I don't know if you are that many out there that read this blog but to all of you that have dedicated a couple of minutes of your time to read the (few) articles that I have posted, I want to wish you a Happy and Prosperous New year 2011! I wish it would bring to you all a lot of Health, Happiness & Love (which is something that, although we try we can't live without it).
Always remember that although time passes (or flies) the Traditions remain...they might be enriched (or modified) by different generation but they still remain and the best way to maintain them, as authentic as possible, is to share them with everybody in order for the Tradition to continue forever and ever…
Happy 2011 from Tradicioneros!
P.S. I did not forget about Christm@s, I will post an article soon with the different traditions on celebrating Christm@s!
Do you still remember the famous and fabulous Aprons of our Grandmothers? Well yesterday my Mother forward me an e-mail about the short history and explanation of what the Aprons was used for, and I found it really interesting and it helped me go back in time and remember my childhood memories, so this is way I will like to share it with all of you.
Remember making an apron in Home?
The History of 'APRONS'
I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven. When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids..
And when the weather was cold Grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow,bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes. Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love...
Furthermore, Aprons being so practical and vital they were necessary, but also socially regulated. As a matter of fact, for example in the old times widows had to wear a black as a way of respect, if this was not done it was seen as a form of lack of decorum. This explains that the Aprons were seen as more than ties with cooking and cleaning but as well with the society and culture. A women not only wore an apron for practical reason but also as a way to express her role. And the image of an appropriate Apron was a way to show the conformity to the community standards.
Unfortunally, I could not find the author of this nice and loving e-mail, but I thought it would be lovely to share the memories of this simple garment that any grandmother of mostly every part of the world has used
I also will share with you alinkwere it gives a deeper and greater explanation of the history of Aprons.
Hope this article has made you travel as well back in your childhood memories: it is always nice to do this.
I apologize if I haven´t posted an article for a long time...but there are moments when life becomes hectic and has the power to let you forget of the important things...Anyway I am back! Hopefully with something that you like, definatly something you are preparing for.
We all know that we are getting closer to Thanksgiving (the last Thursday of November) which is a holiday that I really like, because is still not commercialized as Christmas and it keeps its origin.
However, I have decided to share with you 2 different recipes of the Thanksgiving dinner:
Thanksgiving Dinner with Italian touch: this is the typical Thanksgiving dinner that my Grandmother used to make. As most of you already know my Grandparents are Italians but they have immigrated to the United States, when they were young. They have incorporated in their family traditions the local American holidays but in their culinary dishes they have always kept the Italian traditional touch.
So in my mother´s house the typical thanksgiving meal was:
Antipasto di montagna: prosciutto ham, salamini, cheeses, mozzarella, sott'aceti (vegetables in vinegar and oil), especially the stuffed peppers that my grandmother used to make (delicious!). The filling usually was breadcrumbs, anchovies, capers, garlic, and oregano;
Scarola con polpettini: Turkey soup with escarole and meatballs;
Pasta: pasta with homemade tomato sauce, lasagna or cannelloni with;
Il Tacchino: Turkey and the filling usually was (eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese, salami, and parsely) served with crandberry sauce;
Salsiccia: Homemade sausage in the oven;
Baked Ham: with brown sugar and pineapple;
Side dishes:
1) Baked smash potatoes pie with mozzarella and ham;
2) Sweet potatoes (an American touch)
3) Green beans with onions and almonds
4) Broccoli di rape in the pan (this is a typical Italian vegetable)
5) Mix Salad
Fruit: mandarins, oranges and other seasonal fruits, walnuts & chestnuts.
Dessert: Cheesecake, or homemade almond cookies, or lemon meringue pie, or homemade apple pie with ice cream;
After this meal for more or less 20 people the least you could is take a "siesta"…Italians like their long and Big meals…J
Typical Thanksgiving Dinner: this is a typical Thanksgiving dinner of a traditional American Family.
Scalloped oysters: 1/2 pound saltine crackers, 1 quart fresh oysters with liquid, 1 cup butter cut into pats, 1 cup half and half, Salt and Pepper. Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease a 2 qt. baking dish. Coarsely break 1/4 of the crackers and place in the dish. Lay 1/2 of the oysters on the crackers. Lightly salt and heavily pepper. Place butter pats on top (about 1/3 tp 1/2) Then do a layer with half the crackers and the remaining oysters with liquid, top with the remaining crackers, butter and more pepper, slowly pour the half and half around the edge of the dish until level with the second oyster layer. Bake 1 hour or until puffed and brown on top. Serve immediately.
Turkey: with the following stuffing Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix, but then I add Celery, onion, mushroom and almonds which have all been sauté in butter and then I sometime add dried cranberries and wild rice
Mashed potatoes with gravy
Sweet potatoes with marshmallows in the oven
Green beans or peas and some type of cranberries,
Cooking fresh cranberries with a bit of sugar and water until they pop.
Pumpkin pie
This is a typical meal that my Host family in Missouri usually has. However, I imagine that each family adds its “traditional touch” and typical dishes.
By sharing with you these two different Thanksgiving meal, I wanted not only give you ideas on what to cook for the Thanksgiving dinner, but also concentrate on how important it is to keep our culture tradition alive.
I believe it is important to adjust to a country tradition and habits, but is extremely precious to always remember where we come from and to keep our own tradition alive and pass them on to the next generation.
Thank you for reading me.
Special Thanks to: Madaline Malgieri (my Aunt); Julie Thomas (My AFS host mother)
It was 2 weeks that I had desire of homemade Pizza, so yesterday afternoon we started to prepare the base, since is the longest process. While I was preparing it I was thinking of how old this recipes is and the tradition that it has in Italy, so I thought to share it with all of you.
Today eating a Pizza is something really common, and this plate can be found all around the world although, I believe that not all the Pizzas that we eat everywhere should be called Pizza, unless is made with Fresh ingredients. For example I think that the Pizza from Pizza Hut should be called "Pizza Hut" but not Pizza (although I believe is good, when feel for junk food!).
Fig. 1 "Schiacciata"
Pizza has really old origins, many historians believe that this meal was part of the Etruscan cuisine but with different ingredients and shape of what it is today. However, the Pizza was created as a poor plate, which is made out of simple and accessible ingredients: water, salt, oil, and yeast.
Fig. 2 "Lard"
This plate was first created in 1600 by the culinary genius of the diet from southern of Italy. As a matter of fact the first pizza was created to give more flavors to the traditional "schiacciata" (see picture Fig.1) which was a type of bread cooked in the wooden fire oven and seasoned with garlic, lard (which is a combination of animal fat, Fig.2), and salt or sometimes an Italian cheese called "caciocavallo" (pictureFig. 3) and basil.
Afterwards, the lard was changed by the oil and when the tomato was invented it started to appear the pizza as it is today.
The tomato was imported from Peru to Europe after the Spanish colonized America, and the poorest Italians started to eat and cook the tomatoes, and they created the tomato sauce.
In 1800 the tomato sauce was used on the pizza and it was originated a type of pizza as it is today, but not the official "Pizza Margherita".
Fig. 3 "Caciocavallo"
As a matter of fact, the story tells that the Pizza Margherita was invented in the late ´800 by Raffaele Esposito, the best pizza maker of that period in Naples, in honor of the visit of the sovereign of Italy, during that period, King Umberto I and the Queen Margherita.
Raffaele Esposito decided to cook for this special occasion 3 different pizzas: Pizza alla Mastunicola (with lard, cheese and basil), Pizza alla Marinara (with tomatoes sauce, garlic, oil and oregano), and the Pizza Margherita (with tomatoes sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil) made in honor of the Queen Margherita and with the colors that resembled the Italian flag (Green, white and Red).
Queen Margherita appreciated so much this gesture that decided to thank and praise, Raffaele Esposito, in writing for the beautiful and delicious idea. The Pizza maker thought that the only way to thank the Queen for this gesture was to officially give her name to his culinary invention, Pizza Margherita.
Queen Margherita
Until the end of the II Wold War the "pizza" was a typical recipes of the South of Italy, especially in the region of Naples "Campania". However, after the war with the the beginning of the industrial boom a lot of the southern population immigrated to the North, bringing with them their culinary traditions and customs, including the Pizza. This recipes had such a success with the local population that today there are more "pizzerias" in the north than in the South of Italy.
During the immigrations of Italians (especially from the South) abroad, they always brought with them their customs and traditions, especially in their cuisine and this is how the PIZZA became such a famous meal all around the world.
Pizza Margherita
Although the Italian cuisine is not all about "pizza & pasta", but it has many other delicious plates different in every region, we can say that Pizza today has a really important role in the Italian diet.
Remember the secret of a good Pizza are the fresh ingredients and the wooden fire oven!
Halloween is one of the oldest holiday we celebrate today, and many time we do not know about the origins and myths of the holidays and why it became a Tradition, that is passed on to generations. So I will like to go through the history of the most popular holiday after Christmas: Halloween.
Halloween is a combination of different European traditions, the Celtic practices, Catholic and Roman religious rituals and European Folk, that blended together over the time and made the holiday that we know today.
When thinking at the origins of Halloween we have to go back until many hundreds years ago when people called the Celts lived on the British Isles. The Celts believed that October 31st was the end of the year and the souls of the dead visited the Earth, so they had a festival, called Samhain, in honor of the souls. The Celts also associated the winter with the human death because they used to have harsh winters, which not all the population could survive, so they also used this date to take stock of supplies and prepare for the new season. During the festival the ancient Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to warding off these roaming ghosts.
During the first century A.D. the Romans conquered most of the Celts territory, and also tried to unify the different holiday of both culture. As a matter of fact the Romans had 2 holidays in October, the first was called Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans originally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second holiday called Pomona, which was the goddess of fruit and the trees and the symbol was the apple. The Romans decided to combine these festivals with the Celts celebration of Samhain.
Around the 800 A.D. the influence of Christianity spread into the Celtic lands. Around this time the Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st as All Saint's Day as a time to honor the saints and martyrs. Current belief is that the Pope wanted to replace the pagans festival with the Church sanctioned holiday.
This combined holiday was referred as All-Hallows or All- Hallowmas, which was the Middle English for All Saint's Day. Later in the year 1000, the Church declare November 2nd as All Souls Day to honor the dead, and the holiday was celebrate similar to Samhain; so together the three celebration became known as Hallowmas.
As European immigrated to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. But because of rigid Protestant beliefs in early New England, the celebration of the holiday was limited. The beliefs of various European ethnic groups and the American Indians also began to mesh with the celebration of Halloween and an American version began to materialize. The first American celebrations included public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the deceased, tell fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween celebrations featured ghost stories and mischief. By the middle of the nineteenth century, autumn festivals were common but Halloween had not reached the entire country.
However, when the Irish immigrated to America in the 1800s, popularized the Halloween traditions around the country. Taking from both Irish and British traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go door-to-door asking for food or money, a practice now known as trick-or-treting. By the end, Americans tried to change Halloween into a holiday more about community than about ghosts, and making parties for adults and children, and as a consequence the Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious ties.
By the 1920s and 30s, Halloween had become completely community centered with parades and parties in every town. Vandalism also began during the Halloween celebration. But by the 1950s, this trend slowed down, and it started to a holiday for children. A new American tradition was born, which became the second most famous commercial holiday after Christmas.
I leave you with a video on the History of Halloween:
For thousands of years, mankind has set aside a day each year to celebrate bountiful annual harvests. Before the establishment of formal religions, many ancient farmers believed that their crops contained spirits which caused the crops to grow and die. Many believed that these spirits would be released when the crops were harvested and they had to be destroyed or they would take revenge on the farmers who harvested them. Some of the harvest festivals celebrated the defeat of these spirits. Harvest festivals and Thanksgiving celebrations were held by the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews, the Chinese, and the Egyptians.
What is the history of Thanksgiving in United States? The initial "Thanksgiving" feast, held in 1621, was really a traditional English harvest celebration. The Pilgrims shared it with the Native Americans because they had taught the colonists to plants crops and hunt wild game. Without the Native Americans, the Pilgrims may not have survived the harsh winter and been able to celebrate their first harvest of plentiful crops in the New World. The colonists' first harvest feast lasted for three days. Food was served all at once, instead of in courses, so people ate whatever they pleased in the order that they desired. The more important members at the feast were given the best pieces of meat, while the rest of the diners ate whatever was closest to them. Since the Pilgrims didn't use forks or plates, they ate their meal straight off the table with spoons, knives or their fingers. They used large napkins to wipe their hands and also wrapped it around food when it was too hot to hold.
The history of Thanksgiving demonstrates that feasts like the one at Plymouth were held throughout the colonies after fall harvests. However, all thirteen colonies did not celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time. In 1789, George Washington became the first president to declare Thanksgiving a holiday. By the mid-1800s, many states observed the Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor, Sarah J. Hale, had begun lobbying for a national Thanksgiving holiday. During the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln looking for ways to unite the nation, discussed the subject with Hale. In 1863 he gave his Thanksgiving Proclamation declaring the last Thursday in November a day of Thanksgiving.
In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Controversy ensued, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains. What is Thanksgiving today? At its heart, it's a holiday where family and friends congregate to catch up, reminisce, tell jokes, share scrumptious food and generally give thanks for all the good things in life-exactly what they did at the very first Thanksgiving.
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