You also host friends and celebrities in your kitchen on your Food, Love, and Chaos with Caroline Manzo YouTube cooking show. If you could pick anyone, who would be your dream guest?
My dream celebrity to have in my kitchen, even though she’s no longer with us, would be Betty White. I thought she was just a gem. I love conversation. I love to hear people’s stories about their lives. She lived on her own terms. She was a warrior, and she just exuded kindness and laughter, and that’s what I love in my world.
Manzo’s first cookbook, “Food & Other Things I Love,” blends family stories with her favorite recipes.
Courtesy Chronicle Books
Cook with Caroline
Manzo shared three recipes from Food & Other Things I Love for AARP members to try:
One-Pan Branzino and Tomatoes
This dish screams summertime: It’s simple, it’s fresh, and it has a lot of vibrant flavors.
The Whole Garden Pasta Primavera
This pasta is like sunshine in a bowl.
Grilled Artichokes with Lemon Aioli
This is a perfect appetizer on its own or as part of an antipasti spread.
Like many Real Housewives cast members, you have had your fair share of drama. Do you have any tips for home cooks to kind of keep their kitchens drama-free?
If I had that answer, I would bottle it and be a billionaire! I just don’t know. I think the wisest thing is to pick your battles. If there’s drama around the kitchen, and if it doesn’t involve you, just skirt around it and try to ease it. Just don’t add fuel to the fire.
It seems like you stay busy and have endless energy. What do you do to keep healthy?
I walk at least 11,000 steps a day, sometimes 20,000. You know, I could do 4 miles or I could do 10 miles, depending on the day. Instead of sitting down, if I’m doing nothing, I’m walking. My eating habits have changed as well. I don’t eat nearly as much as I used to, and I stay away from cakes and sweets and things like that. I’m eating cleaner as I get older. I’ll never walk away from pasta, but instead of a large bowl, it’s smaller bowls and drinking tons of water, taking my vitamins, and things like that.
What is the best part about being a grandmother?
Everything? It’s a different kind of love. With my children, I let them fall and get hurt because you have to teach them to survive. Although it pains you to see, it’s very important for their growth. My grandchild [Marchesa “Markie” Anna Scalia, 7], on the other hand, if I could put her in a bubble and not have her shed a tear in her entire life, I would gladly do it. When you’re parenting, it’s more like survival, getting through the day. When you’re a grandparent, it’s just joy, because you look at them through very different eyes, through eyes of experience. With age, you’re a different person, and you have more patience, perhaps. It’s magical.
Dining and Cooking