Bringing Them Home: A Loving Remembrance of Sunday Dinner: A Collection of Family Recipes Taught to an Italian Girl by Her Mother and Grandmother

Bringing Them Home is a loving remembrance of Sunday dinner, a collection of family recipes taught to an Italian girl by her mother and grandmother.

My life, my happiness comes from having the two most beautiful parents who gave me such a great foundation. However, as they got older, it was hard to believe that these two people were not going to be here forever. When my parents left this world, I needed to extend them and their values in many ways.

Dad was born in San Marino, a small republic situated on the slopes of Mount Titano on the Adriatic side of central Italy. He came to the United States when he was eight months old. My Father was a World War 2 veteran, an army sergeant and a recipient of the Bronze Star. He received this medal for electing to do an enemy mission for a friend so the friend could go home for Christmas because the friend had children. Dad drove miles through enemy gunfire and completed the mission for the army.

Dad lived his life this way. He was always a giving man. He loved children and would always tell the story of how he would feed the children who were in the alley behind the mess hall during the war days. He would always cry when he spoke of the children. I feel that story till today.

As Dad got older, he got sicker. He had dementia. He eventually did not know who he was or who I was. It was devastating to me. We tried helping but it became too late. Dad passed away in October of 1994.

Through my depressed days, I began volunteering with children at senior homes. We would sing at Christmas time. There was a man at the home who was a war veteran. His name was Lou. He said, "Maria, why can't you come more often?" I replied, "Lou, it's a thought." Well, shortly after Sharing Life came about.

In memory of my Dad, we began an organization for children and senior citizens. It brought the two groups together for the feeling of living. Sharing Life continued from 1997 to 2007. Due to some personal challenges, we had to resume in 2009. We began with Pasta Tuesday. Pasta Tuesday is a dinner service for senior communities with a future endeavor of cooking classes for children and seniors.

My cultural heritage has given me the wonderful knowledge of cooking Italian food. My grandmother was from Naples, Italy and she was a tremendous cook. Grandmom passed on her culinary expertise to my mother. My background was filled with many days of cooking and learning with mom. That memory, along with taste of the delicious Italian food, has given me a passion to prepare and serve my specialties to many. My greatest desire is to serve the elderly. Pasta Tuesday has this service available weekly and we have been delivering our dinners for the past eight years. Some menu specialties are featured in Pasta Tuesday's blog, I migliori auguri.