Family Traditions

Family Traditions• Italian Humor• My Books• Pork• Random Thoughts

Sausage Making? Um…Yes!

February 26, 2026

I wanted you to read about something, other than my book: Come on Down! (which is still out there waiting to be bought…hint, hint) so this blog is about sausage making. Yes, sausage making! I apologize in advance to all my vegan and vegetarian friends for saying this, but this Italian had a great time making sausage. I try not to eat meat too often, but this was…

Family Traditions• Holidays• Random Thoughts

Show Up During the Holidays, It Means More Than You Think

December 27, 2025

Now that I’m older I spend a fair amount of time reflecting during the holidays. This is an irritating habit old people have because we’re never sure how many holidays we have left. So, in an attempt to appear deep and philosophical we look back, then bore younger people with our reflections. This year my family gathered at Bernie and Donna’s house for Christmas dinner and later we…

Family Traditions• Holidays• Poultry

Skunked again!

November 30, 2025

Verb Past tense: skunked; past participle: skunked 1. Informal•North American English Defeat (someone) overwhelmingly in a game or contest, especially by preventing them from scoring at all. Yes, that’s what happened to me in the upteenth Annual Cutthroat Tunno Pumpkin Pie Contest. I didn’t even place and I was convinced that Penzey’s Pumpkin Pie Spice was going to get me there. I even put my mom’s giant ceramic baby Jesus on the table…

Family Traditions• Holidays• Random Thoughts

November is so Sneaky!

November 10, 2025

How the hell does November creep up on me so fast (every year) and whirl me into the holidays when I still haven’t even taken down my Halloween decorations? Add to that the embarrassment of realizing that I NEVER EVEN POSTED the winners of last year’s Annual Cutthroat Tunno Pumpkin Pie Competition! I am so sorry Nate, Alessandro and Muiriel! You deserve better. It truly wasn’t sour grapes,…

Baking• Family Traditions• Holidays• Uncategorized

The Jury is In: Mom 1, Fran 0

April 21, 2025

It’s amazing how much a reasonably confident bread baker can learn by screwing up a recipe. This week was a learning experience for me after attempting my mother’s scrawled Easter Bread recipe. I learned: Once it finally rose, my mom’s bread looked pretty good. I was feeling very positive, but was still concerned because I’d never used her recipe before. So, I decided to make that Finnish Spring…

Baking• Breads• Family Traditions• Holidays

She Could Have At Least Come Back From the Dead to Offer Guidance!

April 17, 2025

I am hosting Easter on Sunday. I’ve bought almost everything I could think of, so since Easter is a few days away, and I was feeling both nostalgic and brave, I thought I’d give my mom’s original Easter Bread recipe a try. This meant putting my faith in Mom’s words on a yellowed, grease-spotted paper that’s more than 40 years old. I found the spots reassuring thinking she…

Family Traditions• Great Memories• Random Thoughts

Anatomy of a Bed by Anderson Mills

December 21, 2024

This week, I’m lucky enough to have Andy, Milena and her boyfriend here for the holidays. I’m in my usual flurry of crazed activity, making last minute cookies and favorite dishes and putting final touches on beds so they look like the perfect beds you see in Pottery Barn catalogues. I’m clearly not taking my own advice about not fretting over how the place looks. Luckily, my sweet…

Family Traditions• Vegan• Vegetarian

The Best Pickled Peppers You’ll Ever Eat!

November 2, 2024

Pickled peppers. Unless I was doing tongue twisters to prepare for a voiceover, the words pickled peppers never came out of my mouth. Then, I tasted my brother Bernie’s pickled peppers and was smitten. I couldn’t believe they could be so perfectly crisp, and taste so delicious. I even liked the spicy, hot ones, a minor miracle for my wimpy tastebuds. I begged my brother to tell me…

Family Traditions• Italian Humor• Random Thoughts

Italian Female Tomato Guilt

September 19, 2024

The guilt that consumes a first generation Italian American woman who is gifted a giant bag of home grown tomatoes cannot be overstated. The first thing she thinks is, “Oh God, what will my parents think if I don’t can these?” Never-mind that her parents passed away anywhere from a year to decades ago, the disgrace over not utilizing every fruit, or vegetable down to its nub will…

Family Traditions• Holidays

And the Winner is….

November 26, 2023

Sorry I’m a little behind in posting the winner, it’s been a rough week, but more on that next blog post. The winner is…not me, or Anderson, who made it in for Thanksgiving. We were skunked by a seven-year-old, who won this year’s Annual Cutthroat Tunno Pumpkin Pie Competition. He even fluted the crust! It was my great-nephew Alessandro, who took the kids trophy last year. He got…

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