My family is all old school Italian too..
Third generation Italian-Sicilian-American...
My GreatGrandparents came overseas to Ellis Island
from the old country with my Grandparents were babies...
Do you remember that term they used to call Italians...

WOPS? I never knew what it meant...
It would be like a Mexican without his green card,...
It meant With Out Papers...W.O.P.
Isn't that funny???
I never knew that until recently and had
heard people say that all my childhood...
but we were registered...
we had OUR papers...


Oh, but food...Italians have the best...
...I think...Oh My God...
How about some serious lasagna
and stuffed ricotta, tortellini,
mildly spicy Italian sausage and
perfect homemade seasoned meatballs
& lightly deep fried calamari...
with lemon and tartar sauce or
with sweet marinara sauce....
Some fresh spring greens and
balsamic vinigrette/ herbs. and
extra virgin olive oil dressing...
excellent white zindandel or rose',
cabernet, merlot, or your choice...


A few suggestions

Crab cakes is definately on my list, antipasto salad, eggplant has to be there somewhere...and ONLY my mom's sauerbraten!!!

wahooo ...count me in on the italian food! Though I'm not one bit italian, I grew up helping in an Italian restaurant.I would wash tons of dishes just for a plate of veal parmigan!

That sounds great
glad that you love italian food..
but skip the veal okay...
please
obviously you don't know what torture
they put those poor baby cows through..
so the public can have super lean meat...
it is soo sad...

replace the veal with chicken, or eggplant...
yummy...and so much more humane...

Breakfast....sausages, eggs, rice, pancakes, waffles, whatevers...just as long as it's breakfast!!

i love all shellfish, mussels, Oysters, and even clams, but there just is nothing better than cracking open a hot crab( I learned when i was 5 yrs old cause my parents had 5 kids and they got sick of pickin meat for us, lol) tearing off the legs and sucking out that meat, then breaking that crab in half and cutting each 1/2 with a knife and picking out that swwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttt, lump crab meat all in one chunk............eyes are glazing over Hey, how do you think they make crab cakes anyways? someone has to pick the crab meat. I could never be a picker for packed lump crab, I'd get fired for eating them all, lol. Ya'll try some now! ya hear?
Oh! and btw I make the BEST Oyster stew and I always make it for SUPERBOWL!!!!
***can't help it, was born and do live on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay***

If this is Oct 2, then tomorrow is payday for this girl on SSD and The Redevous in Perryville(just across the Susquehanna River) has all you can eat crabs for $16.99 I gotta see if they still have em, if they do, I'm going. I will have some crabs for ya'll, too!!

SuShI

No fair Donner! Folks on the west coast have no idea of good seafood! I would die for some hemale oyster stew right now! I never got the recipe unfortunatly before I left!

Chocolate!

Mexican

mmm I like Cajun shrimp or my stuffed chicken breasts yummy

Polson....There are many people on the west coast
who have a full understanding of good seafood...
My Mom and Brother live in Washington State...
up around all the islands and on The Olympic Peninsula...
There is so much fishing that goes on up there...
We get the freshest salmon, and other fish
straight from the ocean and from Puget Sound...
shark, mahi mahi...fish straight from Hawaii...

Fish brought fresh to San Francisco...to the Farmer's Market there and to all the five star fabulous restaurants...
every day....trout, oysters, clams, crabs, calamari...
You name it...
Now...what was it you said about West Coast People
not having good seafood?

Sorry, Rapunzel. I lived in California, just south of San Francisco. I had one of those crabs on the wharf. Sorry, but, there is just no comparison to the shellfish on the east coast, bay area. You cannot get chesapeake bay blue crabs in San Francisco, or the Chesapeake Bay Oysters. Its a whole different thing. I do love Mahi Mahi, and fresh salmon and other fishes from the Pacific, but, it is another story about the east coast crabs, lobsters, oysters, clams, mussels and the shellfish. Come to Maryland and I will show you. Not putting down the West Coast or the people who live there. It's just different is all.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention I am from Connecticut, too..
I have eaten fish from both coasts....
I've eaten Maine Lobster...etc...
Grandapa used to get fresh clams and all sorts of fresh fish..
when he would fish in Long Island Sound...

I think what is the most important at this point
in time, more so than what coast it is obtained from...

is how fresh and clean the water
is where it has been caught...

That is the bottom line...

and thank you for the invite
to try some Chesapeake bay Clams and Oysters...
I'd love to try them sometime...

Heck, if you're going to skip veal, skip all meat. All animals (chickens, cows, pigs, etc.) are tortured beyond belief in slaughterhouses. They go through unimaginable suffering. Believe me...the way they die is in no way humane.

I know......OGD...
it is so tragic...
They try hard to keep us
from knowing what really goes on....
It is soo bad....
The whole thing is a big mess...

The old ways of eating may be tasty
and bring back warm memories,
but it is not very healthy or morally sound..

One of my daughters
is an "on fire' raw foods advocate.. :
She is one of a very few general managers
in an outstanding raw and organic food
restaurant chain now...
in the San Francisco Bay area...
I'm very proud of her choices
and accompishments to say the very least...

It is good that these high-minded spiritual, moral
& health awarenesses are spreading across the world.

That's awesome!

LOBSTER!!!!!