The Italian Job
 

Hey Franco you will love this, this is what happens to poor German ( well half Italian) guy who marries into full bore paisons.

The CEO and her two brothers along with me and the blonde lady (full bore dutch) who is married to one of the brothers at work making sauce for the year, 12 bushels of tomatoes

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the CEO in her element

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a crate of fresh basil cut and washed and drying

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Two good guys, my brother in laws

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CEO checking on the progress

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One of my boys who along with his other brother and two sisters worked all day with us

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Long day for the dutch lady, plus I was plying her with drink along with the rest of us all day

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Had twenty some pots like this cooking all afternoon

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First 130 jars canned and cooling

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Second 120 jars came a little later forgot to get a pic, I will be eating good this year, now I got to do the apple sauce and then make and smoke the sausage, stock the freezer with at least five good sized deer and probably about 80-100 pheasants, unknown number of rabbits with gun and bow and various other assundries, ducks, etc.

It's a tough life but someone has to do it ;D

Re: The Italian Job
 

Oh and I almost forgot, got to buy the grapes and make the wine too, phew going to be a long fall 8)

Re: The Italian Job
 

Great Pics. Willy. 8)

Re: The Italian Job
 

Willy, where did you get the tomatoes?

I'm mostly Norwegian and Irish but I musta been a paisan in a past life. *Janine and I make marinara every year from the tomatoes in the greenhouse. *This year I made prosciutto for the first time (taught by an a friend's Italian father). *As I type this I HAVE two full hams that I cured/salted/pressed/dried that have been hanging in a specially made enclosure in my garage since last December. *I might cut into one of them next month. *The other will hang until Christmas.

Salud!

Re: The Italian Job
 

Man those pics. bring back memories of my fathers Mother (Rita Pincotti). She would make her own sauce like that. She would use some red pepper as well in her's as I recall. She died when I was about 13. She was only like 53 I believe. Old school gal from Italy. I wish Id had more time to know her.

ALSO; Tomatos from the eastern shore in Va. make the best sauce. Something to do with the soil gives them a fantastic flavor. Serriously..

Re: The Italian Job
 

Memories yeah, of preteen end of summer in a large family. Being the oldest shelling bushel after bushel of beans, peas, creaming corn and peeling tomatoes . Oh that is after picking all this. Then the blanching, canning *and packaging.
Come to find out after I got married my wife did the same thing, at some event someone suggested buying bushels of something and then canning (to them it was romanticized), at the same time we both said "bullchit,
our family had to do that to survive"!
Although when she wants something special from pickling to canning, she will happily do it.
Love the post willy.

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awsome pics there willy looks like fun

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Brother Willy,
That looks awesome - I showed wonderful wifey and she sez YUM-O! Wanna trade a couple jars of that sauce for a couple of her pies??

Snook season opens in 10 days, they have been boiling the inlet on a daily basis! When ya coming back?

Re: The Italian Job
 

I dunno Franco, is that an invite I detected ;D If so might have to make it happen. If I come I'm bringing a few jars ;)

My wifes mom and dad came to this country when in their 40's. Worked hard at labor type jobs all their lives. He passed five years ago and she is now in a nursing home needing full time medical care that after years of them living with us we could just not do anymore.
They treated me like a king when I came to their home, actually they treated anyone that came to their home like a king, you could show up at their house at 9PM with ten people and she would have a meal that would put most Italian resturants to shame prepared in a heart beat and eating their canned vegetables home made wine and sausage and pasta and unbelievable baked goods, home made cheeze. His yard in his simple home in a built up city area was always immaculate and looked like a garden in Pompei. Flowers and shrubs and a garden to die for and never a weed to be seen. Every thing grew like it was on steroids but he never used a single chemical on anything.

They were simple people and they worked hard from sun up to sun down and still their homes and their gardens and their food production was like they had a staff of a dozen working full time. I never knew how they did it. I'm lucky I get my grass cut sometimes.

Anyhow I made sure my kids spent a lot of time with them every day, made sure they learned what they could from them and my wife who is a mirror image of her mom in how hard she works and the cooking etc. do all we can to carry on the traditions they lived by, making sauce is just one of those ways. It is a good thing I think ;)

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That looks like a great day.

My wife is Italian and once a year she and her sister get together and
cook a dinner like her grandmother used to make.
Stuffed olives, homemdae spaghetti, sauce from scratch
with beef chichicken and special ingredients. A feast.

Re: The Italian Job
 

MMMM looks awesome Willy. You are a lucky man. I did that one summer with the tomatoes from my garden. All at once I had 3 wheel barrels of tomatoes come on so I decided to can them. We didn't make sauce, just blanched them in boiling water for a second or two, take out and put in cold water and the skin peels right off. Then we stuffed em into jars. Had some of the best spagetti ever that year.

Re: The Italian Job
 

Yea Blue similar process, first cleaning them, then boiling them for a short time to loosen the skins, then thru the processor machine, we used to do it all with a hand crank version, guess who got stuck cranking all the time.
Then you take the skins etc and run them thru the machine a second time and that gets added to the pots also, then you have to cook the sauce down in giant pots, we would have I think eight going at one time, add salt and fresh basil. Then it is to the individual jars which are sterilized with new lids each time and that takes awhile too.
What we do is take this sauce and my wife would open what she needs for whatever kind of meal we are planning and cook it again adding tomato paste, fresh garlic, more basil and whatever other ingredients are needed for the job at hand, usually cooked with sausage and home made meatballs in a large pot for hours.
The flavor is incredible and the smell in the house makes you want to stay inside and inhale deeply ;D

Re: The Italian Job
 

Dang Willy,

Dasa latta sauss.

My dad used to grow those Roma's. I can still remember cranking on that strainer for what seemed like days. Tomato juice squirting you in the eyes. But when it was the middle of winter and mom would make spaghetti, it was all worth it.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Re: The Italian Job
 

Hey Willy!
I just realized that's a bottle of Crane Lake wine in the first picture. Janine and I call that our "House Red". It's what we drink most often cuz it's 3 bottles for $10 at the store. The only thing better is Charles Shaw at $2 per bottle (aka: Two Buck Chuck). Two Buck just isn't available locally so Crane Lake gets our business.

Re: The Italian Job
 

So we are all getting bottles of sauce for Xmas!! ;)

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Brother Willy,
Like you need an invitation, your always welcome at my house. Wadda I need to do, send you a key to the door? Now would be a good time to visit, I'm still "looking for a job"

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Me too Franco ;D Give me a call tonight once you settle into your NASA station

MJ when I come up for that date you guys are supposed to be sorting out I'll bring you some ;) :)

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I hope the boat sells soon!@!@

I know the boat I want and it has justy been relisted cause it did not sell ;)

We be on the water the next week!!

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Thems jars of sauce looks freakin' good forgetaboutit! *Not to mention the Dutch lady, but I'm married so whateva! * 8)

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Ok, I gotta agree with Bradford
Two votes for the Dutch lady ;D

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Hey Willy, I need your number again please, I lost it somehow

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Check PM's

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Look closely at the hands of The Dutch Lady...I think she's about to give you the finger ;) ...


Thems some more mighty fine lookin' sauce jars there Willy 8) ...

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We try Oz, well glad to see you have been released from the dungeon, and are posting again.
I missed the sparkling wit, the uncanny wisdom and perceptiveness of a highly extinguished man such as yourself. ;)