I wrote this piece five years ago, on February 5, 2002 (a super bowl Sunday--when we could call it "Super Bowl Sunday". We had traveled to Mission Viejo, CA to join in the celebration of my aunt Elizabeth's (Lizzie) 90th birthday. There was a large crowd of relatives at the dinner reception and we all enjoyed the hours, even with the men folks taking turns to go out to the bar to check the game score! My cousins had asked me if I would write and read a little something about Aunt Lizzie, and I was pleased and happy to do so.
Time has flown, in the way that time has of doing, and Monday, Aunt Lizzie will be 95, may she be BLESSED! I can't make it there this year, but I will sing her Happy Birthday over the phone, and I hope her birthday card reaches her today. However, she is still fairly alert, and physically well. She knows everybody, but still forgets the little short term memory things. She is mobil without use of a cane or walker, and still likes a beer with her dinner, and a 'sweet' after it. In other words, she is still what has us all.....
Copyright
February 5, 2002
LOVING LIZZIE
Ninety Years! Some would say it is so old! Yet at 65 I know it passes as the blinking of an eye. The wonder is not to have lived to ninety; the wonder is to have reached ninety and be so beloved. That is what we are doing here today. Celebrating the ninety years of love that have enfolded our dear sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin and friend, Elizabeth Falvo Argenziano, known to me affectionately as Aunt Lizzie. Today I want to share some memories that I carry, just to show you why it is so easy, Loving Lizzie.
From a family of eleven children born to Ralph and Mildred Falvo, five girls and 3 boys survived into adulthood. Lizzie’s capacity for love started very early. I have heard the story of her beloved little sister Stella many times. Aunt Liz took her on as a special little one, caring for her like a mother, even though she was a child still herself. Stella died from diphtheria and some say the bungling of a neighborhood midwife, when she was quite young. Each time the tale was told, tears welled up in Aunt Lizzie’s eyes for the loss of that child.
Uncle Mike could tell us about the special relationship he had with Aunt Lizzie. She coddled him and bought him clothes with money she earned from working in a clothing store in downtown Sharon. If he were here today, Uncle Al could repeat how many times he sat at her kitchen table on Seventh St., eating the goodies she’d make especially because she knew he liked them.
I remember when Aunt Liz lived on Milliken Avenue. I would head up Church St. after Catechism on Tuesday afternoons, and always ended up having dinner at their house and playing with Joanne until Uncle Joe drove me back down to Main St. in the evening. Everyone on Milliken knew her. She was always a better neighbor than I have ever been, much like my mother.
Aunt Lizzie was especially close to my mother, Mary. We lived from the time I was 10, right next door to each other on Seventh St. -- 334 and 328 to be exact. Those homes were built when it was so difficult to get material after World War II. I remember both families driving to Franklin to hook up with a man who sold hardwood flooring and brick. And what battles we had with Mr. Johnson to stay sober long enough to finish our stone fireplaces! We all had gardens, and passed veggies back and forth as the season went on. Anything Aunt Lizzie baked, we got some. Anything mom cooked, they got some. It was almost like having a family compound, those growing up years on Seventh St. You know of course, that the family that eats together, meets together?
I probably wouldn’t be here today, reading this tale, if it weren’t for Aunt Lizzie. I was always interested in cooking, from a very early age. The only problem was that my mom wouldn’t let me near the stove. Right after we’d all moved up on the hill, mom went to work for Ambriola’s and I was left home alone on a Saturday afternoon. Hmmmm, what better time to bake a cake? So, I went over to the gas stove, turned on the oven and put the match down into the hole to light it, and then proceeded to mix up the chocolate cake that’s on the Hershey Cocoa box (my favorite, even until today).
A few minutes into the mixing, I could see Aunt Lizzie walking down the steps from their lot to ours, proceeding to our house. All I could think of was "Uh Oh, busted!"
She came in and asked what I was doing. What else? "Baking a cake."
"Did you light the oven?" and she sniffed suspiciously.
"Surrrre I did!"
She went over to the oven, and of course, it wasn’t lit. But, the gas WAS on! She didn’t yell, though, just turned off the oven and waited a few minutes while I kept mixing the cake. Then she lit the oven and waited to get the cake out for me. I don’t know if she ever told my mother. I’d like to think not. But, when I got older and realized what could have happened, because you KNOW I would have tried to relight that oven...that’s why I’ve been partial to electric stoves ever since.
Time marched on. We had family picnics at the Buhl Park, while the first ever BBQ grill in our whole family was bought by Uncle Joe, and we barbequed at Aunt Liz’s. Will we ever forget those first chicken breasts, burned on the outside, pink on the inside? But it got better. We all learned that it was STEAK that was supposed to be charred on the outside, pink on the inside!
When they put a piano in their garage for my cousin, Joanne, Aunt Lizzie tolerated me going over and banging on it for hours as I taught myself to read and play.
She made little finger sandwiches every time ‘Little’ Joanne, Carol Pancioni and I performed our musical ‘shows’ in Pancioni’s garage. Isn’t it funny? I directed and acted and the three of us practiced our hearts out, while dressing room stars danced in our heads. Who gets on the real world stage? CARMEN, who only wanted to eat something with a fork.
We had parties for about every occasion in the cellar of her house or ours. She and my mom cooked and baked themselves sick for those occasions. Maybe that’s why we all ended up in the restaurant business…making money doing what we knew and liked to do best, feeding the multitudes. And it wasn’t just fishes and loaves! Still the amount of food that we produced was miraculous.
You had to be there to appreciate going to the drive-in movies with Aunt Lizzie and family. I did a couple of times and it was like a picnic in a car. The refreshment stand didn’t get any business from us! Various bags & boxes came along, sporting pepperoni, crusty bread, olives, cheese and plenty of drinks. Now rumor has it that she did it for movies at the Columbia and Nuluna Theaters, also, but I’ll never tell! It must have been addictive, because when Aunt Lizzie comes to visit in Vegas, our favorite breakfast is pepperoni, olives, cheese and crusty bread!
I went to high school, graduated, got married. Aunt Lizzie & Uncle Joe were the folks who picked Rich & I up at Pittsburgh airport on Christmas Eve, 1956. We were coming home from an 18 month army stint in Honolulu. I was about a month pregnant with Lori. They were godparents to Lori and also to Philip. And I believe they were godparents to half the Shenango Valley. Every time I make Bunny Scenari’s two hour nut roll, I chuckle remembering what a big family they had and how many of their kids were Aunt Lizzie’s godchildren. My memory may be a bit hazy on this, but I believe it was the Alcaro family that accounted for another bunch of godchildren.
Rich and I rented the upstairs apartment of Aunt Liz’s house for about a year. She was there for support in a very rough emotional time for me, keeping an eye on me during the day when Rich & my mom had to work. I don’t know if she remembers that, but I do when I think about Loving Lizzie.
She worked with us at Little Italy in the Plaza for a time and then worked most of the night shifts at the Middlesex Diner which they owned for a lot of years. While there, she fed many hungry stragglers and family members off the cuff. She is a firm believer in what goes around, comes around, building many friends and much love in the process.
Through the years since I moved to Las Vegas, we’ve played slots together at the Cortez, eaten prime rib in Roberta’s Café, made chamels, exchanged squid sauce recipes, put jigsaw puzzles together, played cards and just reminisced in her visits there. There isn’t a couple of weeks that go by without phone calls between Las Vegas and Mission Viejo, just to keep touch and to give Lizzie my love.
What a gift for Aunt Lizzie to have two young, bright little grandsons around her in her later years. I know she loves all of her children and grandchildren, but there is some quirk in the Falvo family that makes their eyes light up for the boys, especially so for Aunt Liz. (And she thought I didn’t notice!) I know a daughter is a daughter for all of your life, but there is something about the boys, even after they take a wife, that none of us daughters can explain. So we live with it. It is a truism, therefore, that Joey & Tony are a veritable life force for Aunt Lizzie, as has been Pete in all these years. Of course there is no question that she loves the sweetness of Lilibet and Mia. How could she not, for to be Lizzie is to love.
The years have continued moving on and by cracky, I’ve gotten older. I find myself, on occasion, standing in the middle of the kitchen and wondering why the heck I’m there! It doesn’t surprise me, therefore, that at 90 Aunt Lizzie, although feisty and loving life, has trouble remembering what she had for breakfast. I figure my day is coming also, should I make it beyond 66. That’s why I’ve written all of this down. To have as a base in the forgetful years, enabling us to remember that we were here and why we were here, Loving Lizzie today in celebration of her 90th year among us.
Earlier during one of the "I Smell A Memory" sequences, I had a couple of requests for some recipes that I am just getting around to finding in my files to put here. I think it was Lucy who asked about a short ribs recipe--so here goes!
BRAISED SHORT RIBS JARDINIERE
LARGE BOWL OR PAN
SHALLOW OVEN PROOF PAN
4 LBS LEAN BEEF SHORT RIBS
3 LARGE SCRUBBED CARROTS
2 LARGE PEELED POTATOES
3 STALKS CELERY
1 SWEET ONION
1/2 BELL PEPPER
1/4 C OIL
1 C FROZEN PEAS
FLOUR * BEEF BASE * SEASONINGS
MIX TOGETHER WELL IN THE LARGE BOWL OR PAN:
1/2 C FLOUR * 1 TSP PEPPER * 1 T SALT * 1 T GARLIC GRANULES
1 T PARSLEY * NEXT ADD THE 4 LB OF SHORT RIBS
(MIX AND TURN UNTIL MEAT USES UP ALL OF FLOUR MIX)
BROWN RIBS IN 1/4 C OIL IN A SHALLOW OVEN PROOF PAN, TURN OFTEN UNTIL BROWN ON ALL SIDES
DISSOLVE 2 T BEEF BASE IN 1 QT HOT WATER, ADD SLOWLY TO RIBS IN PAN
STIR AND TURN UNTIL WELL COATED, SCRAPING BOTTOM OF PAN
COVER PAN TIGHTLY AND BAKE AT 350 FOR ONE HOUR
MEANWHILE PREPARE JARDINIERE:
CUT THE CARROTS, POTATOES, CELERY, BELL PEPPER INTO JULIENNE STICKS
SLICE THE ONION ABOUT 1/4" (RESERVE ALL IN COLD WATER FOR 1 HOUR)
DRAIN JARDINIERE & ADD WITH 1 C FROZEN PEAS TO RIBS
COVER BAKE AT LEAST ONE HOUR OR UNTIL RIBS ARE FORK TENDER & VEGGIES ARE GLAZED
Here's another great recipe for beef ribs or short ribs!
GRILLED BEER BEEF RIBS
3 LARGE BEEF RIBS PER PERSON OR 4 LBS BEEF SHORT RIBS (for 4/5)
BEER MARINADE:
2 CANS FLAT BEER
1/2 C SOY SAUCE
2 T ONION FLAKES * 2 T GARLIC GANULES * 1 T PEPPER
MIX MARINADE INGREDIENTS TOGETHER WELL IN A SHALLOW PAN BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD MEAT
PLACE MEAT IN PAN, TURN SEVERAL TIMES TO COAT WELL WITH MARINADE SPRINKLE MEAT WELL WITH MEAT TENDERIZER, COVER & REFRIGERATE
KEEP MEAT REFRIGERATED AT LEAST 24 HRS, TURNING SEVERAL TIMES
(MARINADE AND MEAT CAN ALSO BE STORED IN HEAVY, SEALABLE PLASTIC BAG)
COOK ON PREHEATED GRILL, NOT TOO CLOSE TO HEAT, BASTING WITH REMAINING SAUCE (MAY BE COOKED IN BROILER, ALSO)
It will soon be time for memories and moments of Valentines & Love, but please afford me this little aside to address some not so loving situations past and very present to clear the air somewhat, before we get on to the more important of life's adventures.
Early on in this blog I wrote up THE WIZARD OF OOzE, which was a satire on some freaky and some really FINE folks that I encountered during a period of stalking that I lived through which lasted several years. During that time of stalking, I posted up a forum called THE CAGE in which I kept internet and real life incidences of stalking by the perpetrator, as evidence for police and FBI who became involved in the turmoil. The forum featured a JPeg of a cell from the CA center for mental prisoners. It worked quite well until the situation was finally resolved. The time actually came when I could laugh a bit about the 'stalking' era, as I remembered and wrote down all the satirical memories that appear in "The Wizard of OOzE".
The New Age of Freakoids
Shortly after Christmas, I received some notification of statements coming from another blog of freakoids (here on the stream) that went something like this:
""their comment regarding your heritage is as believable as these same crones wanting to appear "viable???" I would say, though... that you know I am saving those emails to ensure that miss Jo ann... Jo Ashum... Granny Jo.... Joannne B... and so ON.... and so ON... will come to realize all the info I have collected, and how dangerously close she has come to.... IF NOT.... already having committed lible... (which would be the LEAST of her concerns at this point!) Anyway... life is so short, and so many folks are so sick and unsettled!!! Just a thought... Macey |"
Now I don't know what's going on in the heads of this "Pach" and "Macy", but it seems that they are quite paranoid. In reading the blog to which I was referred, I find that this 'man' is under a court order to stay away from and not mention his "ex", and has made no effort to honor the order. Somehow or other, that situation has led him and his enabling friend to try to put an onus of "identity" on every Joanne and Granny, etc. that shows up anywhere--as if HIS problem with court orders has anything to do with any Joanne ANYWHERE, who are not involved with his legal problems and under no court orders.
Anyway, I am a bit tired of the bad mouthing--even though I know that few people read or have an interest in their babbling--so I decided to give warning that I may need to put up the little bitty computer cage above for little bitty computer yammerers. It's up to them.
And now--back to our regularly scheduled Memories and Moments. 8-)
Crown of pork, pork shoulder, stuffed pork chops…you name it, roast pork has its own succulent, mouth-watering aroma. I can conjure up that scent in my mind’s nose, even though I am writing this with nary a pork roast in the oven.
As far back as I can remember, roast pork of some kind was the center of our New Years Day dinner. I will also always remember ‘why’ that held true (besides the fact that it was so luscious). We were always told that we should not eat anything like chicken or turkey or any fowl with feet that “scratched back” for the New Year; rather we would have pork with feet that “rooted forward”, thereby insuring our prosperity for the coming year. I don’t know where that saying started, but I remember my grandmother saying it, half a century and more ago. Now, everybody from our family who grew up in that time would not dare to challenge the veracity of the warning, and I have passed it on to my children and theirs.
I don’t really have memories of anything ‘special’ happening on New Years Day when I was quite young. When there was football, Dad listened to it on the radio, and later watched it on TV. Sometimes a couple of families would get together and cook and share the fatted pig, and that was fun for the kids and company for the adults.
Most of New Years Day memories for me, though, are around Rich and my family; or when we prepared pork roast dinners for our customers at our restaurant. We also seemed to always have his family and mine over for dinner on special holidays, and I remember the two of us cooking for the crew. We added our special rolled cabbages to the menu and usually did stuffed pork chops rather than pork roast, which worked well with his mother being Polish and his dad sort of a European mongrel mix. New Years seemed to be one day when my folks could do without pasta and sauce, and I hope everyone enjoyed our innovations through the years.
There was one special New Years that I will always remember, though. We were living in Las Vegas, and we kept saying that after all the years of watching the Rose Bowl Parade on TV, it would be a shame to never see it in real time, since we lived quite near, as the car goes. So, one year we decided to just do it and we headed out for California on the afternoon of New Years Eve, taking our granddaughter, who was about eight at the time, with us.
We loaded up with blankets and warm clothes, a couple of patio lounge chairs and a cooler of goodies, for of course, we were going to spend the night along the parade route in Pasadena to assure us a ‘good spot’ in the early morning of New Years Day.
Memories are made of this ~~~ the hot dogs and grilled onions steaming away fragrance from the venders’ area that was set up across the street. Cotton candy and popping corn sending out salty and sweet calls to “come buy me”. The smell of brewing coffee and hot chocolate beckoned as the night grew chill, and down the block a pizza parlor was dragging in a crowd as the scent of baking pizzas and calzones was pumped outside to eager noses. I don’t remember ever seeing anything quite like that group of people; eating, talking, walking, having fun and praying that it wouldn’t rain on their parade! It was quite an adventure. We never went back to do it with our grandson, though; just too much chill for the old bones, but I always wish I could.
It will soon be New Years Day again, and it is time to make up the menu and the ‘list’. Lori laughs every time I bring up the list. She asks why I just don’t keep it on my computer, because it seldom changes, year after year. Too soon she will be older - enough to understand that getting together to make the ‘list’, just like the aromas, is part of the memories of New Years Day past, cherished and never to be forgotten.
(See New Years Day Menu & Recipes)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW YEARS DAY
MENU
STUFFED CELERY ~~ ASSORTED OLIVES
TOSSED SALAD
SPICY SWEET APPLE SAUCE
JELLIED CRANBERRY SAUCE
TINY ROLLED CABBAGES IN SOUR CREAM
SPARERIBS IN SAUERKRAUT
STUFFED DOUBLE PORK CHOPS
ROASTED BABY CARROTS
WHIPPED POTATOES
SAVORY PORK GRAVY
CRESCENT ROLLS
PECAN PIE ~~ HOT APPLE PIE
WHIPPED CREAM ~~ VANILLA ICE CREAM
WINE ~~ CIDER ~~ SOFT DRINKS ~~ COFFEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW YEARS DAY
RECIPES
Tiny Rolled Cabbages in Sour Cream
5 Qt Pot 13 x 9 Glass Baking Dish
4 Qt Water 1 Large Loose-Leaf Head of Cabbage
Simmer Cabbage in Water in Pot 20 minutes or until leaves can be separated, but not mushy. Cool so cabbage can be handled. Separate and cut Leaves in half lengthwise to make small rolls, about 3” long. Place 1 C of Cooking Water into Baking Dish.
Filling
1 C Cooked Rice ½ lb Ground Beef ½ lb Ground Pork
4 T Onion Flakes 1 T Garlic 1 T Paprika 1 T Beef Base
1 T Parsley 2 T Dill Pickle Juice 1 Egg
Mix all of above together well. Place 1 T of filling on each piece of Cabbage, roll and tuck in ends. Place in Baking Dish, Cover. Bake at 350 for 1 Hour.
Sauce
1 Large Onion and 1 Bell Pepper both sliced thinly
2 T Butter 1 T Garlic 1 tsp Salt 1 tsp Pepper
1 T Paprika 1 Pint Sour Cream
Saute’ Onion and Pepper in Butter until tender, sprinkling with Salt, Pepper and Garlic. Cool Slightly. Stir in the Sour Cream, add the Paprika and stir again.
Remove the Cabbage Rolls from the oven. Pour the Sauce over the rolls, moving them so that they are covered in sauce on bottom and the top. Cover and bake for 20 minutes more at 325.
Spareribs and Sauerkraut
Small Roaster or 13 x 9 Baking Pan
3 lbs of Pork Ribs, Cut into Individual Ribs
1 T Granulated Garlic 1 T Salt 1 T Pepper ½ C Water
Place Water and Ribs into baking pan or roaster, sprinkle with seasonings, Cover.
Bake 15 Minutes in 375 Oven. Remove from Oven. Remove Ribs from Pan.
Using the Sauerkraut Sublime Recipe from New Years Eve put a layer of the kraut into the baking pan, add a layer of Ribs, next a layer of the Pepper/Onion mix, sprinkle with Caraway Seeds. Repeat layers as needed.
Cover and bake in 350 oven for 15 minutes. Lower heat to 325, bake about 40 minutes or until ribs are tender.
Stuffed Double Pork Chops
Preheat Oven to 350
Large Shallow Baking Pan
8 Double Pork Chops with Stuffing Pocket
Bang of Baby Carrots, steamed for 5 minutes
Stuffing
1 Envelope Mrs. Culbertson’s Stuffing Mix
1 Small Apple, Peeled and Diced
2 Stalks Celery, Chopped fine ½ tsp Sage
1 tsp Granulated Garlic 1 Egg
2 T Parsley 2 T Raisins Orange Juice to moisten
Combine all stuffing ingredients in a bowl, mix well and adjust liquid for moisture.
Fill Pocket of each Double Chop with Stuffing. Reserve remaining Stuffing to bake separately.
Season Chops on both sides with Salt Pepper and Garlic. Place in Baking Pan. Bake 20 Minutes.
Remove ½ C juices from the Baking Pan for Savory Gravy. Turn Chops; arrange Carrots around Chops in Pan. Divide rest of Stuffing placing on top of each Chop. Cover and bake another hour at 325, turning carrots once in juices. Remove cover, bake 10 minutes or until Stuffing on Chops is brown and slightly crusty.
Savory Pork Gravy
Large Skillet
Gravy Boat
¾ C all Purpose Flour ¼ C Pork Chop Juices Pinch of Sage 1 T Salt ½ tsp Black Pepper 1 tsp Granulate Garlic
26 oz. Can of Broth (chicken or vegetable)
Place juices in skillet over medium heat and lightly sprinkle all the flour over the surface, scraping and stirring with a spatula to lightly brown the flour, cooking it so the gravy will not lump, but do not scorch the flour.
After a few minutes of Stirring/Scraping, begin to deglaze the pan by slowly adding HOT broth, stirring and scraping vigorously all the while. If there does not seem to be enough liquid, add a bit more a little at a time until the mix is just UNDER the thickness you want.
Add all the seasonings, reduce heat to low and continue to cook about 10 more minutes, until gravy is rich and smooth. Pour gravy into top of double boiler and keep hot over hot water, so it will not scorch or cook away. Fill gravy boat with boiling water to preheat it before serving gravy, so gravy will stay hot.
(In a pinch, use packaged or canned gravy mix.)
ENJOY the first cooking of the New Year--all year long!
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