Sorcha: Nice talking tos you again. I did write considerably more about Kosher rules but I must have accidentally hit the wrong key and lost most of it before I could submit it and had to start over again. I did mention two sets of dishes but I forgot about the special
Pesach tableware. I'm not actually Jewish except by cultural heritage. My mother was Josephine Puzelli, a devout catholic. But, I was extremely lucky in that I had three sets of Grandparents. that's three "Old World" Grandmothers who were culinary artists. I had one Italian ( Calabrese) Grandmother, one Polish (reformed Jewish) and one Russian (very orthodox and very strict). My Sister and I had two moms, my actual moteher who died of pneumonia when I was three years old and my stepmother who is the only one I think of when the word "Mom" comes up in conversation. Mom raised me and is still perking right along working with kids and enjoying the desert sun in Arizona. She is a great cook, not kosher, but can not compare with her Mother,one of the "greatest of the great". My kid brother is underpriveleged as he never got to spend alternate Sundays at Grandma Puzelli's house. On the "Jewish Grandma's" Sundays, my sister and I had to spend the morning at Grandma Katzberg's house, My dad's family. I said th8at she was a culiniary artist, but I only assume that from what others told me. She was a strict Koshernarian whos specialties included the livers of poor dead creatures. When these poor creatures died, their livers were turned over to Grandma Katzberg who did unspeakable things to them after which, poor defenceless children were forced to eat them. And then there was (ugh) B O R S C H. Borsch is what happens to little Russian beets who have not lead a good clean life.
But then, at 12:00 noon , the two older defeniceless children and their underpriveleged and equally defenceless younger sibling were released from custody, and, drooling in wild anticipation sprinted up Brighton 5th street to Apartment 5K at 3091 Brighton 5th St. Where they were smothered up in the loving arms of Grandma Alexander, Mom's Mamma. Grandma Alexander was from Bialistok, Poland, the birthplace of the bagel. She cooked mostly American stuff excespt during Pasover and Yom Kippur. She was wonderful with fried chicken and french fries. And then there was grilled steak which was then smothered in fried onions and served with baked potatoes (with butter, not cream cheese) and fried corn. She fried the corn niblets in sweet butter (unsalted) very slowly until there was nothing left of the butter but a brown glaze on the corn after which it was salted and peppered./
But Christmas was spent at Aunt Jessie and Uncle Augie Nicoletti's huge house in Westhampton Long Island along with the entire Puzelli clan which included all my DeLuca, Panzecca, Fiore and, of course, Nicoletti Aunts Uncles and cousins. That's a lot of first, second and third generation Italian=Americans. That was a really big mansion, lwhere the entire family spent from December 23d to January 2d. Christmas dinner was an all day and night thing. it started at about 10:am with fresh fruit which included ripe figs from Grandpa Puzelli's fig trees. The fig trees had been winterized (wrapped in burlap) with some of the ripe figs still on the branches) Somehow my Grandpa could keepo these winterized figs fresh until the tree was unwrapped just enough to get the fruit out just before Christmas and then put back to bed. There were little bits of various kinds of Italian delicacies until two in the afternoon when the serious "sit down" eating began. The first course was always Pasta and sauce. Alathough sthe sauce had been made with different k9ionds of meat, the smeat did not go with the first course which was justs spaghetti or some other kind of pasta.
Then the meat, which8 always included braschiolle, very thin slicedf and pounded beef, rolled up with fresh garlic and parsely, tied in a roll with cotton string and cooked ini the tomato sauce with meatballs and thick slices of pork. This was served with salad. Then we leisurely sat at the table and had fruit, nuts and s little wine while the old guys played a very loud amd passionate game of Pinochle. Then , along about 4:30 or so, the main course came in, Roast Turkey and stuffing, roast beefs and roast lamb with two kinds of Irish potatoes and sweet potatopes, corn, string beans, asparagus,k apple sauce and stuffed artichokes. This was followed by cake and tea, more fruit and nuts and finally, about 7:pm with itsy bitsy cups of Italian black cofee with anisette.Usually conversation was a mixture of Calabrese Dialect Italian and English. Grandma Puzelli spoke very little English. The one time that my WASP, Rhode Island Yankee wife Roberta and my daughter Joyce (who was my only ofspring at the time) participated in these wonderful activities, just before I was transferred to England (in the USAF), my wonderful relatives made her feel like she'd been born into the family and had been with us all along. Grandma insisted that we only speak English because Bobbie didn't understand Italian.   Grandma struggled with English for the entire week and a half and the only Italian spoken was an occasional whispered translation for Grandma. When my Wife and Grandmother kissed goodbye, there were tears in Bobbie's eyes. On the way home she said that she had never felt that kind of warmth, love and feeling of belonging to a family with her own blood relatives. I kiond of got the feeling that this was the happiest week and a half she'd ever experienced. God,. I love my family.
Jesus never had such a great time in his whole life or ever had such a Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas and love to all of you Mudcatters

Jody Gibson