Carmela Soprano's Easter Bread, Anna Sultana's Figolli (Easter Bread, Maltese Style)

Sometimes flipping through Entertaining with The Sopranos is a real blast from the past.  I have quite a few Sicilian relatives.  The photo of Carmela's Easter Sweet Bread on p. 133 brought back lots of Easter memories.

Nice Easter memories.

Every extended immigrant family has a spiritual/cultural center, one family where everyone gathers for important and festive occasions.  Aunt Betty and Uncle Joe's home was the heart of our family.  We always gathered there for holidays.

Aunt Betty's mother, Nonni DiNoto, supervised the holiday meals.  Easter wouldn't be complete until she carried a glistening golden brown loaf of Easter Sweet Bread, a huge braided loaf decorated with colored eggs, and a Colomba di Pasqua.

We always avoided the eggs.  They had a weird green circle around the yolk.  I was reassured when I read in Entertaining with The Sopranos:

Nobody ever eats the eggs, but store the bread in the refrigerator just in case. 

After a few years, we stopped gathering at Aunt Betty's house.
At home Ma followed our Maltese traditions.  Our Easter dinner menu was similar.  But, instead of making a Colomba, Ma baked a figolli, a Maltese sweet bread with a marzipan filling.  

A figolli was harder to make than a Colomba.  The dough was rolled about one centimeter thick.  Then Ma cut the dough into pairs of figolla with a figolla cutter.  They looked like a large letter J, but the stick part ended in a fish’s tail.  

On one side of a figolla Ma spread jam and marzipan.  Then she covered it with the identical shape, as if she was making a sandwich.  After the figolli had been baked and cooled, they were covered with colored icing and piped royal icing.  Then a decorated Easter egg was placed on top of each figolli.  For the final touch a cardboard woman’s face was inserted into the mound of the J.  

The odd thing about Ma’s traditional figolli was that it was a mermaid.  I asked Ma why a mermaid and not a dove.  She said, “I don’t know.  It’s our tradition.”

Well, you can’t argue with tradition. 

Happy Easter!! 

  

Another recipe down.  Sixty-eight more to go.   

Getting Back To Normal

It's been a hectic year.


On January 3, 2009 my Aunt Betty passed away. My parents and brother George went to her memorial service. George had told Pop to take his cane to go from the door to the viewing room while he parked the car. Pop got angry and said he could walk without it. By the time George had parked the car, the funeral personnel had called for an ambulance because Pop had fallen flat on his face and had to be rushed to a hospital.

While in the hospital they did everything from CAT scan to dialysis, but Pop passed away on January 20.

Pop had always taken care of everything, so Ma had a stressful time after he died. She and George thought that a move would help. They had found another house. When I spoke to Ma, she sounded excited about the move. Her 87th birthday came in October. A week later she died suddenly. Our dog Bobo died the day of Ma's funeral.


We're still getting used to the changes in our family.


Of course life will never be the same. We've learned a lot over the past year. Some things we had thought were important, aren't. Some things we took for granted we now realize are very important. Things like God, family, our parish community, friends.


I was just reading Prime Times, a seniors' publication. They have a small column Words of Wisdom, in which this month they quoted Sylvia Todaschuk. She's a familiar face at the Todaschuk Sisters Ukrainian Boutique. Sylvia said:

Never hold a grudge as life is too short. Always stay positive - the more you give of yourself, the more you receive from God, and remember that prayer and faith in God will take you through everything.


It's been a hard year. We learned a lot.


Prayer and faith in God will take you through everything.


Amen.

Orthodox Christmas Thoughts by Margaret Ullrich

Can't believe we're already a week into the new year. The day after Christmas has always been a sad day for me. I get so used to all the Christmas-themed shows and music. Then, on December 26, they're all gone. Can't they continue for another couple of weeks, at least for the sake of the Orthodox Christians? I'd like a gentler weaning off the holiday season.


BoBo's passing affected our holidays. We've had at least one dog for so many years that we just got into the habit of doing things in a certain way. Each of our dogs had his or her own Christmas stocking. This year we didn't hang up our stockings. Seeing just 2 stockings was too much of a reminder.

We have a comfortable chair near the table in the kitchen. Our dogs would get on the chair and stretch as far as possible to sniff at the turkey as it cooled on the table. Everyone enjoyed the Christmas turkey, but I missed BoBo's excitement as he waited to get "his share". It was so quiet when we returned from evening services and visiting, and when friends came.

We have always set up our manger scene on a table so that our dogs wouldn't be tempted to use Baby Jesus as a chew toy. Even though this year we could place the shed and characters under the tree, we decided to continue placing them on a table. It just didn't look right under the tree.


We've been enjoying our walks. There was a pair of wild geese hanging around the pond near Garden Grove School on Burrows. The Canadian geese avoided them, so the wild geese stayed near the ducks and seagulls. A German couple, who live near the pond, puts out food for the birds throughout the year. During a good part of the year, the ducks just calmly walk across the road, while everyone has to stop and let them pass. Same goes for the geese.

We've also been enjoying getting together with friends on the spur of the moment. When we had dogs we had to schedule in two daily 1 hour walks with our dogs and plan everything else around that. When we visited neighbors who have a cat, BoBo would station himself by the window and stare at our neighbors' house until we returned. He was really good at looking forlorn. Even our neighbors felt guilty.


We just have to remember what Aunt Betty said - "Enjoy life."

Christmas Eve Thoughts

This has been a very different December for us. Enjoying a few get togethers with friends and a party for volunteers at church, as well as having to sort out financial and legal papers. Tonight we'll be Lectors for a Christmas Eve Mass.


I met with my investment advisor to go over the papers from Ma's two annuities. They had sent the forms for an American resident. Also the applications were different. Lisa helped me find the W-8 form I need from the half dozen the U.S. government have on their site and printed 2 copies. She read over the papers and they're a little clearer now.

I had e mailed one company and asked if they wanted both my social security and social insurance numbers. I was told they do not give tax advice. I called the other company and the woman there explained they want the social security number so they know where to credit the witholding tax. Why the other company couldn't have said that...


We also went to a 'celebration of life' for a friend who passed away. Phil was 69. We had first met him in 1978 when Paul started working at the Free Press. There was a video of some of the highlights of Phil's life and a few funny stories from family members and friends. It was good seeing everybody and reminiscing. Some are still working at the paper and others, like Paul, are retired. We hadn't seen some of the Free Press folks for quite a while. It was like being in our 30s again. Where did the time go?


We're pretty much set for Christmas... Last Christmas Aunt Betty said to enjoy life. Aunt Betty passed away in January, a week before Pop.

Yes, it will seem odd tomorrow - not talking on the phone with my parents and Aunt Betty, or sharing a bit of turkey with BoBo. But, we still have much to be thankful for.

Paul's cartoon 'The Bicycle Lesson' has had some success. It screened in Miami (Florida), Danville (California), Fredericton (New Brunswick), Guelph and Toronto (Ontario), as well as 4 screenings here in Winnipeg.

I've enjoyed working on my book and blogs and serving as public relations person for the Winnipeg Model Railroad Club.

The volunteer party was fun. There was plenty of food, games and kareoke. Paul and I joined a fellow parishioner Brenda in singing Tom Jones' Delilah. Lots of silliness. The evening flew.


Like Aunt Betty said - enjoy life.


Merry Christmas, Everyone.