Sunday Dinner

Earlier tonight, hubby asked me about Italians having two kitchens. A friend of his had moved into a house that had two kitchens and was told it was an Italian thing. The upsatirs one was pristine, vintage, barely used at all, and the downstairs one had seen the most use and things had to be replaced there. He was asked, because he is Italian by marriage, why do Italians have two kitchens?

I have to admit, I have no real answer. I just know that everyone in my family did. The downstairs one was where the family would gather and the upstairs one was for "company." It wasn't just a summer use kitchen where things were cooler in the basement, we had Christmas eve down there too. Upstairs was much smaller as was the formal dining room (plastic on the seats n all).

Since it's Sunday, I thought I'd post this oldie but goodie.

Sunday Dinner for Italians
"True Italians will love this, those of you who are married to
Italians will understand this, and those of you who are friends with
Italians will remember and fwd it to your Italian friends."

• Italians have a $40,000. kitchen, but use the $259 stove from Sears in the basement to cook.
• There is some sort of religious statue in the hallway, living room, front, porch and backyard;
• The living room is filled with old Bombonieri (they are too pretty to open) with poofy net bows and stale
almonds;
• God forbid if anyone EVER attempted to eat Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, Franco American, Ragu, Prego or anything else in a jar or can! (Tomato paste is the exception.)

The following are Italian Holidays:
• First weekend in October - Grapes for the Wine
• 3rd weekend in August - Tomatoes for the Sauce.

• Meatballs are made with Pork, Veal and Beef. We are Italians, we don't care about cholesterol.
• Turkey is served on Thanksgiving, AFTER the manicotti, gnocchi, lasagna.
• If anyone EVER says ES-CAROLE, slap 'em in the face -- it's SHCAROLE.

• If they ever say ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP, let the idiot know that there is no wedding nor is there an Italian in the soup. Also, the tiny meatballs must be made by hand.
• No matter how hard you know you were going to get smacked, you still came home from church and stuck half a loaf of bread in the sauce pot, snuck out a fried meatball and chowed down
• It's GRAVY, not "sauce."

Sunday dinner is at 1:00.
The meal went like this...
• Table is set with everyday dishes. It doesn't matter if they don't match, they're clean!
• All the utensils go on the right side of the plate and the napkin goes on the left.
• Put a clean kitchen towel at Nonno & Papa's plate because they won't use napkins.
• Homemade wine and bottles of 7up are on the table.

• First course, Antipasto...change plates.
• Next, Macaroni (Nonna called all spaghetti Macaroni)...change plates.
• After that, Roasted Meats, Roasted Potatoes, Overcooked vegetables...change plates.
• THEN and only then (NEVER AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MEAL) would you eat the salad (HOMEMADE OIL & VINEGAR DRESSING ONLY)...change plates.
• Next, Fruit & Nuts - in the shell (on paper plates because you ran out of the other ones). Coffee (Espresso for Nonno, "Merican" coffee for the rest) with the Anisettes (Hard Cookies to dip in the coffee).
• The kids go play...the men go to lay down. They slept so soundly you could perform brain surgery on them without anesthesia... the women clean the dishes.

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Funny how very common this experience is to so many people. Not sure if I've posted this before, but I don't care, I'm in the mood. It's one of my kiddo's favorite songs. There's no vieo, just a picture of the singer, but it's the best recording ever!



Here's another with Luna Mezzo Mare and two women doing a tarantella and playing tamburellos!