Mama's Italian Stuffed Meatloaf

Copyright Pending

Mama was a small woman weighing 105 lbs. and 4’11” my father used to say she was small but mighty.  My sister and I on the other hand weighed that much at the age of 10.  Mama was a dynamo and was always on the go and always planning something. Whether it was card  games, dinner and dancing at the Italian Club, having her lady friends over our house for lunch, going with the ‘Girls’ into Manhattan to a catch a Broadway Play and have dinner, or making trays of cookies. And she had a job to go to 5 days a week  and she walked there except when school was closed.  I don't think she ever stood still except when she went to bed.  But most of all Mama kept busy  bitching at me and my sister about our weight.  I don’t know why we had a weight problem because we were always on the go as well.

 In the summer we rode our bikes everywhere, walked two miles to Burham Park pool which was  the biggest town pool in the state. Built by the WPA during the depression years.  Men needed the work so they built a pool the size of a small lake. We got a lot of exercise swimming, diving off of the high dive and walking across the street to the Pavillion to buy goodies.  In the winter we walked everywhere because it was too cold to ride our bikes. We walked to school every day, to the movies, to Burham Pond to ice skate and over to all our friend's and relative's houses. Papa took our one car to work so if we wanted to go anywhere we walked or rode our bikes.

My sister still jokes today that until she was 15 she thought her middle name was “Fat Son of a Bitch “ and she thought my full name was Carol you “Fat Son of a bitch-bastard”.  This might sound cruel and it was but for the most part we took it with a grain of salt since Mama called everyone a ‘bitch’ or ‘bastard’ even in a kidding and loving way.  For example if a friend bragged to Mama that  she won money, Mama  might say "you lucky son of a bitch" and laugh.  No one was offended by it.  I personally didn’t mind it when she called me names when no one was around, however when she did it in front of friends and family I would cringe.   This was the dynamics of our home and it was not always happy for me. 

Mama made all this wonderful food and way too much it. However, mama wanted Linda and I to eat small portions. Well how the hell do you do that when she put  so much food on the dinner table. I guess  she cooked in such large volume at her job that it just carried over to our home.  She never made just one course.  If we had pizza we also had fish or mac and cheese. Wait until I write about Thanksgiving and Christmas, we could have fed most of the homeless in the state on those days.

  She tried everything to make us lose weight even buying awful things to eat. I remember one was a  low calorie product called Desserta. It was a horrible tasting pudding and an even worse tasting jello and nasty dry Melba Toast.   They didn’t have all the wonderful low fat and calorie foods back in the 50’s that they do today.  Diet soda was nonexistent and skim milk looked like blue water and I hated it.

My father was the milkman for thirty years working for Brennan’s dairy in Summit, New Jersey. We always had a supply of rich butter, cream, full fat milk and chocolate milk. Mama used cream and butter in her baking.  There was nothing low calorie about her cooking, no wonder why she had two chubby daughters. My father had a sweet tooth which my sister and I inherited.  Mama was always baking either for papa, guests or someone’s party so we always had goodies in the house.  Honestly I can’t recall seeing her eat much or any of it.   If Linda and I wanted to eat those goodies  we had to do it when mama wasn’t around.    Heck we were kids and it was very tempting to have them in our home. Of course we were going to eat them.

Mama, Papa and Linda would go to bed by 8 pm because Papa had to get up at 4 am.  I would stay up and watch TV.  Many a night after everyone was in bed I would go into the kitchen and feast on cookies, cake or maybe even warmed up some food leftover from dinner. I often think that if Mama had left us alone and let us eat what we wanted  at dinner we would not have gotten into the habit of sneaking food and overeating. 

Mama was a woman on a mission.  She was determined to make her chubby daughters thin or kill us.  She never stopped nagging about our weight.  Her generation was fixated on weight more so than today.  In today’s world you can be a large women and still be considered big and beautiful, become a popular  celebrity, have boyfriends, buy nice clothes in larger sizes other that size 2 to 9 and be accepted by your friends.  Oh yeah and find a Husband.  But back in the 50’s women could have curves but if you had a few rolls of fat no guy wanted to have anything to do with you.  Mama was always emphasizing to me (and I was a only a kid mind you) , that I was never going to find a husband or be popular in high school unless I lost weight.  The sad thing is  back in those days it was true.  But at 10 finding a husband was the last thing on my mind. I was more interested in going to the movies on Saturday afternoons, riding my bike and eating.  I loved going to the Park or Community Theatres, watching horror movies, eating Popcorn and  juju fruit candy.

 When I was at home one of the meals that I loved was Mama’s Meatloaf dinner.  She stuffed it with hard boiled eggs.  It looked really pretty when it was sliced open. I still make it this way today but I put provolone cheese in with the eggs.  I enjoyed it cold in a sandwich with lots of Mayo.  If we had it for dinner I would end up eating a meatloaf sandwich while watching TV.  Thank god Mama never came downstairs and caught me or I swear she would have put a lock on the fridge. 

Mama’s Italian Stuffed Meatloaf

1 ½ lbs ground beef

2 eggs lightly mixed

½ cup chopped red onion

½ cup chopped celery

1 green pepper seeded and chopped

 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 teas. Onion powder

1 teas. Dried oragano

2/3 cup Italian Style Bread Crumbs

2/3 cup grated Romano Cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

2/3  cup shaved or shredded aged provolone

2 or 3 Hard Boil Eggs

1 ½ cup of your favorite tomato sauce, Mama always had some of her Sunday sauce on hand, I use Classico tomato basil sauce.

Mix all ingredients  together except the tomato sauce, hard boiled eggs and provolone. Take ½ of the mixture and make it into a loaf in bottom of 13x9 pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Sprinkle the provolone over this layer and line up the Hard Boiled Eggs on top of the provolone.  Take the remaining meat mixture an place it over eggs and cheese.  Shape in into a loaf sealing the sides of the bottom and top together.  It helps if you use a little flour to do this. Pour the sauce over the top. Sprinkle with more Romano Cheese if desired.  Bake at 350 for one hour or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean and the meat feels firm. The boiled eggs pick up the flavors of the seasonings and the cheese.  YummO!  Mama served this with baked potatoes, a veggie and a salad. Try it I bet you will like it.

   The Hard boiled eggs take on a different consistently when cooked in sauce or are baked.  They become firmer.  Sometimes I dropped boiled eggs in the Sunday Sauce and let them cook for hours and the flavor of the sauce and meat is absorbed by them. My husband and I love them cooked this way. Mama sometimes would stuff a few of her meatballs with boiled eggs and provolone cheese.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Copyright Pending

Papa loved Baseball and was a big New York Yankees fan. He was fortunate enough to see Joe DiMaggio, Ted William, Mickey Mantle and other legendary baseball greats play the game. When Papas’ brother, my Uncle Vincent Cresitello, gave him tickets to a game he was thrilled. Uncle Vincent worked for a men’s clothing company in Manhattan and took the train into the City 5 days a week on the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.  His weekends were spent at their summer home in Manasquan, NJ at the Jersey Shore. I think he would much rather go to the “Shore” than spend time at a ballgame.

When Papa was going to a ballgame it was Mamas’ job to make the refreshments. In those days you could bring food into the stadium so there was a lot of excitement going on in the Kitchen on those Sunday mornings.  Not only was Mama making her sauce but she was also preparing the food that papa would be taking to the game.  Many times my sister  would go with him.  He never asked me to go. Not that I was interested in going since I never cared for Sports. Didn't  then and still don’t.  Papa and I had a love/hate relationship while Linda was his favorite.

Mama would prepare pepper and eggs or eggplant parmesan that she would put on “nice” crusty rolls from Verillis Bakery for the sandwiches that papa took to the game. She made quite a few vegetable dishes.  I think that is an Italian thing.  They love their veggies.  However they liked them well done.  Not the way they are served today Al Dente. She was Sicilian and in Sicily they eat fish and veggies at almost every meal.  I can still remember the olive oil sizzling in the cast iron frying pan and the smell of the peppers and onions frying were incredible.  Many times neighbors walking by would comment about the aroma coming from our house on Sundays in the summer.  Since we didn’t have air conditioning back in the 50’s all the windows were open and the aromas of whatever Mama was cooking would travel all around the outside of our house. Can you imagine smelling all that wonderful Italian food cooking and not being able to taste it, Bummer! But Mama did make it up to them. Many Sundays she would send me over to a neighbors house with a big plate of Macaroni and Meat, she never called it Pasta it was always Macaroni.

Mama would pack the cooler with the sandwiches and I think Papa even took beer to the game. Those were the days.  Back then the popular food that  they sold at the game were hotdogs, peanuts, crackerjacks and soda and beer. The ‘Game’ was not so much about money back in the day. They didn’t give players 50 million dollar contracts; it was all about the Game.  The all American sport.  All those WWII vets who fought and died did so for freedom and the right to sit in a Stadium and watch there Hero’s play ball and drink beer and eat hotdogs. Papa was one of those Vets, he fought in WWII for 5 years and even got a Purple Heart.   Thank you Papa and all the veterans then and now for the sacrafies you are making and did make.

On the Sundays Papa went to the ballgame I would get to watch what I wanted on TV.  Usually every Sunday in the Summer Papa would monopolize the TV watching a Ballgame. I can remember being out of the front porch and hearing the commentator say “Foul Ball” or ”Line drive to left field’, and the roar of the crowd. 

When Papa watched the game he would lie on the living room floor and play with the change in his pocket.  When the game was over I would look to see if he dropped any of that change on the floor. Not that I was going to give it back to him.  Oh no, I needed that change to go buy candy, soda and ice cream from Paganos Candy Store. You know, I think I always found some.

 

Mama’s Pepper and Egg Sandwich Recipe

¼ cup olive oil, add more if needed

2 cloves garlic chopped 

1 large onion sliced, can be sweet

Mama used 4 green peppers seeded and sliced about a ¼ inch thick.  I make this with sweet red peppers. Your choice

4 Large eggs scrambled

1  teas. Onion powder

½  teas. Garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste.

4 long crusty Italian rolls

This makes a great vegetarian dish. 

Put oil in frying pan and heat on Medium for 1 minute.  Stir in garlic, onions, peppers, and all the spices, cook until veggie are the consistency you like.  If you want them soft it can take 10 minutes stirring occasionally.  They should not get brown.  And don't, god forbid burn the garlic.  It will get very bitter.  Add the scrambled eggs and stir constantly until cooked.  Put on the rolls.  Let sit for 10 minutes so the oil soaks into the bread.  Enjoy

Mama's Sour Cream Cake

Copyright Pending

Other than cooking one of Mama’s favorite things to do was to gamble. She enjoyed gambling so much that my father nicknamed her the ‘Mississippi Gambler, amongst other names that he had for her. Mama played Poker twice a week on Monday and Friday nights. Monday nights she went to the Italian Club later to be called the ‘Columbian Club’.  On Friday nights the ladies played at each other’s houses on a revolving basis. Later in life she developed an affection for Bingo but once the Casino’s opened up in Atlantic City it was goodbye bingo and hello slot machines. Oh and I must not forget how much she enjoyed the Momouth Race Track.   She was a woman with many interests.

When it was Mama’s turn to host the card party she would make Pizza for dinner because it was quick and easy. She would  have Papa drive her to Verrillis Bakery (Mama didn’t drive) in the Hollow of Morristown to buy the pizza dough, pizza  sauce and  grated mozzarella cheese (muzzadell Mama called it) and took it home and turned it into a delicious pizza pie. If she had any left over meatballs or sausage she would put that on top of the pizza.  I loved left over pizza for breakfast and if there was any of it left over the next morning it went into my mouth. There was no putting left over Pizza in the fridge; we didn’t worry about bacteria in those days. Mama just left it in the oven overnight and it stayed at room temperature until the morning.  I still love cold pizza and I never got sick from it then and I still don’t today

My sister and I loved when it was my mothers’ turn to have the ladies over to play poker. Not because we liked seeing her lady friends but because of all the food she served to them.  There was always plenty of snacks, potato chips with dip, peanuts, Fannies Fudge and a ‘Nice’ cake for their coffee break. My mother loved to make her Sour Cream Cake.  She experimented with it a lot, it was not always the same but no matter how she made it she got rave reviews.  It is great with coffee, rich and moist with cinnamon and sugar on top along with walnuts and chocolate chips. I don’t know where she got the recipe but once she had it she made it a thousand times. I still have the Tube pan she baked those cakes in.  It is probable 50 years old but I won’t part with it. I still make cakes in it today. Kitchen tools made back in the day seem to last forever.

The card game went on until 2 am so Mama slept in on those Saturday mornings.  That’s when my sister and I would strike.  Mama didn’t clean up from the poker game until the next morning. My sister and I would do that for her. We didn’t really literally clean; we cleaned up the yummy goodies. Eating as much of the leftover snacks and cake as we could before mama woke up.  Those were the mornings Linda and I would play what we called the “FOOD GAME”.  We would blind fold each other and then the one blind folded would have to taste a food and guess what it was. It could be anything in the Kitchen that was edible.  Linda was 5 years younger than me and I did take advantage of that.  Sometimes I would put a hot sauce in what I gave her to taste. What a bad girl I was.

Recipe for Mama’s Sour Cream Cake

½ stick of butter

1 ½ cups of granulated sugar

4 eggs

½ pint of sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups sifted flour

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

Topping

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

½ cup chopped walnuts

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Mix butter and sugar and cream until lemon yellow, mix in eggs and beat well until smooth.  Add sour cream, vanilla, salt, baking powder and soda and continue mixing until well incorporated.  Stir in flour.  Mixture will be thick.  Pour batter into a prepared tube or bunt pan.   Sprinkle with the topping and bake at 350 degree oven for 1 hour.  Insert a knife and if it comes out clean it is done.  Let sit in pan for 15 minutes and then remove it from pan

Here is Mama’s blueberry version.  Put half of the batter in the pan and then pour about 2/3 of a can of blueberry pie filling over it. If you prefer cherry, peach, apple or lemon will work to. Just go for it, use whatever filling floats your boat.  Smooth out the pie filling and then pour the remaining batter over it.  Put the same topping on cake but leave out the chocolate chips.  Unless you like chocolate with the fruit, I don’t.   Bake at the same temperature and length of time. It is a little tricky to get this out of the pan with the fruit in it so when you take it out of the oven run a knife along the inside of the cake pan.  Then let it cool for 15 minutes.  You can also put a glaze over the topping.  Mix one cup of powder sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk together until smooth and drizzle over the top of the cake while the cake is still warm.  Or you can dust it with powdered sugar when it is cool.  The options are all yours.

The Chocolate Incident

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I refer to this story as the “ Chocolate Candy Incident”. 

When I was growing up our house was on Washington Street in Morristown. The street was really a highway and went straight through the town. If you walk less than a mile you were in the center of town with all its little shops and department stores such as Bambergers and Epstiens. I especially liked the French Bakery Shop.  I would buy what I called the Butterfly which was pastry shaped like a butterfly. It was crispy with a light coating of honey and sugar. 

There was a Candy store on our street only about 5 buildings away from our house. That made me very happy.  It was called Paganos. Pop Pagano ran the store and he and his family lived over the shop.  I was a Chocoholic even back then. Whenever I got my chubby little hands on a nickel I was spending it at Paganos.  I loved Hershey Bars, Clark Bars and Almond Joy.  You got a much bigger piece of Candy for a nickel back then. 

Pop also had a Soda Fountain in the shop.  During the summer my mom and dad would send me there after dinner at least once a week to get ice cream.  We would all be sitting on the front porch and I would wait for the night when my father would say.  “Carol, go to Paganos and get us all ice cream”.   My heart would skip a beat.  They would give me their flavor orders and the money and off I would go.  This was not for an ice cream cone or a cup of ice cream.  This was for the loose packed ice cream that Pop would scoop out of  big containers that where kept under black lids behind the counter.  I would tell him which flavors I wanted and he would put them all into a cardboard ice cream dish. This ice cream was made with real cream and the flavors where natural and rich. Nothing artifical in this stuff and it was full on fat of that I am sure.  I remember my mother always wanted Butter Pecan. I always got Chocolate of course.  I would race home with my treasure and give it to Mama who would go into the kitchen and put it in dishes.  Then we would sit on the porch and watch the people and cars going by and enjoy our ice cream.

But summer fades away and winter comes to New Jersey bringing along with it the Christmas season. The Christmas when I was 11 one of my relatives came by and gave my mother a 5 lb. box of chocolates.  She left it on our dining room table and I guess forgot about it. But I didn’t.  Every morning when I got up I would go downstairs and I had to go through that damn dining room to get to the Kitchen.  Every morning I would have to look right at that box of candy. It seemed to get bigger every time I looked at it and the pictures on the box of the chocolates got more inviting every time I walked by. One day when Mama was not at home I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I took the box of chocolates and went down to the basement

Over the next few days that box of Chocolates and I had a very nice time.  I would sneak down to the basement when Mama was not around and eat my fill.  The basement was cold and nothing was down there but the oil burner, a clothesline and spiders but I didn’t care, I was over the moon and high on Chocolate.  And then it happened.  Mama started looking for the box of candy, asking me if I knew what happened to it. I knew nothing about it, of course.  I had the audacity to say “What box of Candy” and shameless enough to try to implicate my 6 year old sister. “Why don’t you ask Linda” I said.  I must have been pretty convincing because Mama stopped asking about it.  Until the day that I called  Black Tuesday for a longest time. We had some bad weather  that day and Mama had to go down to the basement to hang clothes.  Back in the day we didn’t have clothes dryers.  And guess what she found, “THE EMPTY BOX OF CANDY” that I had forgotten to throw away.   Boy did I catch hell for that from both Mama and Papa.  I was in the dog house for sure.  My sister was just delighted.  Can’t say I blame her.  I had to wash floors for the next month along with being grounded. I also had to hear about the Chocolate Candy Incident for many years to come. If Mama were still alive I would still be hearing about it today.

 

 My Mama had a friend who made fantastic chocolate fudge, her name was Fanny and she would bring it to us from time to time. Mama would try to ration it but my sister and I were unstoppable when it came to sweets. Mama got the recipe from Fannie and started making it during the holidays.  My sister Linda and I still do. We both give it to our friends and family as gifts. I put it in pretty boxes with paper dollies and wrap it with pretty bows.  I give it to my Dr. every year and he talks about it all year to insure he gets it again, LOL.  I love this recipe because it makes a lightly sweet but very creamy fudge.  I don’t usually like fudge because it is too sweet for my taste but this fudge is perfect.  It is a very easy recipe but you would never know it because it tastes so good.

Recipe for Fannies Fudge

16 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 cup of chopped walnuts, optional

 

In heavy duty saucepan mix together chocolate chips and condensed milk. Stir constantly over medium heat until chocolate and milk are all combined and melted.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and nuts. Pour into an 8 X 8 pan that has been coated with cooking spray. This fudge will set up right away but I refrigerate it for a few hours before I cut it into one inch squares. Once cut it does not need to be refrigerated and will keep for about 2 weeks.  It also freezes very well. 

Pasta Fagioli

 Copyright pending

Morristown, even though it is the county seat is not a big town.  I think it is approx. 2.6 miles in circumference.  Almost everyone in our big Italian family lived there.  My mother’s sister, Zizi Rosie, Zizi (pronounced sids-zee) means Aunt in Italian, and her husband Ben Abato lived right around the corner from us.  The Morristown High School field separated the block between our homes and I would cut through it to get to their house.  In the summer months when I was out riding my bike or going swimming in the town pool I would stop by their house to see what was cooking, literally.  My Zizi and Uncle Ben were both good cooks. They shared the kitchen, cooking together many times.   My Uncle Ben had a reputation for picking wild mushrooms in fields around Morristown and turning them into yummy dishes.  (I will go into that story more later).

As I mentioned I would stop by to see what was cooking and if they were having something for dinner I liked I would stay there for dinner.  I dare say sometimes I ate with them and then went home and ate dinner again with my family.  My Uncle Ben made the best Pasta Fagioli  I have ever tasted.  It was thick and creamy busting with flavor. It was comfort food at its best and when you put lots of parmesan cheese on it you were in heaven.  Friday night was the night for Pasta Fagioli along with sautéed filet of sole and of course bread and salad. 

  During the summer months there was always a pretty cut glass pitcher in their fridge with wine and slices of fresh peaches soaking in it.  My Uncle Ben would have that for desert.   He grew up drinking wine.  He was raised in Italy where I have been told even the kids drink wine as if it is water.  He also made his own wine in the basement of their house.  I can remember him having a jug of wine under his chair as we ate dinner and he would fill his glass from time to time.  I loved my Uncle Bennie, he was a very nice man. He always seem happy joking with us kids and teasing us.  Maybe it was all the wine he drank that made him so happy.  Talking about him makes me miss him.  He passed about 8 years ago, I think he was 96. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have my Uncle Ben’s Pasta Fagioli recipe.  But I have my own that I developed over the years.  Pasta Fagioli means Pasta and Beans.  And so here it is.  It is also a good recipe for Vegetarians, which my son Scott is now, but everyone will love it.

Pasta e Fagioli

1 pound of  tuplini  pasta, I am not sure I am spelling it correctly but you can see it in the picture

¼ pound pancetta or 4 slices thick bacon (omit this ingredient for vegetarian recipe)

   2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 ribs celery from the heart with leafy tops, chopped

1 onion peeled and chopped

  3 large cloves finely chopped garlic

 
1 fresh bay leaf

Freshly ground black pepper and Kosher salt to taste

  1 15 ounce can of small white beans “Goya” brand is best or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup dry white wine or chicken broth

2 tbsp. flour

1 small can tomato paste

  1 ½ cups grated parmesan cheese

If using the pancetta or bacon dice into ¼ inches. You can do this while the pasta is cooking, only cook pasta to al dente level.  Heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add pancetta or bacon and cook 2 to 3 minutes, or omit this step for vegetarian recipe and instead add the celery, onions, garlic, bay leaf and salt and pepper into oil and sauté until tender.  Add beans and heat for 2 minutes.  Stir in ½ cup of wine or chicken broth and simmer for 1 minute then Wisk in the flour and tomato paste and continue to cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the sauce has slightly thickened. While the sauce is cooking drain the pasta and return it to pot.  Reserve a cup of pasta water.  In case the sauce gets to thick it can be added to thin out. Toss in the bean and sauce mixture. Add half of the parmesan cheese. Pour in to a serving bowl or plater and top with remaining cheese. Serve immediately.

This is too good not to try!!!  I might just have to go to the market and buy the ingredients and make it tonight.  Yesterday when I was in our Super Walmart  I noticed that they actually had pancetta in a container already chopped. That makes things a lot easier.  Whenever I can take short cuts I do, the easier the better.  They also have the garlic and onions already chopped as well.  Although I have to admit I love chopping garlic and even like the smell of it on my hands.

Mama's Meatballs & Sauce

Copyright Pending

Mama’s Meatballs

2lbs ground beef

2 eggs

½ cup milk

1 cup flavored Italian bread crumbs

3 cloves garlic, chopped

4 Tbsp. chopped fresh Italian parsley

2/3 cup grated parmesan or Romano cheese

2 tsp. Onion Powder

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup pine nuts, optional

Mix all ingredients together.  Make small balls, approx. the size of 2 golf balls.  It is easier to do this by first wetting your hands with cold water.   That makes them easier to shape.  Fry the meatballs in 2 Tbsp. of Olive Oil, hint, using Extra Virgin Olive Oil when cooking  is not recommended because it loses it’s wonderful fruity flavor when heated, best to use plain Olive Oil.  Use your EVOO in cold dishes.  Brown Meatballs on all sides, they do not have to be cooked completely through because they will continue cooking in the sauce.

Mama’s Sunday Sauce

2 large cans of Hunts tomato sauce

1 large can of Hunts tomato paste

! can water of each size

1 whole head of garlic

1 lb. Italian Sausage

1 package of  Country Style Pork Ribbs

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste

½ tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes, optional

Mix all ingredients together in a large pot.  Remove skin from garlic and slice off the top, drop it in the sauce.  Start cooking the sauce on medium heat.  You can start the sauce before starting to fry the meatballs.

As the meatballs get brown on all sides drop them in the sauce.  Then in the same frying pan start browning the sausages and pieces of pork.  Don’t leave out any of the meat because it is what gives the sauce its flavor.  You can also add the drippings from the frying pan into the sauce.  When the meat is brown but not cooked through drop it in to the sauce.  Turn up the heat and bring to a boil then reduce the heat to simmer and let it cook for approx. 3 hour.   I have found that if you cook this a day early and refrigerate it the next day when you reheat, it is even better.  This sauce and meat also freezes very well.  You will be the hit of the day when you serve this.  Mangia!!!

Born to Cook

      Copyright Pending

      It seems like it is my fate to passionately enjoy preparing food in my kitchen.  I am a ‘foodie’ at heart, and I love anything to do with food and cooking.  I always have and I guess I always will. Being born Italian it is instilled in me as part of my heritage to have a natural talent for cooking, of this I am sure.    My mama was always in the kitchen cooking up fantastic tasting meals and had a reputation in our town as being one of the best cooks in the area. Even now anybody that had known my mother (Mae Cresitello) and experienced her delicious meals still mention what a good cook she was and ask if I can cook like her. Cooking was her life and  she worked in the cafateria  at Alexander Hamilton Grammar School, in Morristown, NJ for many years, preparing lunches, however the food she had to prepared for the kids at school was not the same as the luscious meals she made at home for family and friends.

     One of my earliest memories is of waking up on Sunday mornings to the smell of meatballs and Italian sausage frying in the cast iron frying pan and a large pot of tomato sauce bubbling away on the stove.  I loved to go down the stairs pull off a big hunk of Italian Bread and dip it in the tomato sauce and eat that for breakfast.  Occasionally mama would even let me have a meatball with the bread.  Of course that was not the only things that I ate for breakfast on Sunday mornings. Many a Sunday morning papa would go to the best bakery in town ‘Danzingers’ bakery and buy us iced crumb buns, jelly doughnuts, crullers and cheese danish.  I would eat as many of these Goodies as mama would allow me too, needless to say I was a chubby kid.

Papa Joseph Cresitello & Mama Mae Cresitello
with Uncle Ben and Zizi Rosie

     It always amazed me how Mama could feed a group of people in no time at all even when she was not expecting guest.  She would be preparing dinner for all of us, that is papa (Joe Cresitello), my sister Linda and me when friends would suddenly stop by for an unexpected visit. What seemed to be just enough food for the four of us  suddenly turned out to be enough food to feed a small army with enough leftovers for a smaller feast later on.  I always wonder how she did it all on such short notice.  Now I know she just made way to much food and that is one of the reasons she had two chubby daughters.

       In my younger years I never cared enough to learn how to cook but I did enjoy watching mama prepare meals in our small kitchen. Aside from being an incredible cook she was also a great baker. Whenever anyone in the family or their close friends were having a party or social gathering they would always ask mama to make the desserts and it seemed that no matter how busy she was she would manage  to make time to happily do so. Cookies were her specialty but her sour cream cake was to die for. She was never afraid to experiment.  I remember she would take a recipe and make it her own by making changes to it. It always seemed to make it better.  Her Italian rum cake was her masterpiece with different layers of filling and whipped cream frosting, OMG I’m craving a piece right now.  And soon I will give you the recipe in another story.

      So now you have a brief understanding of why I love to cook and love to eat as well.  My son ‘Scott’ was influenced by his grandmothers cooking, it inspired him to attend Culinary School to become a Chef.  Cooking is in our genes and passed down thru the generations.  When my son comes to visit, he always requests that I make my mama’s linguini with clam sauce, a dish that is a favorite for my husband and I, so I never refuse to make it when requested. It is absolutely delicious especially when you sprinkle it with lots of fresh parmesan cheese.  I serve it with roasted garlic bread and a big Italian salad or as Mama would say a ‘Nice’ salad.  She addressed everything she made as ‘nice’.  I can remember her asking, “do you want a ‘nice’ piece of cake, or a ‘nice’ dish of Spaghetti?” to her guests. But it was more than nice it was delicious.