Adventures in joyful living
A few posts ago, I shared that I’d done a DNA test that yielded at least one expected result: I’m Southern Italian by an order of magnitude. But it also yielded close to 6,000 DNA matches from all over the place, from Rome to Canberra. The one result I’d really been after, a “proven” connection […]
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I always knew this would happen. That’s why I put it off for so long. Nonetheless, I finally spit into that tiny tube and sent my DNA off into the ether. My father talked more about his family’s history than my mother did hers. I’ve always wondered if this had something to do with her […]
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Now that the colorful glow of Christmas has been packed away, these cold, dark January days can be hard to take—unless, of course, you have your own Enzo to coax you out of bed in time to catch the early morning sky. Not the brightest sunrise, this one—all subtle blues, grays, and lavender, with just […]
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When I was a kid, my Italian-American family gathered every night of the Christmas season, each time around a different relative’s table, to eat (mostly), agree (often), disagree (more often), laugh at the same old stories (always), and sing. My cousin’s husband played the guitar; others, the accordion, the harmonica, the piano. I mimicked the Italian […]
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What have I been up to in the last few weeks? Enjoying long walks under gorgeous October skies, reading (Elizabeth George’s A Great Deliverance and Louise Penny’s All the Devils Are Here — they are truly “sisters in crime”), baking a bit (more on that in a subsequent post), binging the magnificent series Shetland on […]
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Your birthday, April 12, and Father’s Day went by without so much as a Facebook post. Sorry about that, but I do have something for you. And it’s much more exciting than you could imagine. Do you remember, by any chance, the very first time I saw an opera? It was on television, on a Sunday […]
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February 5 is my mother Sylvia’s birthday. Usually, I keep these very personal anniversaries to myself, but the other day, as I was going through some old photos, I realized that they reflected virtually every significant hair style from the first half of the 20th Century. Fittingly, Mommy worked her way through beauty school and […]
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With a little luck, after Christmas, we rest. We sit back to enjoy the grace of a crisp, but not cold, winter morning that began with a brilliant sunrise. We pick up that book we’d set aside for the last two crazed weeks. We fully appreciate the transient charm of the decorations that, in a […]
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Autumn, like spring, is traditionally a time for cleaning up and casting off. This year, as I bagged clothing to give away, canned goods for the Boy Scouts, and books for the library sale, I had a few thoughts on the subject. Marie Kondo’s ruthless approach to divestiture (the things kind, not the money kind) […]
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Not long ago, one of my high school friends hosted a retro luncheon. The assignment was to bring something that was “always on the table” when we were growing up. I struggled with this request. In our Italian-American household, there were no Jello salads or tuna noodle casseroles. Lasagne was way too heavy and rich […]
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Summer, like each of the seasons, has its own enchantments… “abundant sunshine,” lots of evening light. We can be outside morning, noon, and night without the burden of outerwear. We have the pleasure of flowers, shrubs, and trees that give us shade. If we’re lucky enough, we can read on the beach, take a boat […]
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If Utica, NY, had a national dish, it would no doubt be Utica greens. #Uticagreens #cucinapauvera #Andrew Zimmern
@MemoriediAngelina
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