On Thanksgiving, for Italians and "Near" Italians

[bk43]

We had family get-togethers for Thanksgiving when I was a kid too but I think your food was better. Trust me on this, lutefisk and lefse leave a lot to be desired in the eating department.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Bob

 

[jag312]

Not just Thanksgiving, but every Sunday with my Aunt Flora and Uncle Sal at their house in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Aunt Flora would be in the kitchen cooking with help from some of my cousins. Uncle Sal would be outside grilling steaks and chickens over real charcoal. Charcoal briqettes were not good enough. It had to be real charcoal. Cousin Luise from Brooklyn would bring a big cheese cake. Various aunts, uncles, and cousins would be there, and everyone would bring something. There was always homemade wine. We would all eat outside. Then afterwards, we would talk about sports and politics until late at night. Football was big in my family. I played against OJ Simpson in college, and Uncle Sal played against Vince Lombardi. Uncle Sal played center and Lombardi played right guard.

For Thanksgiving, there was always turkey, ravioli, and an assortment of other Italian food.

If you are not Italian, then you don't know what you missed in your life.

 

[FrankD45]

Thanksgiving at my Italian grandmother was actually pretty traditional with turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, etc. Christmas was another story; there is some tradition with seven kinds of fish that included some pretty ugly stuff. I'm not much of a fish eater to begin with but this plate included salted cod and eel. Thank goodness there was always plenty of pasta to go with it.

To this day my wife and I try to keep the traditions alive at Christmas and also at Easter. On Christmas Eve, the last meatless day before Christmas, she does the seven fish dinner. The center piece is lobster tails stuffed with garlic, cheese, and parsley, roasted and then finished in the red sauce with linguine on the side. The lead up to the lobster is now baked shrimp, two kinds of clams, flounder, and calamari. We no longer get the dried cod or the two kinds of eels.

At Easter we make a meat pie filled with different dried sausage, peperoni, soprasat (sp), ricotta, hard boiled eggs, and three other cheeses. We also make a sweet grain pie for dessert.

The best news is that my son and daughter are both following in our footsteps.

Happy Thanksgiving all,

Frank

 

[DeathGrip]

My goods friends father,Mr.Ventura always had something cooking when I'd show up(intentionally).
He always made me sit down and eat with him and his son.Mrs.V had passed away years before I met them.Mr V was a house painter but missed his calling as a chef.I tried many things over the years and all was excellent.One Christmas he made a Swordfish caserole and I've never had any thing like it since.Every time I think about it my mouth waters.Outstanding.
Mr.V was a true Italian gentleman.Many a night we never made it out of the house because time would slip by when we would talk.He took ill when I was in the service and I never got to say goodbye.
Years went by and I noticed his Urn at his sons house.I questioned him about it and he said that Pop wanted his ashes buried at sea.No problem.I chartered a boat and took them and His son's new wife out.We said goodbye,Had a glass of wine and then went fishing the rest of the day.He would have liked that.

 

[ladder13]

When it's my time, I hope to go in my tomato garden being chased by my grandkid.

Keep the DDT out of his hands.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

We wern't Italian but I had many friends who were. I was raised in Martinez, Ca. during & after WW2. Thanksgiving was a big deal & so was Christmas. Once my mother had 7 of us for Christmas. I got lucky,got 7 ducks with my 16 ga. single shot Stevens. Mom roasted them & everyone got a duck on their plate. All the trimmings too. Sure is nice to think about the old days.

 

[moonclip]

......The center piece is lobster tails stuffed with garlic, cheese, and parsley, roasted and then finished in the red sauce with linguine on the side. The lead up to the lobster is now baked shrimp, two kinds of clams, flounder, and calamari.....At Easter we make a meat pie filled with different dried sausage, peperoni, soprasat (sopressata), ricotta, hard boiled eggs, and three other cheeses. We also make a sweet grain pie for dessert......

And your address would be?

......moon

 

[billd13]

Frank, thanks for all of the memories.

It sounds just like my early days. My father's parents came from Ireland in the 1880's as little kids, while my mother's family came from Ventimiglia Sicily in 1907 when she was just 3. The Sicilian side got together every Sunday to celebrate somebody's birthday, anniversary or just that it was Sunday. My whole family lived in Fort Lee, NJ-Jag knows exactly where that is. Sundays in the summer, we all went to a lake in Montvale to go swimming and have a picnic. While all around us were grilling hotdogs and hamburgers, someone in our family had brought the gravy, someone else brought meatballs, homemade sausage, artichokes, antipasta, cheesecake, svengi, creampuffs, canoli.

My uncles all made wine and my father brewed beer. I think I was almost 14 when I had my first restaurant pizza at Jerry's Pizza on Main St. In New Jersey at that time, there was no package liqour sales on Sundays, but you could go to a bar and get a 1/2 gal or gallon container of tap beer or you could still bring your own bucket. As an 8 or 9 year old, I was allowed to go into the bar and actually help my father and cousins carry out containers to the car.

Things have changed over the years and a lot of it certainly has not been for the better. It is nice to go back and remember the old times on a day like today.

 

[FrankD45]

My whole family lived in Fort Lee, NJ-Jag knows exactly where that is.

My Uncle Frank moved to Ft Lee in the 60's and lived there until he passed. Another uncle (Charlie) moved to Nutley. My parents left Brooklyn around the same time and moved to Ridgefield Park.

You are absolutely right. Things have changed a lot and definitely not for the better.

Frank

 

[alde]

Frank, Are we related? Do you have an aunt Mary? You painted a picture of my childhood in the 60's right down to the holiday menu (you forgot the sausage and peppers).

It was a great way to grow up. We were a very close family and the holiday gatherings were a special time. Thanks for bringing that memory so vividly back to me.

 

[FrankD45]

Frank, Are we related? Do you have an aunt Mary?

Yes, I had two. One lived on First Street and the other on 15th, both in Brooklyn. If you can trace your roots back to Southern Italy we probably are related.

Frank

 

[alde]

If you can trace your roots back to Southern Italy we probably are related.

Frank

My fathers parents were from Naples and my mothers parents were from Sicily. I grew up in Boston but have relitives in New York. The grandparents all came through Ellis Island. I know very little of my family history. My parents both had a really bad childhood and they tried to distance themselves from the past. My aunt Mary was my moms oldest sister and she was the center of the family on the holidays. She would put together a soup to nuts meal like you describe for 25 people. She loved every minute of it. She just passed away early this year at 92.

 

[FrankD45]

My Father was born in a small town near Naples. My Mother was born here but was taken back to Italy when she was 4 or 5 years old. When she got to the small town they were from, she had difficulty walking on the rough dirt road as she grew up with sidewalks. A 10 or 11 year old boy actually picked her up and carried her to the front door of her house. Twelve years later her family returned to the USA and she again met that young man who had by then emigrated here himself. You guessed it, that was my Dad. He came here through Ellis Island on January 31, 1920. He was 18 and was listed on the ships manifest as a "peasant". We contributed to the Ellis Island restoration and have a brick in the wall dedicated to his memory. There was a special on TV about Ellis Island and at one of the breaks the last shot was of his brick. Tons of great memories.

Frank

 

[Dusty Miller]

"Near Italians"? Are you talk'n 'bout the Greeks?