My name is Maria Lawton and I was born on the semi-tropical island
of Sao Miguel in the village called Rosario de Lagoa. When I was
six my parents and siblings moved permanently to the US. We settled
in southeastern Massachusetts, which has been a huge Portuguese
enclave for over a hundred years. The area has a rich history of
seafood and farming, and there are fantastic bakeries and butchers
and restaurants that prepare dishes in the traditional manner, but
what I craved most as an adult were the dishes my mother and
grandmother made when I was younger.
We lived in a three-family house in the city of New Bedford, and if
my mom wasn't cooking on the first floor I could be sure to go
upstairs and find my grandmother baking something on the second
floor. I have so many great memories of going up and down the
stairs to get tastes from their pans, but I didn't appreciate those
times until they were well in the past.
As my own family started growing I really wanted them to experience
the tastes and smells that I remember from those kitchens in that
triple-decker. Unfortunately, most of the recipes were lost to the
ages because my mother never wrote them down (or she intentionally
kept them incomplete in order to make sure her cooking always
tasted best!). I resolved a few years ago to recreate as many of
those recipes as I could and I enlisted my two sisters and all my
aunts and cousins for help. My quest brought me back to Sao Miguel
where I learned family recipes. It was such a joy to cook in my
aunt's kitchen and hear all the stories of my family. It was a trip
I plan on taking again to keep learning more. Being Azorean is
something I am very proud of: it is who I am and I make no
apologies about it.
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