My ancestors were from four different places; Poland; Germany; Hungary; and Italy. But I grew up in a family that felt 100 percent Italian, especially when we met up with my mother’s side (which is where the Italian is from); lots of ridiculously loud people talking at the same time with lots of ridiculously good food. This is one of the prominent reasons I love my family; the fact that we all get together and make meals, even if you are not cooking you are around the people who are. Quite a couple of my favorite moments with my extended family were while we were making food. I bet you are thinking that I care about food more than I do the people eating it, but if you grew up in a big family of any background, you know that cooking is a social event.

The kitchen is my favorite room in any household because it is the hub of activity; everyone gathers around while food is being made to talk with the people making food or to watch and learn something. When I was younger, and up to this day, I have sat in the kitchen with my mother watching her make all of these meals with such love and care for our family. It is still one of my favorite activities to do with my mother, because there is still so much to learn. I learn some little secret or a new way to do something every time I cook or bake with one of my family members.

For a long time, I thought that every family did this -- made homemade food for every meal -- until I got older and met kids who went out to eat more than they cooked at home. That is when I truly started appreciating my family dinners, because a meal is so much more than eating food. Sometimes that was the only time during the day that all six of my family members were in the same place for more than a couple of minutes.

Now the dinner table is infested with cell phones that take away from these moments to be together. I try to forbid my family from having phones when we are at the dinner table, but that only works sometimes. While I was working the other day my boss said to me, “Dogs are so good at living in the moment; they are happy wherever they are, doing whatever they are doing. That’s something we need to learn from them.” I know it is something that I work on every day; I go to pick up my phone when I am bored and then I try to yell at myself so I can break that habit.

I encourage you to make a meal with your family without any electronic devices, just have your family be present together. And maybe your family doesn’t cook often -- you’ll all mess up and it will make a funny story for later. Even with the way my family cooks every night, we mess up and make something completely new and unexpected, and those are the recipes you write down and keep forever. I implore you to make some home-cooked love; in my opinion, there is nothing in the world like it.