December 18th, 2023

Hello Folks,

    It is one week before Christmas when all my energies tend to turn towards making traditional family recipes. Julie and my daughter, Kara accommodated me by making the Sicilian stuffed fig cookies, cucidatti, all day on Sunday. I think it was to soothe my mind, because the other day I was struck with a wave of sadness which Julie could so keenly sense. It enveloped me like the ghost of Christmas past as I sadly realized that the chatter of broken English from all my older relatives is just a very, very faint memory. The sounds of Sicilian language from my past are dimming…. The chatter of broken English, the weaving in and out from one language to another when they couldn’t just find the right term for what they were cooking…it’s all disappearing. So I try to write down a few memories and re-create some traditions, but it’s never the same.

      Christmas Eve at my grandmother’s house was a miraculous time. It was a revolving door of relatives, friends and neighbors. How many little kids today sit in front of the television watching choirs sing Christmas carols while dangling squid tentacles from their mouths? We relished the taste of fried cardooni and numerous fish entrées like Bacala, fried calamari or pasta with clam sauce….that was my childhood. I don’t know if there were seven fishes or not. No one really stopped to really count… but fishes were the order of the evening, because meat was forbidden until after midnight mass. We would arrive back from Church, sleepy, and ready to go home, but instead someone would fire up the oven and cook huge rings of Christmas sausage that was flavored with wine and cheese and herbs and eaten with crusty bread from their bakery. And we started the whole thing over the next day for Christmas with the same people only eating traditional pastas and bracciole and sauce. That was my tradition, that was my memory, that was my life so long ago.
     
      So it was with a bit of dismay that I was turned down in my attempt to have a Christmas Day dinner of bracciole and manicotti and homemade sauce. I pouted a bit. I felt a little wounded, but I was soothed by the fact that we will have an early Christmas Eve gathering at the home of my son, Jay and his lovely wife, Taylor, and their three little kids. Taylor promises lots of fishes and I’m going to bring calamari with sauce. Maybe I can talk Rocco John into dangling some squid tentacles out of his mouth to scare his sisters!

      But the traditional Christmas Day dinner just isn’t going to happen this year. It’s becoming a memory. But I have also come to realize that traditions like memories are ethereal not static….they are not frozen in time….they are forever evolving and becoming a blend….of families, ideas and cultures. We will have a lovely roast beast with all the traditional trimmings at the home of my daughter, Rose and her husband Jose. We should have a good crowd and it’s becoming a tradition. I’ll save the bracciole for for another day.

Best Regards,

John Bernunzio

oh maybe we’ll have to wait until New Year’s Day. Anybody wanted an invitation?

We got a little carried away with tradition when it came to Sicilian style fig cookies we made 30 dozen I’m going to bring lots and lots to the store so stop by. We have a BIG SALE going on and we’re open Thursday Friday and Saturday 11 to 5

We always get carried away with whatever we do…. I think that’s how you make your own traditions.