Food and Family

For Melina Kanakaredes (CSI: New York's Stella Bonasera), food is an integral part of her family life.

Kanakaredes met her husband, Peter Constantinades, in 1989 at Ohio State University. For their first date, Constantinades mounted a local restaurant guide on the wall and threw a dart at it to choose where they would have dinner. Now that they have been married for nearly 14 years, Kanakaredes said that her husband still likes to make sure that they try new places. At new restaurants, he likes to try "five appetizers and two or three main courses just to taste them all."

When Kanakaredes was growing up, her family owned a candy store. Now, her husband's family owns a Greek restaurant called Tria in Powell, Ohio. Celebrations such as baptisms draw the extended family to the restaurant. Kanakaredes said that her daughters, Zoe and Karina Eleni, can be found grabbing tomatoes from the kitchen during these parties. "That's the funny part: You'll see a 3-year-old grab a stuffed grape leaf from a tray. … It's not exactly 'pizza Friday,'" she told USA Today.

Kanakaredes said that they are lucky to have "a large Greek family" which visits them often. Her husband cooks for "an army," which comes in handy when the relatives stop by. "When 20 of them are here, it's great because they eat all the leftovers," she said. It isn't just the extended family that benefits from Constantinades' love of food. Kanakaredes said that it is nice to sit down with her husband and children for dinner every night, an activity which "grounds us as a family." She said that it is "a wonderful time when you sit down around the table for dinner and discuss life. No matter where you are, it gives the semblance of normalcy to my crazy world."

The original article is from USA Today.

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