The Italian Job

[willy]

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



the CEO in her element



a crate of fresh basil cut and washed and drying





Two good guys, my brother in laws



CEO checking on the progress



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





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



Had twenty some pots like this cooking all afternoon





First 130 jars canned and cooling



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

[willy]

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

[msbhammer]

Great Pics. Willy. 8)

[TunaHead]

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!

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..

[tsubaki]

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.

[lumberslinger178]

awsome pics there willy looks like fun

[Franco]

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?

[willy]

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 ;)

[parishht]

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.