A Family Recipe

This recipe for meatballs has been handed down to me and I would like to share it with the reader. Let's start with the ingredients.

• 2 eggs


• 1 cup bread crumbs


• 1/3 cup chopped parsley


• 1/2 cup pecorino romano cheese


• 3/4 lb. ground beef


• 3/4 lb. loose sausage


• I would normally reduce the amount of ground beef and sausage and add an equal amount of ground veal, however, my youngest daughter will not allow me to use veal.


• salt and pepper


• 1 bottle of your favorite red wine

Into a large mixing bowl, add 1/4 cup of water, the 2 eggs(beaten) and the bread crumbs. Mix thoroughly and allow to stand for 5 minutes.

Add the meat, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Now this is important! Use your hands (not a wooden spoon) to mix all of the ingredients until you have a uniform consistency.

Before shaping the meatball, pour 1/4 bottle of your red wine into a small bowl. Dip your hands into the wine and begin to shape your meatballs. The reason that you want to constantly dip your hand into the wine is that the meat will not stick to your hands as you shape the meat and it also adds a wonderful flavor to the meatballs. Place the meatballs on a cooking pan and when all of the meatballs have been rolled, place the pan into a preheated oven (350 degrees) and bake them for 20 minutes.

After the meatballs have begun to brown, remove the pan from the oven and immediately place the meatballs into your hot spaghetti sauce for at least 1/2 hour. The meatballs will continue to cook in the hot sauce.

Mangia tutto!

A Personal Look at Heritage

My paternal grandparents settled in Indiana, Pa. where they raised a family of five children. Since my father was the oldest child, he was forced to quit school in the 7th grade and deliver fruit and vegetables with my grandfather to the local mining communities. Each week they would take their wagon and horse to the docks of the Strip District in Pittsburgh to purchase their merchandise for the week. When the weather was good they were able to ride the wagon to Pittsburgh, however, heavy rain or snow required them to push the wagon through the muddy ruts or drifts of snow. When my grandfather accepted a job with the highway department, my father began to work in the Indiana Macaroni Factory. His job was to carry large, heavy sacks of flour used in the macaroni process. From there, he graduated to the manager of a popular local bar and finally had the opportunity to buy his own beer distributorship in Homer City where I was born and raised. My Saturday's growing up were spent (after Cathechism, of course), helping my father deliver beer door to door to the same mining communities that he and his father had delivered fruit and vegetables.
I can still picture Sunday meals at my grandparent's house. Let me rephrase that, I can still smell and taste and hear those Sunday and holiday meals. Bottles of homemade wine covered the tables, rigatoni, spaghetti, manicotti, lasagna and bread galore. Meatballs and homemade sausage in adundance and Italian songs never ceased. Even with all of this food available to the entire family, everyone always had room for grandma's specialty which was always served last. No one dared to ask when it was going to be served for fear of upsetting her. When it was ready, grandma would bring to the table, platefuls of beautifully stuffed artichokes. A heavenly dish which I have tried to duplicate, but never succeeded to have them taste as good as the original. I will admit that grandma was able to pass along her meatball making skills to me and this dish has become a favorite of my own children. Throughout this glorious meal, each of the numerous grandchildren waited impatiently to have the opportunity to sit on granpa's lap at the head of the table.

Heritage

My grandparents emigrated from Sicily to the United States in the 1890's. After watching the film "The Golden Door," http://movies.com/golden-door/d870241/foreign, I developed a new found respect for their arduous journey to America. After spending weeks at sea in unfathomable conditions, they were then forced to endure humiliating experiences at Ellis Island. Many immigrants had to pass psychological tests, have marriage arrangements forced upon them, and have their names "Americanized." After these ordeals were completed, immigrants were finally permitted to enter the land of "milk and honey."

I have created this blog as an assignment for the course entitled "Introduction to Information Technologies" at the University of Pittsburgh. Throughout this assignment, I hope to add various and sundry reflections on topics of interest to me, both personally and professionally.