 and 9). “They were unique,” he says. “A criminal couple, genuinely in love.” Join @ParadeMagazine for a Twitter chat with @EmileHirsch on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. ET. Use #BonnieAndClydeQA.

Who came up with the chairs on The Voice? –Rod F., Des Moines, Iowa

A: The swiveling red thrones on NBC’s singing competition are sleeker versions of the seats from the original Dutch show. Made by Scenic Express in L.A., each has speakers embedded in the headrest. If a chair malfunctions, there’s a spare. Want your own? They’re not available to the public … yet. Read season four’s Swon Brothers on this year’s talent at parade.com/voice. The Voice’s Adam Levine

ger Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger as Bonnie & Clyde

Q: What’s it like for Rhea a Perlman working with Kirstie Alley again? —Amy M., Zanesville, Ohio o A: Perlman, 65, plays the assistant to Alley’s Broadway diva on Kirstie (TV Land, Wednesdays). “Kirstie is a whirlwind, with a million things going on,” she says of her former Cheers costar. She dishes about Alley’s wacky gift giving at parade.com/perlman.

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THE POPE OPENS UP | Pope Francis’s humility and compassion shine in a six-hour interview to be published this week (along with commentary from top Catholic thinkers) as a book called A Big Heart Open to God. Read an excerpt at parade.com/pope.

Edited by Vi-An Nguyen / L I K E

U S AT FA C E B O O K . C O M / PA R A D E M A G

5 NEW HOLIDAY TUNES

NEXT YEAR’S HOTTEST FOOD TRENDS

The Robertsons, “Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Christmas” s” The Duck Dynasty clan sings gs of celebrating on the bayou. u.

Marketing analyst Phil Lempert, a.k.a. the Supermarket Guru, and ConAgra Foods predict what we’ll crave through 2014.

Straight No Chaser featurring Colbie Caillat, “Every Day Is Christmas” Like a cappella? You’ll love this smooth, romantic ballad. Mary J. Blige, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”” The queen of hip-hop soul puts a jazzy, toe-tapping twist on this kids’ classic.

Nuts and sunﬂower seeds are the new chips. Healthy snacks are

Johnny Mathis featuring Billy Joel, “The Christmas s Song” At 78, Mathis provess he can still belt with the best of them. Gretchen Wilson, “Santa I’ve Been Naughty” The “Redneck Woman” is sassy as ever while trying to to get on Santa’s “nice” list.

Love Love’s gorgeous chocolates almost look too good to eat. But the confections—flavored with lemon, peanut butter, and caramel— are impossible i to resist ($33 for a box of 15; norm normanloveconfections.com). Find 10 more delicious gift ideas at parade.com/foodgifts.

We love breakfast, anytime. More than threequarters of Americans start their day with the most important meal. And many of us are enjoying proteinpacked eggs and breakfast sandwiches for lunch and dinner, too.

Download the Robertsons’ song and listen to this playlist at parade.com/play.

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Vietnamese and Thai cuisines are flourishing. The bold, zesty flavors of these Southeast Asian nations are finding their way into more American kitchens and supermarket aisles. HUNGRY FOR MORE? GO TO PARADE .COM/GROCERY. continued on page 6

ILLUSTRATION: ANDY FRIEDMAN. PHOTOS, FROM TOP RIGHT: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; MATEJ PRIBELSKY/GETTY IMAGES

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C Lidia Bastianich, right, with her mother, Erminia, and granddaughter Julia. Watch an exclusive video of Lidia talking about what Christmas means to her at 12 parade.com/lidia. | JUNE 2, 2013 ÂŠ PARADE Publications 2013. All rights reserved.

Christmas ast P2 My Favorite Memories of

By Lisa Schwarzbaum Cover and Opening Photographs by Melanie Acevedo

Italian cooking matriarch Lidia Bastianich celebrates the holiday cooking of the old country with four generations of her family

hen Lidia Matticchio Bastianich talks about the Italian Christmases of her childhood, a wonderful transformation occurs. She clasps her hands, elbows out, shaking a trademark stack of thin gold bangles on her wrist. Her eyes shine; her voice gets singsongy. For the moment, the hearty 66-year-old maestra of Italian cuisine becomes a girl in the old country again. Chickens, ducks, and pigs wander in the courtyard; her grandmother bustles busily, putting Seckel pears to ripen in grain bins. In her memories, little Lidia Matticchio and her brother, Franco, are still out in the hillside woods with their grandfather, searching for the perfect juniper bush to cut down and decorate with garlands of ﬁgs and bay leaves. Fast-forward to today, when Bastianich presides over a food empire: She’s a restaurant mogul and the writer of 11 cookbooks, the most recent of which is Lidia’s Commonsense Italian

Cooking. But over half a century after she emigrated to the U.S., she still wanders regularly into her Italian past, recounting sweet winter tales: of nougats wrapped in shiny papers and hung as ornaments. Of mulled wine scenting the air. Of family, bound together by good, shared food. Indeed, Lidia has made an entrepreneurial American businesswoman’s career out of stories that celebrate the old country’s traditions. Recalling the good times sweetens the bitterness of real life. In fact, back in Europe, the Matticchios faced stark challenges. Their nub of Italy, Pula, on the peninsula of Istria, became part of Communist Yugoslavia after World War II. (It’s now part of Croatia.) Practice of their Catholic religion or Italian customs and language was suppressed under Tito. In 1956, when Bastianich was 9, the family escaped ﬁrst to Trieste, on the other side of the Italian border, then emigratDECEMBER 8, 2013 | 9

One word comes up over and over: Grandma. It takes a minute or two to sort out that when Bastianich talks of the past, “Grandma” refers to her own grandmother, Nonna Rosa, the one who rendered the fat from the family’s slaughtered pig to make fresh sausages. And when she talks of the present, “Grandma” is her mother, Erminia, called Nonna Mima, now 92 and living with Bastianich in a large house featuring a lot of cozy ﬁreplaces, a thriving gar-

Lidia with her daughter, Tanya, in Queens, 1973

den, a serene view of Long Island’s Little Neck Bay, and plenty of room for sleepover guests. Meanwhile, Bastianich is called Nonni by her ﬁve grandkids ages 10 to 15. And now it’s time for them, the fourth generation, to make Christmas memories, fulﬁlling the trademark invitation with which their famous grandma ends each of her cooking shows: “Tutti a tavola a mangiare”—everyone to the table to eat! Ah, but what to eat—that is the question, as

Chat live with Lidia! Join us for a Google+ Hangout On Air with Lidia Bastianich on Dec. 18 at 3 p.m. ET. Get details at google.com/+parademagazine.

Bastianich prepares for the yearly Christmas feast that brings her back to that Pula courtyard, those lost hillsides of junipers. The family may not be slaughtering their own pigs these days, but Bastianich keeps other Christmas traditions alive at her table, on her beloved yellow damask tablecloths. Off the top of her head, the cook sketches a menu. She’ll begin with capon soup with raviolini, her late father’s favorite. A roasted capon, too. And maybe a pork loin with prunes. (Beef? That’s not really Italian, but: “Men like a nice slice of beef.”) Nonna Mima will have a say, too. “I still have to consult with Grandma,” says Bastianich. Another contribution from Mima: prep work. “She sits at the table, cleans the garlic, does this, does that, so she doesn’t have to stand. She does the tedious work.” This is the Nonna Mima who, while proud of her daughter, also keeps fame in perspective: In 2008, after Lidia cooked for Pope Benedict during a papal visit to New York, she came home excited to tell her mother about the honor. “I said to Grandma, ‘Guess who I was asked to cook for? The pope!’ She said, ‘That’s great— and who are you going to cook for next?’ ’’ But back to this year’s feast: To round things out, Bastianich envisions a parade of dishes that conjure up the rich yield of her Italian region. “We always have dark greens—like broccoli rabe. And roasted potatoes with rosemary. And savoy cabbage.” You see where this is going, don’t you? Lidia’s feast is never going to end. Don’t even get her started on desserts. She leaves the American treats—apple pie, brownies, and chocolate-chip cookies—to her sisterin-law, Margaret Matticchio. All Bastianich has to do, she ﬁgures, is supplement. But her deﬁnition of “supplement” involves more baking than most people do in a year. “I think a ricotta cheesecake is very easy to make.” And don’t forget the crostata. “It’s a cookie dough, just a square, with jam, then dough strips over it. Very simple. Also, the bow tie [cookies]. I have to hide them because the kids steal them before dinner.”

COVER AND INSIDE: HAIR AND MAKEUP, LISA MAKOWSKI; FOOD STYLING, AMY STEVENSON; PROP STYLING, ABIGAIL JENKINS. THIS PAGE: COURTESY OF LIDIA BASTIANICH

ed to the U.S. in 1958—briefly to New Jersey, then to Queens, N.Y.—as political refugees sponsored by Catholic Relief Services. The family’s first Eisenhower-era Christmases in America were wide-eyed experiments in the exotic convenience of boxed cake mixes and plastic trees. “All those glittering balls, and the flashing lights, the twinkles. We were so thrilled!” Bastianich says with a laugh. But in the move, Grandma—Nonna Rosa—had stayed behind. “I didn’t get to say goodbye to Grandma or say goodbye to my friends. That was traumatic. I missed Grandma, and at night I used to cry. So I go to these stories because food is the connector. I continued cooking it, reaching for my background.” Bastianich readily admits she wasn’t a chef when she and her husband, Felix, opened their first little restaurant in Queens, in 1971. (The couple divorced in 1997; Felix died in 2010.) The family hired a professional chef to cook a hodgepodge of Italian-American dishes. Meanwhile, the 24-year-old wife of the owner started out as a hostess, then became a sous-chef. With two small children at home—son Joe, born in 1968, and daughter Tanya, born in 1972—Bastianich had her own mother, Erminia Matticchio, pitching in, putting the kids to bed while Bastianich worked at the restaurant. Only a decade later, in 1981, was Bastianich ready to don her chef ’s toque at Felidia, her first hit Manhattan restaurant. Today, the immigrant girl who oohed and ahhed at cake mixes and tinsel oversees seven restaurants. Her endeavors include a winery, a travel company, a packaged food line, and a TV production company, run by Bastianich and her daughter. She’s been a cooking star on PBS since 1998. She’s working at full boil. And yet, talking with Bastianich on a bright autumn morning in no-nonsense New York City, notions of background, family, and roots arise again and again, as basic to her message as the olive oil and garlic in her sauces.

10 | DECEMBER 8, 2013

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Maybe some of the grandkids—Olivia, 15, Lorenzo, 14, Miles, 13, Ethan, 12, and Julia, 10—will help bake? “They’ve always been involved. But as they’re getting bigger, they say, ‘Well, Grandma, I don’t know if I want to be making cookies at my age.’ ” Bastianich lifts her ﬁngers in amused surprise, and recalls a recent visit to son Joe’s home in Connecticut to see her oldest granddaughter. “I said to the big girl, ‘You’re going to be going off to college soon; you’ll need soup.’ So we made soup; we made fresh pasta; I brought in basil from the garden; we made pesto; we cooked lunch for Mom and Dad. For them, I’m just a grandma. That’s good. I like that. “You know …” Bastianich wanders off into a lesson taught by grandmas the world over. “Holidays—any holiday—are such a great opportunity to focus on bringing the family together. It gives them an identity. Everyone is so scattered, in need of stability: Who am I, where do I belong? Well, you belong to a family, you belong to a religion—what that religion might be, God is the same for everybody! I think that food underlines that. Food is the magnet.” After Christmas, the extended family stays with Bastianich for days, taking walks by the bay, playing at the pool table, and then heading home with what are likely the tastiest leftovers on earth. It hardly matters to her whether the fourth generation will enter the family business. “Whatever they do, when they grow up, I want them to think about sitting at the table, about Great-Grandma, Grandma, the love, the stability, the importance of living well and enjoying it,” she says. “Like a tree growing up, good roots.” Listening to Bastianich dish out this grounded wisdom (not to mention the mouthwatering description of Christmas dinner), it becomes obvious why she’s such a phenomenon. She’s a true believer in those traditional ways, those old stories. Everyone she encounters—whether in person, in print, or on television—can’t help but wish for a spot at her table, especially at Christmastime. Simple Sugar Cookies

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Make Lidia’s Favorite Christmas Cookies Get the family recipes for these sweet treats at parade .com/lidia. Anise Cookies

Fried Half-Moons

12 | DECEMBER 8, 2013

Kennections By Ken Jennings HOW TO PLAY

All five correct answers have something in common. Can you figure out what it is?

1. In 2004, after more than 40 years, Kodak discontinued the Carousel, its line of projectors used to display what?

✎ 2. To be official, a “Trappist beer” must be brewed by what type of people?

✎ 3. What animals are the offspring of male donkeys and female horses?

✎ 4. Whose “last dance” did Tom Petty and Kim Basinger act out in a 1993 music video?

✎ 5. What movie featured Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, and Dan Aykroyd as a team of computer hackers?

✎ WHAT’S THE “KENNECTION” BETWEEN ALL FIVE ANSWERS?

✎

Play more trivia puzzles by Ken Jennings at parade.com/ken. ANSWERS: 1. SLIDES; 2. MONKS; 3. MULES; 4. MARY JANE’S; 5. SNEAKERS ALL ARE TYPES OF SHOES

PHOTO: ANDY REYNOLDS

MAKE MORE KENNECTIONS!

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“You Won’t Be Home for Christmas?”

ere we go. “Mom,” she says. “We were thinking …” We? Uh-oh. I slap my palm against my cell phone a few times. “You know, honey, I’m getting really bad reception here. Maybe I should call you back.” “Mom.” “Seriously. I’d hate to miss a word of the heartbreaking news you’re about to deliver 636.74 miles from your mother.” “Mom.” Silently, I count to 10. “You’re going to his family’s home for the holiday, aren’t you?” “We have to take turns, Mom.” “Pfft.” “You know I always want to be with you.” Yes. Yes, I do. I know our two older daughters want to see us at holidays, too. So does our son. The snag is that we raised them to be fair and reasonable and now, darn it, that’s exactly what they’re being. Without me. Not to make it all about me, but jeez. “Okay,” I said to my daughter. “It won’t feel much like a holiday around here, but okay.” “Glad you understand,” she said, knowing fully well I didn’t. There was a small window

How does your family divvy up the holidays? Tell us at facebook.com/parademag.

of time when my husband and I could count on seeing all four of our grown children for most holidays. No matter who they were dating or where they were living, they made the trek home to spend a day or two feasting on food and one another’s life choices. We’re an opinionated lot and never short on unearned expertise. Everything is up for debate. We once spent an entire hour mulling aloud how to rescue a daughter’s car from a snowdrift until someone ﬁnally suggested we just get out there and push it. Genius. My, how times have changed. We’re only as happy as our unhappiest child, which means

right now I should be giddier than one of Santa’s elves who’s already made her toy quota. All four of our kids are happily employed and in love. Two are married, the other two are engaged. This is the day you wish for whenever your child suffers a broken heart. Not long after that call with my daughter, my husband reminded me of advice I’d

Last year, Connie’s column about her beloved Christmas rum cake made the dessert a hit with Parade readers, too! Find the recipe at parade.com/connie.

offered to a friend who admitted he was struggling with his newly engaged daughter’s choice of husband. “Don’t make her choose between you and the man she loves,” I had told him. “Find ways to love him, or you will lose her.” I’m brilliant, I swear, when it comes to directing other parents’ lives. “It was good advice,” my husband said, patting my back. “So, what would you tell him about the holidays?” Oh, ﬁne. Part Two of Connie’s Master Parenting Plan: Learn to share. I don’t want to push my kids away with my pouting, nor do I want to guilt them into showing up. I can always tell when I’ve pushed that button: “Mom” becomes “Mother” dragged out for ﬁve syllables and delivered with the sigh of a punctured tire. As in: [exhale] “Fine, Mo-th-er-er-er [exhale again], I’ll change all of my plans so that you …” There’s no satisfying end to that sentence, believe me. My new promise to our kids: You’re not responsible for my merry Christmas. No matter when you show up, it’s going to be a holiday in this joint. Every day of the year.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF CONNIE SCHULTZ

With our children grown and happily married or engaged, I’m suffering my own growing pain: sharing family time around the holidays By Connie Schultz

14 | DECEMBER 8, 2013

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Ask Marilyn By Marilyn vos Savant

My husband and sons almost always sputter with frustration when trying to switch lanes on the highway. They contend that the driver of the car behind them in the neighboring lane steps on the gas when he or she sees their signal light go on. In other words, they believe that other drivers deliberately speed up when they see that another vehicle is trying to pull into their lane ahead of them. I think it’s their imagination. For example, maybe when my husband or sons switch on their turn signals, they slow down, and this just makes it seem like the other driver is accelerating. What do you think? —Deborah Mathieu, Kennebunk, Maine

All three scenarios (yes, three) are common. (1) The other driver does indeed speed up. Why? He wants the lane changer to pull in behind him instead of in front of him. (2) The driver changing lanes

unconsciously slows down a bit, often because he’s checking his blind spot, which makes it appear that the other driver is speeding up. (3) The lane-changing driver slows down slightly (consciously or not, for some cautionary reason), which irritates the other driver and provokes him into speeding up. Why? The other driver doesn’t want to get stuck behind someone who appears to be a slower driver. ®

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Sunday With... ta beyond the talking points ou of Washington, that come out no especially now. Do you have a favorite memor of working memory T with Tim? tra We traveled together after H Hurricane Katrina and sa saw the damage ﬁrstha rsthand. We talked about tthe scope of the tragedy and its many layers, iincluding the role of the ggovernment. To see that th through his eyes wa really meaningwas fful. I’ve got a picture of the two of us from that trip on the set.

PARADE: Who would

you consider a big “get”” on Meet the Press? adiEdward Snowden or Vladiuld mir Putin. But I also would nlove it if more of the counke try’s emerging leaders, like thers Mark Zuckerberg and others uld from the tech world, would come on and talk about the oliway they’re impacting politics and information. nged How has the show changed during your five years there? nsition. That was an unusual transition. ted for Tim Russert [who’d hosted as really 17 years] died, which was hard. I had to be delicatee bet’s been cause this is a brand that’s at’s difaround for so long. What’s ferent now is that I feel more comfortable making it my own. People want politicians’ feet to be held to the ﬁre and to get

Wha What are your Sunda like? Sundays On Sund Sundays I’m up at five and in the ooffice by six. After aro the show, around midday, I flip an it’s all family. the switch and Our kids play sports, so we’re arou And we all running around. follow [the W Washington teams], although my daughter wants a limit to ho how much we disGet David’s kidcuss them at the table.

approved pancake recipe and see a clip of him dancing “Gangnam Do you cook? My wife is much better Style” at parade .com/gregory. than I am am, but we have a

running com competition over

David Gregory

The host of Meet the Press gets grilled on dream guests, setting up playdates, and busting out his dance moves

who makes better pancakes. Our kids are quite discriminating about how thin they are and if they’re the right size. There’s some great video of you dancing on the Today show—especially your “Gangnam Style” moves. That was funny because I didn’t know who Psy was until that morning. I went to his dressing room and said, “You need to teach me how to do this right now.” Savannah [Guthrie] says I cheated, but one has to prepare before a dance outing like that. My mother was a professional dancer, and I always liked to dance, even at my size [6-foot-5]. Do you watch any of the D.C.-based TV dramas? My wife loves Scandal, and I’m hooked on Homeland. Sometimes I ask news makers, off the record, what rings true about those shows and what’s ridiculous. I remember thinking that Brody texting Abu Nazir from the Situation Room [in Homeland] was pretty hysterical, knowing how that operates. What would people be surprised to know about you? That I’m as involved as I am with my kids. My wife, Beth, and I have an equal partnership in that way. I set up playdates and I’m a morning greeter for the car-pool line. I also make albums with the family photos. When the kids get older and go on their way, we’ll have all those pictures to revel in.

PHOTO: VIRGINIA SHERWOOD/NBC

nterview the president, nt, prep h interfor a roundtable with national leaders, take the kids to soccer—thesee are gs that just a few of the things ory’s might make David Gregory’s nday. to-do list on a typical Sunday. This month Gregory, 43,, marks ﬁve years as moderator off roNBC’s venerable news prough gram Meet the Press, though he’s also well known for dancing on the Today th show plaza. He chats with Jessica Wozinsky from the .C., home in Washington, D.C., ttorthat he shares with his attorn, and ney wife, Beth Wilkinson, their children, Max, 11, and d Jed. 8-year-old twins Ava and

18 | DECEMBER 8, 2013

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