Fond memories

[ricksrealpitbbq]

Funny how when you're young you can't appreciate the good times.
I'm Italian and grew up in a very traditional Italian household which meant every Sunday we had dinner at Grandma's and Granpa's house. All the aunts and uncles as well as all the cousins were there without fail. There was never an acceptable excuse to miss Sunday's meal. Every Sunday morning my dad and I would go to grandma's for breakfast. As soon as we went through the outdoor door to her first floor kitchen door, we were hit with the smell of maxwell house coffee, (the Medaglia D'Oro was only used for special occasions) Opening the door released the fragrant aroma of meatballs and braciola being fried up in the biggest pan I've ever seen. As was the normal custom, Grandma would save a few meatballs from going in the gravy just for my breakfast. Fresh bread from the oven, some melted butter and those meatballs made the best breakfast I've ever had. I still to this day insist that my wife always put a few meatballs aside for me, so I can relive those happy moments. After breakfast I had to help Grandpa in the garden if it was summer, or in the wine cellar in the fall and winter. After a few hours we'd go home to make sure mom and my sister were awake. And then we'd get ready for lunch time back at Grandma's house. There was always a homemade chicken soup w/ more tiny meatballs of course, a macaroni course and the roasted chicken with potatoes. Every so often we'd have homemade ravioli that I defy anyone to eat more than 6 without being stuffed. Nobody ever left hungry. And then we'd have some sort of pastries for desert. Being that I walked home from school right past Grandma's meant I got to stop in on a regular basis for afternoon snacks too

Just thought I'd share some fond memories

[Mama Mangia]

Thank you for sharing! It was like that with my family - except everyone came to our house - including gram and gramps.

We baked and cooked for an army - a hungry army.


I've always felt lucky to be Italian because of all the good cooking and baking.

[ricksrealpitbbq]

Mama since you are Italian maybe you can help me out. I'm trying to remember the name of a dish my grandmother used to make. It was made with the yellow flowers from the zucchini plants. I remember they were dipped in egg and fried, but that's all I remember.

[Mama Mangia]

fried zucchini flowers, or fried squash flowers, etc.

make a batter from flour, baking powder, salt, egg, salt, pepper and egg - dip and fry till golden - about 3 minutes per side in hot oil

some added cornmeal or used beer

and did you ever have them stuffed with ricotta cheese filling?

[ricksrealpitbbq]

I seem to remember a filling of some sort now that you mention it

[Mama Mangia]

sometimes they were stuffed with the cheese and maybe they would add some chopped mushrooms

Fiori di Zucca or Zucchina - now do you remember?

[ricksrealpitbbq]

Yup that's it Mama I couldn't think of it for some reason

[Mama Mangia]

you made me think for sure - I don't get to use my Italian much these days - besides - everything in this country has to be written and orally spoken in Spanish!

If they are going to put instructions/ingredients on products in Spanish - I think they should also have them printed on the label in Italian, German, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Bulgarian, Slavic, Swedish, Gaelic, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, Indonesian, etc, etc, etc. Just to be fair to everyone.

[Mama Mangia]

One of these days I am going to write a letter to one of these big companies and ask them to add Italian - should be interesting in what they say.

[ricksrealpitbbq]

And just how many other countries accommodate us English speakers ?????