When I was a kid the holiday dinners rotated between our place
and my Uncle Ed’s and Aunt Emily’s. If Thanksgiving was at our
house, then Christmas would be at theirs. Since Emily is Italian
the holiday had an extra element for the dinner. We’d eat all the
traditional food: turkey, stuffing, veggies, and then after that was
cleared, Aunt Emily’s mom Nonnie Cappadano would bring out
the Italian food: lasagna, meatballs, stuffed sausages, and other
great dishes. To this day at Thanksgiving there is usually lasagna
served along with the turkey and I had leftovers of both sent
home with me here afterwards.
Since we now usually gather at my sister’s for Christmas Eve to
open gifts and eat, the food is a bit less formal, sometimes buffet
style with meatballs, cold cuts, and salad. Then Christmas Day
comes another big meal.
And that’s how an Irish Catholic family eats a lot of Italian at
holiday time.
2010 Update: I've had some health...umm...adventures this past
year which required I change my diet habits. On the good side,
I've lost 100 lbs. But boy, do I miss Italian food. So I'm
looking forward to Christmas Eve at my sister's or niece's
house when I can have some lasagna (albeit in smaller
portions than in the past) and maybe one or two of those
cookies with the chocolate kisses!
((first published in 2007)
4 comments:
Hey Bill - seriously, 100lb?!?! That's wonderful! Enjoy those cookies with the chocolate kisses - always a favorite of mine.
I once heard someone say that it's not what we eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas that gives us weight problems - it's what we eat between Christmas and Thanksgiving that is the problem!!
Enjoy the holidays!!
wow! how did you all eat another whole dinner like that! amazing.
Kristin,
If we didn't at least eat a piece of lasagna, Nonnie Cappadano would looks at us and ask us if we were sick. We just didn't have seconds on anything so there was room.
But then afterwards there'd be people napping all over ! :)
Bill, I hope your health "adventures" are over and that everything's fine. Fun post. I can't imagine 2 huge dinners one after the other - but I can imagine the leftovers lasting for a week or more.
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