Mediterranean Lifestyle

What every Italian - American, and everyone with such a friend, knows

  • You spent your entire childhood thinking that sandwich was pronounced "sangwich.?
  • Your family dog understood Italian.
  • Every Sunday afternoon of your childhood was spent visiting your grandparents and extended family.
  • You've experienced the phenomena of 150 people fitting into 50 square feet of yard during a family cookout.
  • You were surprised to discover the FDA recommends you eat three meals a day, not seven.
  • You ate pasta for dinner at least three times a week, and every Sunday.
  • You grew up thinking no fruit or vegetable had a fixed price and that the price of everything was negotiable through haggling.
  • You watched Lawrence Welk and Ed Sullivan every Sunday night.
  • You were as tall as your grandmother by the age of seven.
  • You thought everyone's last name ended in a vowel.
  • You thought nylons were supposed to be worn rolled to the ankles.
  • You were surprised to find out that wine was actually sold in stores.
  • You never ate meat on Christmas Eve or any Friday for that matter.
  • You ate your salad after the main course.
  • You thought Catholic was the only religion in the world.
  • You were hit at least once with a wooden spoon.
  • You thought every meal had to be eaten with a hunk of bread in your left hand.
  • You learned to play bocce before you went to school.
  • You can understand Italian but you can't speak it.
  • You have at least one relative who came over on the boat.
  • You grew up calling the bathroom the baccausa.  And you only had one.
  • You were surprised to learn most kitchen utensils had another name which didn't end in a vowel.
  • All of your uncles fought in a World War.
  • You have at least one relative who wore a black dress every day for an entire,year after a funeral.
  • You have relatives who aren't really your relatives.
  • You have relatives you don't speak to.
  • You drank wine before you were a teenager.
  • You grew up in a house with a yard that didn't have one patch of dirt that didn't have a flower or a vegetable growing out of it.
  • Your grandparent's furniture was as comfortable as sitting on plastic.
    What?!!!  You WERE sitting on plastic.  You thought that talking loud was normal.
  • You thought cookies and the Tarantella were common at all weddings.
  • You thought everyone got pinched on the cheeks and had money stuffed in their pockets by their relatives.
  • Your mother is overly protective of the males in the family, no matter what their age.
  • Every lunchmeat you ate ended in a vowel.
  • There was a crucifix in every room of the house, including the cellar.
  • There was a saint somewhere in the yard.
  • Boys didn't do house work because it was women's work.
  • You couldn't date a boy without getting approval from your father.
  • You know what lemon ice is.
  • You called pasta limacaroni."
  • You have at least one irrational fear or phobia that can be attributed to your mother.

- UNKNOWN

 

"A sense of humor, and sharing that humor, is an important part of this life-style; and it is also a great stress-reliever.  See the section entitled "A Bit Of Whimsey" in our medical web-site (www.asthma-drsprecace.com) to help attack girth with mirth"

Contact a friend today. Share a recipe. Walk...don?t ride. Count your blessings!

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Lifestyle... Issue 0502-01

February 12, 2005

Food, growing or catching, preparing, and especially eating in the leisurely company of family and friends, is at the center of Mediterranean living.  When I was growing up, all meals were an occasion: whether a weeknight home-made chicken soup, rice and good Italian bread before retiring to hours of homework, or Sunday meals with spaghetti, meatballs, bread, salad and fruit...or the holiday extravaganzas that would start at 1:30 PM and extend for or five hours, with never a lapse in the conversation: soup, followed in order by pasta or ravioli, ragu and meatballs, chicken cacciatore or a fish dish with roasted potatoes, tossed fresh salad and tomatoes, fresh fruit, dried figs and nuts, and finally dessert - like my favorite "pastiere", now called Italian cheesecake but with more ingredients (like orange rind and citron) and more imagination.  And, of course, red wine...first a little in water, and then straight.  Then the men would retire to the living room for more conversation, and the women would clean up.  (Whoops, did I say that?  That was in the "Old Days"). 

Today, families fly in and fly out, like some rapidly turned kaleidoscope.  Not good, for digestion, for family cohesion or for individual development.  But maybe there's hope.  Did you see the recent ad for KFC, where a nuclear family is uncomfortably sitting at table wondering what they are doing there, only to have Mom save the day with a bucket of fried chicken and "a meal."

GS   

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