Palatine mother, daughter find balance in the kitchen
By Abby Scalf
Daily Herald Correspondent
Carolyn Dileo and her daughter Kate joke they have a good partnership in their Palatine kitchen.
The family can always rely upon mom to provide a flavorful and healthy meal, and they can rely on Kate to provide dessert.
"It's your never-ending struggle to keep us healthy, and it's my never-ending goal to prevent that from happening," Kate, 18, says to her mom.
Bringing Kate and her siblings, Mary, 19, and Bob, 15, into the kitchen was important to Carolyn, who lost her mom at age 7. Her father would provide meals by taking them to restaurants. Then at age 12, her Aunt Ruth came to help them, and Carolyn remembers learning to cook. Everything was made from scratch.
But at age 16, Carolyn was given the responsibility to make the family meals. She recalls it was not always a success, such as trying to make homemade noodles. But her dad encouraged her. She had successes too, making stir fry and pizza cups, filling muffin dough with pizza fillings.
"He'd say try whatever you want to make. If it doesn't work out, we'll get pizza," she said. "I'd give him a list of ingredients and I'd just wing it."
Living on her own, Carolyn worried about mistakes that would cause her to waste food. Later, when she had a family, it became more important to be inventive.
"I am a master of making food out of nothing. To this day, if you give me a loaf of bread and eggs, I can make something out of it," Carolyn said. "It's important to learn you can feed yourself with not a lot of food."
Whether she is working with limited ingredients from the store or reinventing leftovers from a restaurant, Carolyn creates meals often thanks to inspiration from her old cookbooks. Favorite dishes include chicken tetrazzini, chicken crepes, beef stew and chili. Carolyn also credits husband, John who will make an Italian feast including homemade spaghetti sauce with pasta and pizzas.
Carolyn often finds inspiration trying to replicate dishes they've enjoyed at restaurant. A favorite: the turkey burger.
"We took ground turkey, seasoned it like crazy. I must have put two teaspoons of Italian seasoning in there, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, egg and bread crumbs. I mix it with my hands. Don't overmix it," she said. "I like to set up a burger bar with the accessory ingredients, so that everyone gets a sandwich that is especially to their liking just as if you ordered it at the restaurant. My son's friends were recently visiting and were impressed by the variety offered. One boy said, 'I like turkey burgers. I've never had turkey burgers, but I really like them.'"
Carolyn also likes to explore other cuisines, too. After visiting an Ethiopian restaurant, she created a meal including doro wat, chicken in a red pepper paste and mesir wat, a red lentil puree. She also has brought India home, making chicken tikka masala and tried a Mexican dish, chicken tinga including shredded chicken, a sauce including jalapeños and adobos, white beans and tomatoes.
But the key to making the family meal is not just making something fast. After losing 25 pounds, Carolyn said her focus is offering healthier choices. Rarely offering red meat, they've also removed any packaged or processed foods. Carolyn has become so inspired about healthier eating that she has returned to school and started a two-year program to become a dietary technician. Learning the struggle that one faces to stay healthy, she wants to help others.
"I want them to know it's not something you can't do," she said, adding it's something you can do without feeling hungry.
Wanting to inspire her kids early to be in the kitchen, she chose cake because it was easy to add mix to water and add to the microwave. Perhaps it's no surprise now that when Kate is in the kitchen, her passion is providing something sweet.
"I have a total sweet tooth," Kate says. "She always has us try to be healthy. But we've always got flour, sugar, eggs. Is she going to say I can't bake something and pursue my hobby?"
To mom, it is no surprise that Kate loves to bake. Starting this fall at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Kate loves to explore the science within baking, how ingredients work together in a specific formula to create something delicious.
"Cooking is more about experimentation. Baking is an exact science. The same ingredients can make something completely different depending on what is added and what is done to it," Kate said.
Kate's specialties are tarts. Creating her own crust, her most popular creations include salted caramel and a four-layer chocolate and banana tart with pastry cream. And she's started to delve into the world of cakes, making a layered funfetti cake with white chocolate whipped ganache and dark chocolate glaze for her birthday earlier this month.
"Making a cake is very different from other types of baking," she said. "A lot of it has to do with the art of it, getting even layers, getting the crumb coat and the frosting."
Living with an allergy to raw fruits and vegetables, Kate has turned that around to create perhaps healthier desserts, too. Cutting peaches in half, she tops them with brown sugar and cinnamon and bakes at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.
She also found a way the whole family can enjoy fruits by creating syrups. Combining equal amounts of sugar and water in a saucepan and mashing in the fruit, Kate creates a syrup that she then stores in large Mason jars. The syrup is used to top waffles and added to seltzer water to make soda.
Some desserts, Kate admits, she will not try to make because her mom just does it better.
"I can't make your recipe for brownies. It's too good. I'm not going to try to make another recipe. Those are already the best," she said.
Both Carolyn and Kate have dishes they'd still like to try. Inspired by a London trip with choir, Kate wants to recreate Banoffee pie, an English dessert made with bananas, toffee, unsweetened whipped cream atop a base made from crumbled biscuits and butter.
And while she wants to explore new cuisines including Cuban, Carolyn said her goal is to make a perfect roast.
"That is something I think we could master," Carolyn said. "I mean seriously we can make crepes, but we can't make a roast. C'mon, this is ridiculous."
• To suggest someone to be profiled here, send the cook's name, address and phone number to food@dailyherald.com.