Many called all of Utica, New York. "Little Italy," where many resided originally from Italy, and the food and cooks were very authentic, with some of the best food cooks in any city.
Fabulous restaurants, with years of experience from cooks from all over Italy, had made their roots in Central, New York (Utica area), and the food remains a memorable experience of traditional Italian cooking to this day.
My Dad's parents came from Rome, Italy, and a little town in Bari (Mom's parents),.
My grandmother and grandfather couldn't speak a word of English or write.
Her cooking was amazing.
I still remember the round loaves of dense, delicious homemade bread, fantastic egg noodles, and fried dough.
Her polenta was full of wonderful flavor, topped with homemade, thick ragu-style sauce.
Then my favorite, she would make a chicken and pea's in a large fry pan, the sauce would stick to your fingers when you picked it up and if you used a napkin it would rip off and stick to you hand too, but talk about finger lickin good sauce, it was so amazing.
My mom roots from Bari, where she learned how to cook from that Region, and much different than my grandmother's, but together they created a banquet of love when it came to cooking.
Amazing how two people could make homemade tomato sauce with the exact same ingredients and not taste anything alike.
I am sure you all know what I mean; it's a mystery!
Every Sunday would be pasta and family day in our Italian home, always too much food, and everyone was invited.
After dinner, as tradition goes, on a hot summer day, our dad would cut up fresh peaches in the height of the season and pour Chianti over them for dessert.
This was after the espresso and sambucca.. Cheers to the memory of our dad, Carmen.
As it goes, there are stories to tell in every family background.
Our Italian heritage, growing up and still today, continues to be strong in what we did as children in our family households.
Growing up in Utica, New York, it seemed everyone was related and knew each other, and the neighborhood was safe and fun, doing nothing more than good conversation and eating American Italian homemade cooking.
Lansing Street is where we grew up, where there were still penny candy stores within walking distance and corner markets with the best foods.
I remember the large balls of provolone cheese, sticks of pepperoni, and jars of dried sausage in oil.
Carrying on traditions is something I am proud to carry on, keeping the memories of Mom, Dad, and my Grandparents alive in the kitchen and teachings.
It wasn't a Sunday without fried meatballs for breakfast first...and then someone had to grate the fresh cheese, pizza fritta (fried pizza dough), and I continue to do the same with my children and grandchildren.
Testing the Sunday sauce to see what spice was missing by ripping off fresh bread and dipping that freshly baked hot loaf of crusty bread in the pot of sauce.
We would start our dinner with Italian soup with escarole in it, then a huge antipasto, pasta of some kind, usually ziti or rigatoni....then meatballs, sausage, and braciole.
It all started early on a Sunday, every week, all day.
Mom and Grandma would cook so much food, you would be comatose and ready for a nap from eating so much!
The family would pile in at around 10:30....and we would eat until 7:00pm until we would all feel we were so stuffed we couldn't move and got our full share
Everyone always had a bag of food for taking home. All the food left over was enough to feed the entire block, plus we all had enough food to take home for a week!
Great memories still live on. That sauce taste lingers in your mind forever.
The way the sauce stuck to the meat, the meatballs frying, the smell of freshly grated cheese, soup simmering.
Dad was a fantastic cook also; his signature dish was marinara sauce, fresh tomatoes from the garden he grew.
Peaches and Chianti was his contribution was his favorite when a dessert was needed for the adults, and he always added them to a fancy glass, simple and delicious.
The families sure have grown since those days.
The best part is that the children have a deep understanding of traditions and family to pass on to their families and make new memories, and start having old and new traditions of their own.
Traditions keep going from generation to generation.
If you would like to make Peaches and Chianti, all Dad would do is sprinkle sugar over some sliced peaches and let them sit in the refrigerator for a few hours.
When he was ready for this special treat, he poured the Chianti over the peaches, then left them at room temperature for a few hours.
That's it.
Oh, and when they had extra money, strawberries would be added!
That is the inspiration of starting a blog, and recreating childhood food memories became an obsession and a heartfelt hobby.
We hope you enjoy your stay for a while and make some of our food and your own traditions with beautiful memories.
