Orange Salad Gramma’s Between Course Palate Cleanser

Gramma Rinaldi’s holiday dinners were more like attending an event than just a family gathering. Being together during the holiday was an important part of her meal planning. Everyone looked forward to the traditional dishes she served at every holiday. We each had a favorite dish that we couldn’t wait to savor.

Gramma’s meals usually consisted of four main courses; soup, several entrees, salad, and dessert. However, in between each course she believed in serving what she termed a palate cleanser. Soup was served with homemade bread, appetizers before entrees, salad was served after the main course, and then another palate cleanser before dessert. Sometimes it was celery stalks soaked in anisette, or my favorite, orange salad.

After dessert, the women and girls cleared off the tables, cleaned the dishes and kitchen. Finally, we all sat around the table with bowls filled with mixed nuts. Nutcrackers and picks in hand we got down to cracking open those nuts, picking out the tasty morsels, and enjoying the last palate cleanser of the meal. While nibbling on the nuts, some of us played cards or took out Gramma’s Pokeno game to play. The men sat around smoking cigars, sipping glasses of red wine, and talking. Neighbors and family members drifted in and out throughout the day picking at the leftovers until it was time to head home to bed. If you were lucky, you got to take home a piece of your favorite part of the meal to enjoy again the next day.

Gramma’s Orange Salad

• 3 peeled and sectioned navel oranges

• 1 can of drained large black olives

Drizzle with olive oil and toss. Sprinkle with black pepper.

Side notes:
For a light lunch add shrimp, red onion, baby spinach, and a splash of balsamic vinegar to the above. Or, go crazy and add a bit of sliced fennel. Experiment with different flavor combinations to make it your own.

The Manilla Recipe Connection

I haven’t felt like myself at all lately. I lost another job! What are the odds of losing two jobs in a one year time period? My ego has definitely been deflated. But, I have a great family and several good friends that have been very supportive. I’ve made a decision to work as a temp; that way if I do not like the job assignment I know that it won’t last forever and something new is just around the corner. This new endeavor has caused my creative juices to flow again. I’ve vowed to try new things, meet new people, experience new eateries, and experiment with new recipes.

My cousin Greg met a lovely young woman from Manilla named Jyrene. Since I had so much time on my hands, I started playing Café World on Facebook and discovered that Jyrene plays the game too. We took our Facebook gaming one step further and began to e mail one another too. Jyrene mentioned that she was interested in cooking. We began swapping messages on our likes and dislikes about food. I told her about my blog and promised to send her some family recipes. In turn, she promised to send me some of her favorite recipes too. So in keeping with experiencing new things and meeting new people, I am posting Jyrene’s recipe for Pork Sinigang. Enjoy!

Pork Sinigang Ingredients

• 3/4 kilo Pork, cut into chunks

• 3 tomatoes, sliced

• 2 onions, diced

• 5 cloves of garlic, minced

• 100 grams Kangkong (river spinach)

• 100 grams String beans

• 2 pieces horse radishes, sliced

• 3 pieces gabi (taro), pealed

• 2 pieces sili pag sigang (green finger pepper)

• 200 grams sampalok (tamarind)

• 3 tablespoons of patis (fish sauce)

Directions

• Boil sampalok in water until the shell shows cracks. Let cool then peel off the shells and with a strainer, pour samplalok (including water) into a bowl. Gently massage the sampalok meat off the seeds, strain again.

• In a pot, sauté garlic and onion then add the tomatoes. Let simmer for 5 minutes.

• Add pork and fish sauce . Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes then add the gabi. Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes or until the pork is tender.

• Add the horse radish and simmer for 10 minutes then add the string beans, kangkong and sili (for spice-optional). Let boil for 2 minutes.

• Serve piping hot.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate: The Best Flavor Combination

I needed to tame a craving today but my taste buds couldn’t decide between sweet or salty. As I thumbed through my recipes, I thought, yum, peanut butter and chocolate is really the best combination of flavors when the craving requires both sweet and salty tastes. I searched though all my recipe books and could not find anything that was easy to make. Then, remembered that my Grandmother- in-law, Goo Goo, used to make candy. I dug out one of her candy recipes for Peanut Butter and Pretzel Truffles.



Gwen Hopkins was called Goo Goo by all of her grandchildren. She was a kind, most generous person that anyone would love to have as a grandmother. She was a classic. Her long, thick, gray hair was always perfectly piled on top of her head surrounded by a crown of braided hair. I very rarely, if ever, remember Goo Goo when she wasn’t in a dress, hose, and chunky heeled pumps on her little feet. Everybody just loved Goo Goo.



When Goo Goo was a working woman, she handmade chocolates at the Williams Candy Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I guess she would be called a chocolatier. I now wish I took more interest in her craft and copied down more of her candy recipes. She made absolutely wonderful cold fudge, which was a favorite of mine and is now lost forever. However, I did find her recipe for Peanut Butter and Pretzel Truffles. Since I could not actually make chocolate, she said I could melt my favorite chocolate instead.



Peanut Butter and Pretzel Truffles

Ingredients:

• ½ cup crunchy peanut butter

• ¼ cup of chopped salted pretzels

• ½ cup melted chocolate

• Cocoa Powder

Combine peanut butter and pretzels. Chill in freezer about 15 minutes.

Scoop out one teaspoon of mixtures and roll into balls.

Place on cookie sheet and freeze. Approx. 1 hour.

Dip frozen balls in melted chocolate.

Put dipped balls in refrigerator until almost set. Approx. 10 min.

Roll in cocoa powder. (If desired) Chill until firm.

I've Been Thinking About Aunt Carmel

I have been thinking about Aunt Carmel today. I was digging through some old pictures trying to find a certain one for my friend Tammy’s web blog and came across a few pictures of Aunt Carmel. I fondly remember a day that Aunt Carmel picked me up in her light green Chevy Impala to spend the day picnicking and swimming at a local state park. The windows were rolled down, the radio was playing hits from the 60’s, and we were on our way. Wind in our hair, Aunt Carmel, her sons, Kenny and Robert, and I sang along with the tunes on the radio as we chugged along the highway. Chugged being the operative word, because Aunt Carmel always drove below the speed limit. She was driving so slow that we were pulled over by a state policeman and she was issued a ticket for driving under the minimum speed. Ticket or not that did not stop us from our day at the park. What Aunt Carmel lacked in race car driving abilities, she definitely made up for in picnic basket culinary talents.

 

What I loved best about picnicking with Aunt Carmel was her picnic basket lunches. She loved to take us on outings that involved picnics. Her picnic basket was always filled with great home cooked foods. No PB&J sandwiches for Aunt Carmel. She did not even break out the grill for plain old hot dogs and hamburgers. Her basket usually contained cold fried chicken, antipasto, homemade pizzas, or my favorite, rice balls. I think I was the only kid more interested in lunch than swimming. Aunt Carmel could quite honestly put Julia Child to shame. When she made rice balls, every family member devoured them with gusto and fought over the last few left on the table. We could not get enough of them.

 

 In honor of Aunt Carmel, I am posting her rice ball recipe.

 

Aunt Carmel’s Rice Balls

Ingredients:

• ½ lb. each chicken liver and gizzards 
• 1 lb. can crushed tomatoes 
• ½ cup olive oil 
• 1 clove crushed garlic  
• ½ cup chopped parsley 
• 1 tsp. basil 
• Salt & pepper to taste 
• 1 lb. uncooked rice 
• 1 lemon 
• ¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tblsp. cinnamon
• 1 beaten egg
• Plain bread crumbs

Directions:

1. In a medium sized pot cover gizzards’ in water and boil one hour.
2. Add livers and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Save water and set aside.
4. Cut all the meat off the gizzards, discard gummy parts.
5. Finely chop the gizzards and livers.
6. In another pot, combine the chopped meat, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, parsley, basil, salt, and pepper. Cook sauce for one hour until oil forms on top. And cool.
7. Boil the rice in the set aside meat water for 17 minutes. (Do not rinse, set aside to cool.)
8. To the cooled rice add the meat sauce, juice of one lemon, grated cheese, cinnamon, and egg.
9. Form into oblong shape balls, dip into beaten eggs and then roll in plain bread crumbs.
10. Fry in deep oil.
11. Drain on paper towels and serve.

Aunt Carm sometimes also baked these rice balls but she never explained how long or at what temperature. Then again, almaost everthing she taught me was at 350 degrees? Give it a healthier shot; experiment baking them, I'm sticking to frying.

 

Everyone Likes Macaroni Salad

In every family, at every picnic, someone always brings macaroni salad. The ingredients vary from family to family depending upon who will or won’t eat certain ingredients. Everyone has a favorite macaroni salad concoction usually based on whatever was traditionally served throughout childhood.

In my immediate family household, my brother, Alex, was a fussy, plain eater. So, mom made a separate bowl for him consisting of macaroni, hard boiled egg, celery, and mayo only. I hated the sweet pickles that she chopped up in the salad. She would put them in a little bowl and served them on the side for her and dad. When she had enough of me and Alex complaining about the ingredients, she would just mix it all together, told us to eat it, and it was up to us to pick out the stuff we wouldn’t eat. That drove her nuts too, so most of the time I ate the pickles to keep out of trouble. Not Alex, he could hold out a lot longer than I could. He could spend hours picking out little bits of “unjins” and sweet pickles. When all else failed we could always try the gagging routine, which usually ended up with a “backhander” across the top of the head; then, being sent to bed and no TV.

Mom varied the ingredients over the years; with or without grated carrots, sometimes the hardboiled eggs were sliced, paprika-ed and laid on the top, sometimes they were chopped up and mixed in. The dressing varied too. At times, sour cream or even yellow mustard was added to the mayonnaise. But, the three basic ingredients remained the same; elbow macaroni, chopped celery, and onions. She sometimes experimented with adding olives, shrimp, peas, or green peppers. Dad would eat anything she put in her macaroni salad. Alex and I dreaded any variation from the norm.

Over the years, I’ve eaten many versions of macaroni salad with every kind of crazy additional ingredients. What it all boils down to is this; we eat what we like and pretty much don’t care for the exotic additions. We’ll worry about the calories consumed at the family picnic tomorrow. I made macaroni salad today because it is traditionally on the Labor Day, end of summer, picnic menu. This is what I concocted.

Macaroni Salad

• 1# box of small sea shell pasta (because that’s what I had in the pantry) cook according to package directions

• 4 roughly chopped stalks of celery

• ½ of a large vadalia onion, minced

• 6 chopped hard boiled eggs

• 1 finely grated carrot

• ½ # salad shrimp

• 2 tblsp. dry parsley

Dressing: (all ingredients are equal - per Mom-Mom)

• 6 heaping tblsp. light mayonnaise (any mayo will do too)

• 6 tblsp. sugar

• 6 tblsp. evaporated milk (any milk will do too)

• 6 tblsp. wine vinegar ( I like to mix both wine and tarragon)

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and sprinkle top with paprika. Chill and serve.

Whose Recipe Is It Anyway?

Mom Mom, my ex mother-in-law, called us today and asked if we would send written copies of her recipes. I needed to clarify just what she meant by “her” recipes. Over the years, every dish that anyone in the family said that they liked suddenly became one of “her” recipes. When confronted by the originator of the recipe, she would then admit that the recipe was originally not hers but she made it better. Usually better meant that she added a few tablespoons of butter or her favorite herb; dill.

It’s not that Mom Mom isn’t a good cook. Hands down she makes the best pies I’ve ever eaten and we certainly love her Bum Stew and Green Bean Soup. But, we’re not sure whether or not to give her credit for some of her other recipes. For example, Mom Mom’s sister-in-law and rival, Aunt Jean, made delicious crab au gratin for us on many occasions. Mom Mom would ask her over and over for the recipe but Aunt Jean would not give it to her. For years, she bugged Aunt Jean for that recipe. Finally, Aunt Jean gave in and handed over the recipe. The first time Mom Mom made the crab dish for us, she asked, “ Didn’t mine come out better than Jean’s?” In unison we all answered, “Yes, Mom Mom yours is better.” If we didn’t agree, she would hound you into submission. The only way to enjoy the meal was agree that her version was better. After making the crab recipe over and over it became hers. Aunt Jean never again got credit for the crab au gratin recipe.

Maybe every family has their recipe divas, mine is no exception. I once found a Campbell Soup recipe for meatball stew which I made when my parents came over for dinner. They liked the meal very much and my mom asked me to write down the recipe for her. Much later, my cousin Richard went to visit my mom; he told me that she made this really great meatball stew. He asked her where she learned to make such a tasty dish and she said she couldn’t remember where she got the recipe since she’s been making it for years. I guess both me and the Campbell Soup Company will never get the credit for giving my mom the recipe.

I’m no exception. My mother taught me how to make clams and linguini in a white garlic butter sauce. Every time I make the dish everyone asks for the recipe. I even put the recipe on allrecipes.com and it’s received 5 star ratings from many reviewers. I never gave my mom credit for the recipe either. And, Mom Mom tells everyone that the clams and “lou-guini” recipe is hers! I don’t know if my mom was the originator of the recipe of if someone else taught her how to make the dish. So to honor my mom, here is her version of clams and linguini in a white sauce.

Clams and Linguini

Ingredients:
2 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams, with juice
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried parsley
ground black pepper to taste
1/4 tablespoon dried basil
1 (16 ounce) package linguini pasta

Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile prepare the sauce. Combine clams with juice, butter or margarine, vegetable oil, minced garlic, parsley, basil, and pepper in a large saucepan. Place over medium heat until boiling. Serve warm over pasta.

Pane Della Terra In The Backyard Oven

Like my grandparents, many families in our neighborhood had outdoor, backyard brick ovens. Gramma Mollico baked bread in that oven for many, many years. My dad told me that she called the bread, pane della terra; bread of the earth. By the time I was born, the oven in our backyard was dismantled and the base was used as part of the clothesline system my grandfather assembled in the backyard. He attached a tall pole to the base and had clotheslines running across the backyard from our third floor apartment and Aunt Katie’s second floor back porch. Gramma Rinaldi could walk outside and put her clothes basket on top of it while she hung out her clothes to dry. Our family moved the traditional bread baking to inside the house. But, I do remember Mrs. Galasso next door baking bread in her backyard oven. She did not speak English but knew that the kids hung around her to get a crust of her hot bread fresh from the oven.

I’m not a bread baker. I always thought anything having to do with yeast is just too difficult to master. Every one in a while, I think about buying a bread making machine but that just seems so against the centuries old art of bread making. Even after Gramma Mollico died, her daughter, Gramma Rinaldi, and every one of my aunts baked bread in their kitchen ovens. For some reason, probably the same as mine, my mother never baked bread for us. Then again every time any one of the women in the house baked bread, we always received a loaf of bread. So, Mom never had to bake bread. Maybe it had to do with her being Polish; her mother never baked bread either. Maybe her family did not carry on the tradition of bread baking. I haven’t passed on the art of bread baking to my daughter either. My reasoning is because it takes up too much of my time and you can find pretty good bread at the market.

It’s sad that a traditional food staple has been reduced to buying bread from the supermarket after centuries of making it at home. The saying, “good as sliced bread” is lost on me because I do not like store bought, white sliced bread. I search out freshly baked, crusty bread every time I step in the market. And, I am willing to pay top dollar for good bread. There is nothing in the world like hot bread with cold butter; I could eat the whole loaf. I cringe every time my daughter brings home plain, white sliced bread packed in a plastic sleeve. She likes the bland, soft, store bought white bread. I guess because she never tasted pane della terra.

My Aunt Angie, dad’s older sister, baked bread all the time. When she baked bread, she baked numerous loaves and just like Gramma, everyone got a loaf of Aunt Angie’s bread. Her kitchen always smelled so great when she baked bread. She baked all kinds of bread; white, wheat, raisin, and my dad’s favorite, sausage. Me, I just loved her crusty, white bread.

Happily, her daughter, Carole, carries on the family tradition, so the family art of bread making isn’t totally lost. Hopefully, one of her daughters will learn to bake bread and carry on the tradition without the use of a bread machine.

Gramma Grace Rinaldi Bread Recipe

· 3 Sm. Packages yeast
· 3-4 Cups Warm Water
· 3 tsp. Salt
· 1 Stick Butter
· 5 Lbs Flour
· ½ Cup Lard
· 2 eggs (optional)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt and butter. Knead in flour, eggs, and lard. Use judgement if necessary to add more warm water to make dough. Put dough in a large bowl, cover and let rise. Punch down and let rise again. Cut enough dough to fill bread pan half way up. Spritz oven with water and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Note: Since I can’t bake bread and really wanted to give it a shot when we bought self rising flour by mistake. I tried a recipe that I found on the All Recipes.com website and it actually came out pretty good. However, the second day it tasted kind of stale. So, eat it on the day it’s baked.

BEER BREAD

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups self-rising flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer, room temperature
1/4 cup margarine, melted

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch baking pan
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and beer. Mix just until blended. Scoop into prepared baking pan. Pour melted margarine on top of loaf
Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

She's a Nice Girl but Can She Make Sauce?

She’s a Nice Girl but Can She Make Sauce?

Sauce is an important part of our family cuisine. More accurately, it’s a staple food. Everyone in my family can make home made sauce. By sauce I don’t mean gravy, marinara, carbonara, alfredo, or pesto; I mean plain, old traditional non-chunky, tomato sauce. Oh, there are many versions of “the sauce,” even in my own family, but great-gramma Mollico’s plain ordinary sauce still stands the test of time. The first thing my Polish mother had to learn to cook once she married my Italian father was sauce. Same thing happened to me when I married a Welshman, even he had to have “the sauce.” Non-Italian family members become blood relative Italians once they master making of or craving of “the sauce.” The alternative acceptance into the family is surviving someone conning the new comer into eating the hottest pepper ever grown without passing out dead. Which by the way, has happened every time my cousins or I brought a new potential friend to a family gathering; the hot pepper test has driven away many a suitor.

The making of the sauce used to be a long drawn out process that started with planting garden tomatoes. Dozens and dozens of tomato plants covered Grampa Rinaldi and the surrounding neighborhood back yards in lieu of harvesting plump, red, juicy tomatoes in preparation of the annual sauce making ritual. In late summer, the tomatoes were gathered in wooden bushel baskets and carried down into the cellar and upstairs kitchens in Grampa’s house. Both Grammas Mollico and Rinaldi, Aunt Katie, and Millie, from next door, cooked the tomatoes and spring water in huge pots on top of both her stoves. The whole house would smell like stewed tomatoes. They stirred up the mixture with, what looked like to me, small oars until the tomatoes were stewed just right. Then, the canning process began.

First the tomatoes were put through a sieve. Gramma and her helpers spend hours cranking the handle on the sieves that removed the tomato skins and seeds. Once the skins and seeds were separated from the tomatoes, the puree was poured into shiny, cleaned, mason jars. Gramma brought cases of new Mason jar lids from Uncle Jim’s store so that the jars would be sealed properly. Once the jars cooled, they were stacked on the shelves that Grampa built down in the cellar. All the helpers got to bring home their share of the prized canned tomatoes as payment for helping Gramma. Our family never had to buy a jar of Ragu when Gramma was alive. All we had to do was go down the cellar and pick up a jar.

Sadly, the tomato harvesting and canning is now a lost art in our family. Even my Mom, buys cans of tomato puree in the grocery store. As a kid, I loved hanging around watching and listening to the woman chatting away about all kind of things as they were cooking. And, I can now barely even remember the smells that radiated from Gramma’s kitchen.

While I was pregnant and off from work on maternity leave, I had Gramma Rinaldi teach me how to cook. My Welshman husband had the sauce craving really bad so I would call Gramma and tell her what we wanted for dinner. She would tell me what to get from the store. I would bring the groceries to her house and we would talk and cook. Just like her and her canning helpers did when I was small. She knew I would never go through all the trouble of canning tomatoes so she adapted her recipe so that I could make sauce from store bought canned tomatoes. She said to always buy Contadina tomato products because they tasted the closest to her canned tomatoes. Gramma rarely wrote any recipes down on paper, so I wrote down what she taught me.

Gramma Grace Rinaldi's Spaghetti Sauce

1 Lb Pork Butt or Country Style Spare Ribs
Olive Oil
2 Cloves Crushed Garlic
2 Large cans of Tomato Puree
¾ can of water (use tomato puree can)
2 Small (6 oz) cans of Tomato Paste
1 can of water from the tomato paste can
3 Whole Bay Leaves
Sweet Basil
Garlic Powder or crushed garlic cloves
Onion Powder
Oregano
Parsley
Grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese
Salt
Pepper
Sugar, “only if the tomatoes taste bitter.”

Brown pork and garlic in enough olive oil to cover the bottom on a Dutch oven type pan.
Add the tomato puree, tomato paste, and the water from both sized cans. (I think Gramma used the cans to measure the water in order to get every bit of the tomato to come out of the cans. My family doesn’t waste anything.)
Add each of the other ingredients one at a time by sprinkling enough of each to lightly cover the whole top of the pan. Go easy on the salt and sugar. After you add everything use your own taste to judge as to whether or not you have enough of the herbs and cheese flavors coming through the tomatoes.
Let everything come to a boil, then simmer at least two hours.
The longer the sauce simmers the thicker it gets. Gramma said not to add cold water to the sauce if it gets too thick. Add only warm water or the tomatoes will get “bitter.”

If you add meatballs, fry them first before placing them in the sauce. Remember, meatballs will soak up the sauce too.

Gramma’s Meatballs

3 Lbs ground beef
1 Lb lean ground pork
2 Eggs
Garlic
Parsley
Grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese
Salt
Pepper
Stale “day old” white bread
Olive Oil

In a large bowl, add meat, eggs, garlic, parsley, cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Run a couple handfuls of stale bread under running water to moisten. Squeeze all the water out of the bread and add to meat mixture. (if no day old bread is available, sprinkle enough dry Italian style bread crumbs to heavily cover the entire top of meat mixture in the bowl.) Mix well and roll into small balls. Fry in olive oil, brown well on all sides of ball, and add to sauce pot.

Everything I Learned as a Kid Came from Annie

Cousin Annie lived downstairs in the second floor apartment of Grampa Rinaldi’s house. My parents, brother, and I lived in the third floor apartment. Gramma and Grampa lived on the first floor. A very steep set of stairs separated me from Annie, but that never stopped me from bounding down the stairs any time of day or night to be with Annie. As small children we were together every single day. I hated it when she started school and I couldn't go with her just because I was one year too young to start kindergarten at St. Anthony’s School. I’m sure I bugged the heck put of her asking questions about what happened at school. I was so afraid that she would make too many new friends and leave me behind. I already played second fiddle next to Mary Ruth Valenino, her girlfriend up the street. I prayed to the Virgin Mary that Annie would always be like a sister to me and never go away.

As we grew up, whenever Annie learned anything new she would fill me in on the information. She clued me in on who had cooties and not to eat “mookey” pizza. Even secrets like, Mary Ruth and her liked Frannie Masarro, the neighborhood dream boy. Even though my mom taught me about sex from her nursing school medical textbook, she was too late because Annie already filled me in about kissing boys, getting pregnant, and which girls in the neighborhood were slutty. Annie taught me about makeup, shaving my armpits, and all about rock and roll music. She planned a full night of entertainment and snacks over us watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. I thought she went nuts when she started screaming while watching that program. Her mom, Aunt Katie, as usual threw a shoe at her to get her to shut up. I later found out from her that you were supposed to scream as loud as possible when a rock and roll idol was performing.

To me, Annie is our family’s Martha Stewart. She has a great family, wonderful home, and she also treasures our favorite family recipes. We both agree that family tradition is handed down in the food our ancestors prepared more so than anything else. When Annie had her own apartment, the first meal she made for me was delicious pork chops. I now call them Annie’s Italian Pork Chops.


Annie's Italian Pork Chops
Ingredients:
Pork Chops
Diced Potatoes
Medium Sliced Onion
Large Can Crushed Plumb Tomatoes
Parsley
Handful Bread Crumbs
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 -3 Crushed Garlic Cloves (to taste)
Handful Grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese

Mix all of the above in 9x13 pan.
Bake 350 uncovered until pork is tender, approx. 1 hour.

Gramma Grace's Easter Pie

Growing up I loved the Easter holiday. In our family, Easter was as big a deal as Christmas. The boys in the family wore little suits and ties with white shirts and new shoes. They looked like cute, but uncomfortable miniature versions of their Dads with slicked back hair. All the little girls in the family got new outfits to wear on Easter Sunday too. Easter outfits consisted of, my favorite, straw hats with streamers, ruffled dresses, lace-trimmed socks, and shiny, new black patent leather mary jane shoes. Every family member has Easter photos to prove we dressed up for the yearly Easter Sunday mass and following breakfast at Gramma’s house.

When us good Catholic children got up on Easter morning, we would rush to see what the Easter Bunny left in our beautiful Easter baskets. However, none of the candy could be eaten yet. You had to fast until after you went to mass and received Holy Communion. And, besides having to stay clean all day because of wearing the new clothes, we had to wait until after breakfast to eat any of the candy. Believe me when I tell you what torture it was waiting to be able to eat that Easter candy, especially after having to give up things like candy for Lent. I tried not promise to give up candy for Lent since I knew I could never keep that promise and was afraid I would end up burning in hell. I would try to give up thing like milk, vegetables, or the ever popular swear words. So, it will be my Mom’s fault that I burn in hell because she made me drink milk and eat vegetables.

One of my favorite things to eat on Easter at Gramma’s house was her Easter Rice Pie. Every Italian family has a version of what they say is the right recipe for Easter Rice Pie; here is my family’s simple yet tasty recipe:

Easter Rice Pie

Crust:
2 cups flour
2/3 cup Lard (vegetable shortening)
¼ tsp salt
6-7 Tbsp cold water
Filling:
1 Lb par boiled rice (save liquid for moistening)
1 ½ Lb proscuitto or boiled ham, cut in bite sized pieces
1 handful of Parmesan cheese
8 or 9 eggs, beaten
Dash of black pepper

Mix crust ingredients like you would make a pie crust. Roll dough and place pie crust in a 12” lightly greased cast iron frying pan. In a separate bowl, mix all filling ingredients. Use the liquid saved from boiling the rice to just moisten if it seems too dry. Fill pie crust and bake right in the cast iron pan at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

What's in a Nickname?

In my Italian-American family, we had nicknames for everyone and everything. Because we all lived in such close proximity to family members, I guess outsiders needed to know which kid belonged to which parent. Traditionally, the first-born son or daughter was to be named after his paternal grandparent; the second-born, after his maternal grandparent. So be it that my Dad, Vito, a second-born son was named after his mother’s father. Due to the fact that Vito Rinaldi is such a common name, my Dad became Vito "Shape" and I, Vito Shape’s daughter. I asked him why he was called Vito Shape and he said because his friends thought he had “mare” legs; legs shaped like a woman’s. Since we had such a tremendously large family, I guess they ran out of surnames or tags like “little” and “big” by then and started using animal parts to end all the confusion of who belonged to whom.

We had nicknames for food too. I guess some of the names of certain recipes got lost in the translation or just got Americanized as my second generation of family members did not speak or understand much Italian; except for the curses. We all know how to curse in Italian

In keeping with the theme of nicknaming things, depending upon which family member you asked for a stuffed squid recipe; you would get several different recipe headings. Some called the dish, stuffed calamari, others said, “Oh, you mean my recipe for Airships.” Gramma Rinaldi called them Devil Fish. Millie “Mock,” the next door neighbor, referred to the recipe as Calamari Ripieni. Aunt Carmel said ripieni meant filling or stuffing.

Again, trying to write down a family recipe is almost as confusing as its name. It sure is a lot easier to write down the recipe as you are watching the cook to approximate the measurements. Here goes:

Stuffed Squid

Filling:
White Bread Crumbs (use as much as you want and use “day old” bread)
4- Cloves Fresh Minced Garlic
Chopped Squid Tentacles
6-Anchovies
Parsley
Enough oil for dampness
Thoroughly clean about 5lbs. of squid. Remove tentacles. Stuff the squid. (Do not over stuff because the filling will swell while baking.) Line up stuffed squid in a 13x9 pan. Drizzle plenty of olive oil over top of squid. Bake in a 350◦ oven until done! My test for doneness is when they start to break open and the filling is steamy, approximately 40 minutes.

Any extra stuffing was used to stuff hot or mild cherry peppers. Nothing gets wasted in our family.

Aunt Katie's Calzones

Aunt Katie made the best fried chicken. To me, no one ever could duplicate her crispy, juicy fried chicken. I watched her dip each piece of chicken in what seemed like plain old flour, salt, and pepper. Yet, mine or anyone else’s ever came out like hers; since it’s a mystery I can't post her technique. Aunt Katie came to our house once to cook us dinner since my Mom was in the hospital. She made us real fried chicken, not Shake and Bake, like my Mom baked in the oven. Dad also had her make her famous Calzones, also fried. We kept the olive oil vendors in business that week! She usually only made Calzones at Christmas time but I think she felt sorry for us that week since neither Dad or I could cook.

It is sometimes very difficult to write down the family recipes because so many of them were never really written down or measured. Meals were prepared from memory or whatever ingredients were available in the cupboard. For example in the recipe below; 3 or 4 cans of chickpeas, which Aunt Katie and Gramma called ceccies. Or, Large Coconut Cookies? What brand of cookies is another mystery. I saw Aunt Katie use those dry, square coconut cookies, like Voortman’s. So, just use the kind you currently like to eat. And, my favorite notation "Use judgement in mixing dough." If you never watched Aunt Katie mixing the dough ,how would you know what should be the perfect consistency?

The picture I inserted is of Aunt Katie helping me get dressed for my Confirmation. Aunt Katie passed away this year; she was 93 and this is my favorite memory of her. When I asked her to be my Sponsor, she danced around the kitchen table singing, "I'm gonna be Dorothy's sponsor, I'm gonna be Dorothy's sponsor." Check out the red beanie on my head!


Italian Filled Cookies (Chocolate Calzones)
Filling:
3 or 4 cans of chickpeas (save water for filling)
½ box raisins
10 Large Coconut Cookies
2 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup dark cocoa
1 extra large chocolate bar (esp. Hershey)
Juice from 1 or 2 oranges
Dough:
10 cups flour
2 eggs
½ large jar honey (or 1 cup sugar) – prefer honey
1 ½ cup Crisco
½ bottle beer
½ cup lukewarm chickpea water

Note: Use judgement in mixing dough.
Roll dough and cut strips of dough. Put 1 tsp. of filling on dough. Fold over dough and press seam using a ravioli cutter to cut into squares. Fry in deep oil until golden . Sprinkle with powdered sugar.