advertisement

Have apron, will cook

There is one habit Mary Lou Salato cannot — and will not — break when she is cooking; a habit that has led to some teasing.

She cannot cook without an apron tied around her waist.

“When I talk to my friends they will tell me our mothers wore aprons but we never do. I just always wear an apron,” she said. “Even when I go to their houses, sometimes I bring my own.

“It's an essential for me,” she said, adding that some friends now have aprons hanging in their kitchens just for her.

The 82-year-old Wheaton resident wears her apron a lot as her family and friends can rely on her to craft special treats and the classic Italian fare she was brought up on.

Yet when her four children were younger meals weren't always Italian. Mary Lou enjoyed variety, serving up menus that included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and roast beef and mashed potatoes, the dinner her now-grown kids still call “their favorite American meal.”

Still, an all-time family favorite is Italian meatballs, a recipe Mary Lou learned from her mother and that she has passed on to her daughters. She shares that recipe with us today and demonstrates it online.

“They say what do I do differently,” Mary Lou says of her recipe. “I tell them I don't know what I do different. I make them like my mother made them.”

When she moved from a house to a condo, Mary Lou left behind some kitchen helpers, such as the food processor, and relies on a small chopper and hand beater. But within her kitchen, she welcomes her 12 grandchildren and anticipates the day when her seven great-grandchildren will bake alongside her.

Mary Lou said her family has always connected baking with Grandma, and she will proudly pass the apron to a new generation.

“Talking about it now, I can picture them with me. I have a lot of fun baking with the girls,” she said. “That is some of our fondest memories ... some of my grandchildren who are now in their 20s will come over and will talk about baking with Grandma.”

And they talk about her holiday bread, a sweet bread infused with anise extract.

“My one grandson was at another grandmother's house and they all went around the table and had to thank God for something. When it came to Kevin's turn, he said ‘I thank God for my Grandma Lou's bread,” she said. “He now calls it Grandma's Bread. He doesn't call it Holiday Bread.”

Mary Lou doesn't plan to hang up her apron any time soon. She sees cooking as her therapy, adding she recently spent seven hours baking breads and cookies.

“I always tell my family ‘Put me in a kitchen, let me cook and I'm in heaven.'”

Italian Meatballs

Italian Wine Cookies

Holiday Bread

  Cook of Week Mary Lou Salato rolls ground beef, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese into golf-ball size portions. Bev Horne/bhorne@dailyherald.com
Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.