St. Joseph''s Day Cavazunes

March 19th is the feast of St. Joseph.  In  my Italian-American family, Cavazunes were made each year to celebrate the special day. 

                                    Cavazunes  
                              


Each town or region in Italy has their own pastries or cakes that they honor St. Joseph with.  My paternal nonna's town made Cavazunes (St. Joseph's pants), which are a fried cake filled with chick peas, honey, orange juice/rind and oil of cinnamon.  The dough we use is a rich macaroni dough. 

                                                                          

                                                                          Nonna putting the dough through the roller of  the pasta machine.  It is fed through several times, at thinner and thinner settings.

                                                                    The filling.


In the old days, the whole family would get together, as the Cavazunes are labor intensive.  They would make many, many dozen of these treats.  Today, my children help me make the Cavazunes. 

                                                                     My son putting the cakes in the deep fryer.



Not only do we honor St. Joseph, but also my own dad, who was Joseph, and my grandson, Joseph on their name day.

March News

We have had Brendan, Alana, Joseph and Patrick staying with us for the last while.  They had a major leak under their bathtub onto the living room ceiling.  It has been so nice for us grandparents, having the little ones here each day and night.

We are planning Patrick's first birthday party for March 4th.  It will be held at our home , since the leak has made Patrick's home unavailable.  His mom and dad wanted a St. Paddy's theme, and Nonna has all kinds of decorations stored in her basement.  Nonna may be of Italian descent, but her dear husband is of Irish descent.  We pretty much celebrate all holidays at Nonna's house. 

I hope to post party photos after the big shindig.

Love,
Nonna

Dave's Blog Post

I follow a blog called Rolling Around in My Head, by Dave Hingsburger.  Dave writes  about life, disability and a myriad of other topics.  Today, there was an especially touching post (his post are not always touching, but they are always thought provoking).  The title of the post is   DNA.  The link to Dave's page is  

http://davehingsburger.blogspot.com/     Enjoy!

BATGIRL

This has got to be the cutest Batgirl in the whole world.   Here is a photo of my great-niece, dressed-up as Batgirl.
Caroline, you are precious!  We will be visiting Caroline and her family sometime in February.  They live in South Carolina.

Nephew Dan

I have mentioned in another post that our nephew, Daniel (Dan ) O'Malley has had his first novel published.  The title is The Rook, and it has just recently arrived on bookshelves around the world.  Dan's book has been an immediate success.  Here is a link to an interview Dan gave, explaining how the idea for The Rook took root in his fertile brain. 


http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/01/12/the-big-idea-daniel-omalley/


There is also a trailer for The Rook on you-tube. Here is the link for that:  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByWvG3KfOmo&context=C37de230ADOEgsToPDskIb09XqoGDjVIGG5ITT9nd4

LA BEFANA

Little Christmas, or The Epiphany, or Second Christmas is on January sixth.  In Italian homes,  La Befana visits  late the evening before and leaves small gifts for the children in their stockings.  She quietly goes on her way.... walking, walking looking for The Christ Child.

Italian legend has it that the three wisemen stopped at La Befana's door to ask for directions to where Baby Jesus lay. They invited La Befana to travel with them, but she declined because she had to sweep and clean her home. The next morning she awoke full of regret. She decided to try and find The Babe on her own.

(Dish painted by Carolee Clark, King of Mice Sutdio, )

Now she is seen walking and sweeping across the land, carrying her broom and sack, looking for Baby Jesus. She visits each home and leaves small treats and gifts for each of  the sleeping children, hoping to find the  Holy Child. 

Little gifts and a treat were left at Nonna's for the four little ones.  They will open them tonight, and I will take some photos. 



La Befana vien di notte
Con le scarpe tutte rotte
Col vestito alla romana
Viva, Viva La Befana!

The English translation is

The Befana comes by night
With her shoes all tattered and torn
She comes dressed in the Roman way
Long life to the Befana!