Fabulicious!: On the Grill Smoking Hot Backyard Recipes

Teresa Giudice is the star of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey, now in its fourth season. She has been a regular fixture in the national media, appearing on the Today show, Entertainment Tonight, as well as on the covers of InStyle and People. She lives in northern New Jersey with her husband and four daughters. Visit her at Teresagiudice.com.

 

Heather Maclean has co-written Skinny Italian, Fabulicious! and Fabulicious: Fast & Fit. She lives in Michigan.

Teresa Giudice

There is no getting around the fact that Teresa Giudice got her start with the drama infused, table flipping, brawling families on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Upon meeting Teresa Giudice one is struck by how different she is from her TV persona. It not as if she doesn’t look like herself. She does and is some how able to keep herself glamorous in the midst of an overly hot and muggy day. This is where the similarities end. The New Jersey House Wife persona seems like a long way removed from the thoughtful articulate cookbook author discussing her latest (forth) book Fabulicious!: On the Grill.

Not one to rest on her  laurels Teresa has started Skinny Italian, her own food line of Italian food. (http://www.skinnyitalianfoods.com/). Then there is Fabellini her sparkling wine. She devotes time to NephCure (nephcurefoundaiton.com) rising awareness and money to fight FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome kidney disease. All this as the fifth season of The Real House Wives of New Jersey makes its’ debut.

Booksaboutfood.com recently met up with Teresa in New York City to talk about her new book.

Books About Food (BAF): You talk about how grilling is not just for men.

Teresa: That is really important because I just heard recently that I am, as a woman, the only person has a grilling book out there.  It is all men that have grilling books out there.

BAF: Because it is a male dominated thing?

Teresa: My whole thing is I talk about in the book like I grill in my bikini.  I don’t think it is just for men, I think women should do it too.  Grilling is hot, sexy and healthy that is one of my things.  Why is it healthy?  Because while you are grilling you are burning off the fat and I feel like it is for everyone, especially women should not be afraid to do it.  Empower it. Why not?

My husband and I both take turns.

BAF: You fight about who is going to bar-b-que?

Teresa: No, we are always entertaining.  If I am doing one thing then he will grill.  If he is just hanging out – usually if it is with the family then I will grill, but if we are having like a party like having a lot of people over, I am doing other things like preparing, marinating, cutting up the soppressata, the sausage, the cheese and all that then he starts to grill.  Sometimes I finish it off like that.

BAF: It is not just steaks and chops there is lighter fare.  It is nice that you cover things that are like fish and it is not just heavy meats

Teresa: That is all we eat is fish.  When I go to the beach and I crave fish like the clams, lobster, crabs – oh my God we makes crabs.  We put it in aluminum foil, clean them really good and then put white wine, a lot of garlic, olive oil, onion, and we just bake it in the grill and delicious.  You can even put that on linguine or you can have clams.  I have the clams in the book with the white wine, the olive oil, the garlic, we can put capers, if you do not like capers don’t put it and what I love is I like to add a little spice, hot pepper flakes and if you don’t want to you don’t have to.

BAF: What is your background with food and cooking?

Teresa: My background?  Just my parents are off the boat.  They were born in Italy.  I am first generation here, so I have watched my mom cook since I was a baby.  Whenever I wanted to help her in the kitchen she encouraged it and that is what I do with my four daughters.  I encouraged it because I want them to love cooking and I think it is important.  You can only eat out so much.  I feel like it messes with your stomach.

BAF: It is healthy to eat at home. 

Teresa: It is definitely healthier to cook at home and I think you are what you eat, I believe in that.  I feel that when you cook a lot of different things for your kids, your kids don’t become picky eaters.  My kids are not picky eaters, so I learned how to cook from my mom and we still make our own homemade sauce.  We do it in August and we make it for the whole year. 

We make our own sausage and we made 800 pounds this year and you will see that on the show (The Real Housewives of New Jersey).  We actually hang it and let it dry for a month and then we have it for the whole year.  My husband makes his own homemade wine.

BAF: Giving your kids food off the grill, kids are so picky especially when it comes to the grill they usually want hamburgers or hot dogs.  What about your children?

Teresa: My kids love crabs.  They love clams.  Whatever we make they eat.

BAF: How do you manage not going insane with all the pressure you must be feeling?

Teresa: You know what is good about this job?  Doing Housewives – we film like what four or five months – we start at the end of November – December, January, February, March, April, five months – so you are go five months and then you are off, so that is a good thing.  When you film, you are not filming every day, so they are some days that they give you one or two days off during the week.  Then when you film, you film a couple of hours a day.

Some days are longer then others and then now I have pretty much – three of my daughters are in school full-time and the baby she is three, she is in preschool.  I make my phone calls while they are in school and I still do everything.  I still do food shopping 

BAF: You mentioned in the cookbook, and earlier, about grilling in a bathing suit, so you have tried doing that?

Teresa: Oh yeah, all the time.

BAF: Does it really help keep you thin?

Teresa: Yeah because you are looking at yourself and you make sure that you watch what you eat.

BAF: You feel self-conscience, so it makes you eat less.

Teresa: I think so because you do not want to get bloated while you are in a bikini or even drink too much or anything.  What is great about food in my cookbook?  After I eat it, I don’t feel like bloated, I feel light.  I feel like it is not heavy and you are happy.  You have to eat to live.  I love eating.  I love food 

BAF: I think most people do.

Teresa: To me, it is much about food. Food and family, wine, good friends.  That to me is what life is about.

BAF: So what has been your favorite part or the ‘funnest’ part of writing your book?

Teresa: I just liked writing all the stories, that is like the ‘funnest’ part.  Like my all my fans say, “Your books are fun to read, like they are not boring.  You make cooking fun” and that is what I want to do.  I am like a fun high person.  I am always happy.  I am always happy going.  I don’t let to many things get to me and that is what I want my book to come across.  I want it to be fun.

That is what I have gotten from a lot of fans that a lot of their kids in high school are trying cook and the moms are coming up to me and saying, “Oh my God, you have inspired my daughter to cook.  Thank you” and girls at college, even boys at college they are cooking like they are coming to buy my book.  They are learning how to cook which I think is a good thing.

Like I say, it is good to cook your own food because I feel like in America, there is like a lot of overweight people.  They always eat out, is not good.  My whole thing I love to use a lot of ingredients, simple, and buy fresh food, fresh ingredients.

Authentic, I am all about being authentic….I want to get the old traditions, what my parents did in Italy, I want to keep it going.  That is how I show my daughters and even my fans.

BAF: You have written several books now.  It is getting any easier to get them out?

Teresa: Yeah, I think now I am proven.  It was my first cookbook I was just like – you are not sure if it is going to sell.  You are like, oh you know I hope, but I knew if people just tried my recipes I know they are going to love them and they did.  I mean you are always still nervous at the time your book comes out, you want it to do well, but I feel like I have proven myself now.

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