About

Hi, my name is Maria. I am happily married to Lou, who puts up with my eccentricities (which only get worse with age—I am 46). We have three kids, all girls, and they are 26, 11, and 2. They are all from my body without any artificial assistance. My kids are well-adjusted, well behaved and well fed (but not obese). By day I am Chairman of the largest independent publisher left in America. But by night I am simply M.O.M. (which stands for Mean Old Mom). By the way, my kids like me a lot, but I do believe in tough love.

I don’t live on a farm. (But not many people do.) However, I did grow up on a farm—the first organic farm in America. I know a lot of farmers. And there is something primal about the farm life, which forges a deep connection between the cycles of nature and the simple things that make life worth living. I try to buy food directly from farmers I personally know, and have found that to be an enriching experience for everyone involved. It’s my dream to one day raise cashmere goats (to replace all the sweaters I have consumed), and I am building up the courage to keep some horses. Horse manure is great for roses. But for now, I have guinea hens. They eat ticks.

Most farms are in the country. I have noticed that the word country provokes a lot of different reactions from people, ranging from a feeling of patriotism to a feeling of scorn. I love the country. That’s where our food comes from. And I love country music, which I believe is the most underrated music in the world. And I’m not just talking about that old-fashioned country music (though I enjoy that too). I’m talking about new country. I am constantly looking for new inspiration, not afraid to find it in new things or in old things.

We listen to a lot of different types of music in my kitchen. I cook a lot. But I also keep it simple. My kitchen is the biggest room in the house. It’s where almost everything important happens (other than sleeping and writing and well, um…a few other things I will not mention). It’s where we have the best conversations, the best meals, and the best times. I am fortunate in that I have traveled a lot, eaten in some of the best restaurants in the world, and even have some friends who are chefs. (In my next life I want to be a restaurant reviewer.) But I keep coming back to the simple pleasure of home cooking in my own kitchen with my own family. I have learned more from my Italian mother- and father-in-law about making good food than I have from any famous chef. They are both 87 and have been married for over 60 years. Their kitchen is a crazy mess, but good things always come out of it. My own kitchen is the place where I gather my strength (accompanied by a cup of strong black coffee) to go out and tackle all the problems in the world.

So Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen is a blend of all these elements: love of family and simple good food fresh from the farm, instilling a sense of responsibility about making the world a better place and respecting nature, and doing it all with a good strong dose of love. I think there is an arc we all follow. First, you simply enjoy simple things (childhood). Then, you feel like there has to be something more and better out there, so you go searching and searching and feel like you will never know enough or experience enough and there is still something better or more out there somewhere (youth and adulthood). Suddenly, you reach a point (and maybe some people never reach it) where it’s all good. The old, the new, the unusual, the familiar, the complex, and the simple.

I have found that the hardest thing is to get to simple. Our minds and our society always want to complicate things—whether it’s a recipe or a relationship. But the truly best, most satisfying things are the simple things. And I will always come back to that at Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen…making the complicated simple, easy, and fun—while cooking up trouble and dishing out advice!