Oysters, Anyone?

Oysters are an acquired taste…you either love them or you hate them! I was first introduced to oysters at a tender age of five or six by my dad. He would periodically stop at The Oyster House in Market Square downtown Pittsburgh and bring home an order or two of breaded, fried oysters.  He loved to eat them so much that he kept a bottle of malt vinegar and hot sauce in his glove box for whenever the urge for oysters struck.  Honest!

I remember eating only the breading at first, which was thick, moist and chewy.  I  gradually began looking for and eating the sweet, plump oysters hidden within the breading. The taste of oysters is mostly bland, therefore needing the added flavors of vinegar and hot sauce.

As I grew a little older, my dad and I would share our own strange little snack of smoked oyster on top of Ritz crackers  topped off with a squirt of Cheez Whiz…unsophisticated but good!  I think I was more fascinated with the manner of opening that small oval tin of oysters.  I would take the metal key adhered underneath the can and attach it to the metal strip and unwind it along the edge of the top to peel back the lid with the key.  Very neat for a ten year old kid!

Fried oysters were never a part of our Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes, but made their way onto the menu only 10 or 12 years ago.  We still include them in memory of my Dad even though I’m the only one who will eat them!

Here in Hilton Head, oysters appear on the menus at restaurants a number of different ways.  Po’ Boy fried oyster sandwiches, Oysters Dafuskie, named after the island which is a hop, skip and a swim away, and of course, your traditional raw and roasted oysters. There are lots of Oyster Roasts held here on the week-ends serving not only oysters but shrimp, cole slaw, red rice, corn on the cob when in season, collard greens and for dessert good old southern peach cobblers and banana pudding.  They do know how to eat her in the South!  There is only one small peculiar rule down here about eating oysters, they are only available in the months that contain an “r” in it.  those excluded would be May, June, July, August.  Hmm, I’ll have to research that a little more……

Here is my adaption of Oysters Dafuskie ( A creamy oyster stew)  Serve with small oyster crackers, what else!?!

1 C Half and Half

1 C Heavy Cream

1 T Butter

1 T Cocktail Sauce

1 T Worcestershire  Sauce

1 t hot sauce (Tabasco)

1 Pint shucked oysters with juice

Heat all liquid ingredients in med sauce pan till just simmering.  Add the oysters with juice, and cook for about 5 min. or until the edges of the oysters begin to curl.  Take off heat, serve immediately in bowls with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of paprika.  Can season with salt, pepper and more hot sauce!

Enjoy!!

Leadership by the Book

As  a small group leader within the choir at church, I am forever searching for ways to improve upon that leadership.  After all, I was not born a leader, I actually considered myself a follower, but that somehow changed throughout the years.  I reluctantly took the position as one of the leaders and have more or less “grown into those shoes”.

A great resource book that was given to my by my son-in-law, “Leadership by the Book”,  has proven to been a wealth of information on the subject of leadership.  It was co-authored by three men from different walks of life, but share the responsibility of  leading others.  Ken Blanchard is a prominent author, speaker and business consultant in the San Diego area.  He is founder and CEO of Ken Blanchard Companies, Inc., which does management training.  He also is co-founder of  the Center for Faithwalk Leadership.  Bill Hybels is also a sought after speaker, writer and consultant in addition to being the senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill.  Phil Hodges, for the past thirty years, has held a variety of staff positions in the areas of labor relations and HR management at Xerox Corp.  He is managing director for the Center for Faithwalk Leadership as well as a consulting partner for Ken Blanchard Companies Inc.

The book they wrote has an interesting format as it is told through three fictitious characters, Michael, a businessman who suffers a heart attack and calls upon his two friends, only referred to in the book as The Professor and The Minister.  Pretty ovbious who each one represents.

The title refers to using the leadership of Jesus Christ as the model to assure effective leadership in any career or position in life.  Jesus’ life embodies the heart and methods of a fully committed and effective servant leader.  The operative word is servant.

Here are some vital points from the book which I will try to apply to my role as small group leader:

Leadership begins with a clear vision with:

Purpose, Image, Values, Goals

If you want your people to be responsible, you must be responsive

The servant leader is a performance coach who uses:

Planning

Coaching

Evaluation

And lastly, solitude, prayer and daily study of scripture seem to be important ways for leaders to stay on track as you seek to lead others as God would have you lead them.

Leadership by the Book is a very useful and reliable tool for effective leadership.

One Year Old

Happy Birthday to my blog!!!!   It’s been one year on Feb 9th that I launched  “Apple of His Eye”.

I read somewhere that a blog is “just alot of unread words and stories with no importance whatsoever”.  The nerve!!!

Face Book, Blessing or Curse??

I really didn’t want to join Face Book.  But I was coerced by a good friend, “Join, it will do wonders for promoting your book”,  so I caved and joined.   I become one of the millions and millions of members around the world of this networking phenomenon.   It was a novelty at first.  Kinda fun peering into lives of others… internet voyeurism…

But then it reminded me of years ago, visiting someone and before you knew it, the furniture was cleared to make way for the pull down screen and you were forced to watch the silent,  poor quality, 8mm movies of the family vacation taken at the Jersey shore last summer.   There was Bobby jumping into thhe pool 300 times and waving frantically after each jump.  Then there appeared Aunt Tillie, cigarette in one hand, holding rabbit ears with thhe other behind Uncle Ralph’s head, of couse unaware.  Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.  Excruciating!

Just how important is it to know everyone’s status every minute of the day?   ” I’m tired, goin’ to bed now”….. “Just eating a bowl of cereal”…… “Cutting my toenails now”….  Give me a break!!!!   Here’s the one that gets top honors,  “Kathy is…the same”..the same as what?!?!?!  Who cares?

The number of friends you have must be equivalent to how important or popular you are!  Some members boast numbers as high as in the thousands!  Me, I have maybe 75.  And I really think that I was duped into becoming a friend of Troy Polomalu.  Does he really have time for this?  Someone must be posing as him!!  But I fell for the  bait, as did 3700 other members!

If you are a true friend of mine and honestly want to know what I’m up to,  JUST CALL ME!!  I’ll tell ya.

I preferred good old fashioned e-mail… I’ll give you a detailed list for your eyes only, not the whole world!!

I actually prefer snail mail!!!

Cook, Bake, Talk, Mangia!!!!

I truly believe that Sunday ( after church, of course) is the best day for pie baking. Yes, Apple, Lemon Meringue, Coconut Cream ….whatever is your family’s favorite. Mine happens to be peach. Really, fresh peaches make the best pie, but if you couldn’t find the time to freeze or can them in August, like me, you’ll just have to settle for canned.

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Easy as pie!” ? Well, believe it ’cause it’s true!! Mainly because no one is twisting your arm to make your own crust!! Those ready made ones in the dairy are just fine! Just unroll, place in pie pan, fill, cover with top crust (if needed) and bake. Easy!

And there’s nothing like the aroma that fills your house on a Sunday afternoon like a pie baking in the oven! Except maybe spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove.

Hey, here’s a novel idea, why not do both!! It really is doable, trust me. And I’m all for bringing back the family Sunday meal!! (Maybe you haven’t read my book, “Always on Sunday”).

Do you and your family a favor….cook, bake, talk, mangia!! Sundays are meant for it!

I’m not including any recipes this time, they are right on the can of peaches or apples or cherries that your going to buy and use! Enjoy….thank me later!

You Know You are in the South When……

People greet you with “Hey” instead of “Hi”…
The conversations all around you are peppered with “Y’all”…
Can’t find a Giant Eagle, only Piggly Wigglys…
There are lots of blooming flowers everywhere even though it’s January…
The cockroaches are called “palmetto bugs”…
You see the silvery Spanish moss dripping gracefully from all the live oak trees…
Grits and biscuits with sausage gravy is the breakfast de jour….
Most of the radio stations are either bluegrass or country western…
And finally, there is only one pace…SLOW!!!

But my favorite is the mild temperatures and warm breezes..AAhhhh!

Citrus-Winter’s Sweet Delicacy

  The first thing my husband, Sam, did the morning after we arrived at my daughter and son-in-law’s house in San Diego was walk out of the guest room door into their backyard and pluck a shiny ripe orange from one of the orange trees.

The crisp citrus/floral scent of a just-picked orange is intoxicating to say the least.  It starts out very delicate and invites your nostrils to inhale deeper and longer all the while intensifying and wowing your sense of smell. I observed a tiny hummingbird quickly darting in and around the branches of the trees.  It was flying unusually slower than I’ve seen them fly in the past. I think it, too, was inebriated on the sweet scent as it visited each branch that still had some white blossoms attached to a stem.

This little hummingbird provided a pleasant added attraction as we lingered in the citrus grove of oranges, lemons,tangerines and grapefruits.

Here is a Sicilian Orange Salad that we’ve been enjoying :

Layer the following ingredients on a pretty platter in the order given

Three or four navel oranges peeled and sliced in half inch slices

One half red onion sliced very thin

The bulb of one stalk of anise (fennel) thinly sliced

Sprinkle a handful of pitted kalamata olives, cut in half

Dress the salad with good extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Florida oranges should be readily available on the East Coast.  Blood oranges would be a great substitute.

Enjoy this refreshing salad after dinner. (As the Italians do!)

Always on Sunday

It’s been six months since my new book “Always on Sunday, Memories of an Italian Childhood” has been released. Because I have no marketing background and my computer skills are limited, I’ve had to rely on the kindness of friends and relatives to help me along the way with advertising and publicizing and marketing.  This is all new to me.  So I’d like to thank Billy, my nephew who is a freshman at U Cal Pa for designing my website. Now I have an official site to advertise and sell my book.  I hope you visit it and encourage you to buy a copy of my book.  I assure you it will bring back a myriad of childhood memories whether you are Italian or not. You will also have at you fingertips some of the famous Pugliese Family recipes–from  Calabria, Italy.

When you talk about goals set and reached from year to year, the publishing of my book has far exceeded any goals I could have imagined in my lifetime.  Not only has the book itself been a dream come true, but the results that I am reaping from this book are absolutely amazing.  I’m referring to the large number of family members, namely second and third cousins, that have “discovered me”  through reading my book.

It all started with a phone call from a very nice lady asking if there was a possibility that we might be related.  It turned out that she was my Dad’s first cousin, long lost through years of not keeping in touch for whatever reason.  I mention her Dad in the book who had  a quite unusual name, Uncle Blackie, how many of those do you know?

The discovery of our relationship unfolded over several telephone conversations leading to more cousins emerging at such an alarming rate that one of them planned a reunion/meeting of sorts which ended up being a party of close to 30 or more cousins converging and introducing me to even more cousins living in nearby Ohio.  My head was spinning—–I was then connected by e-mail to some living in California, who I am about to visit and meet for the first time next month. Oh, and her brother from Arizona is trying to be there at the same time.  Whew!! How many more of my blood relatives can there be??  Actually I was told and sent pictures of several still living in Italy and also was given a photo of my great-grandparents that I’ve never seen and their original home in Calabria still being occupied by yet some more relatives.  Do you see what I mean by reaching beyond anything I could have even tried to fantasize about?

So this is my story of one day thinking that my extended family is quite small, in comparison to most Italian families, to having more cousins than I know what to do with.  It certainly is a great feeling and I’m convinced that God had this plan in mind when I started dreaming about writing this book.  Every one of these cousins that I’ve spoken with so far is truly convinced of this fact , also.  We are all so overwhelmed with joy and unbelief that the missing link of  the Pugliese family that immigrated from Italy,   my Dad and his offspring( my sisters and I)  are once again reconnected.

Unbreakable family ties are priceless.  My book is a testimony to that.

Finding My Way

Until now, I’ve had a very real fear of getting lost on the highway driving to a place I’ve never been before. I’ll backup and say that my sense of direction is practically non- existent!! Really!!

Thanks to a very generous Santa this year, I found under the Christmas tree my very own Garmin GPS. Imagine that; after years of getting lost, fretting about a trip to the other side of town unfamiliar to me, and begging and pleading other family members to drive just so I wouldn’t have the anxiety attack that usually proceeds after I get behind the wheel…. I can now depend on that little box attached to my windshield with the nice lady telling when and where to make the next right or left. Oh, and she also will “recalculate” if I miss her que…oops.  I guess now I’ll have to drive myself anywhere I need to go…yes I’m a big girl now.

In more ways than one, I was lost but now am found!!!!

My grandson  gave me a  unique yet practical gift this year, also, an E-ZPass for my car to ensure I could get to his house via the PA Turnpike without delay.  Very  ingenious, isn’t he?

And yet another  technelogical gift this year was a webcam for my laptop so I can talk to and see my two out of state children via something called Skype…a free phone service through your computer with video if you have a web cam, which I now do!  What will they think of next?  I’m sure we’ll find out next year just in time for Christmas giving.

Does anyone remember when our christmas lists consisted of items that we NEEDED, like slippers, gloves, PJ’s maybe the new Beatle album?  Oh, well, I’m giving away my age.   I’m really grateful for my gifts even though I had to depend on my kids to activate/register them for me. (gave away my age yet again!)

Merry Christmas ! Hope you enjoy your gifts whatever they may be!!

Christmas Movies

Okay, I admit, I’m a sucker for Christmas movies. This past week-end. I’ve watched four!!! Starting with my all time favorite,White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Mitzi Gaynor and Rosemary Clooney on Friday night. My husband had to run downstairs after hearing my squeals of delight as I had just caught the very beginning rather than stumbling upon it during the middle or end. I just love this movie with all the singing and dancing and throw in the hokey love story of boy meets girl, falls in love, misunderstanding separates them then finally boy gets girl… they live happily ever after!! How could you not be in the Christmas mood after hearing them sing White Christmas?!? Ahhh, if only life were like that.
Saturday, I watched back to back movies, ( lIke I had nothing to do!!) The Family Stone and Christmas with the Cranks. One serious one funny. I’m waiting for the Griswalds Family Christmas. And on Falalalala Lifetime, where they show holiday related movies every night, I watched The Note starring Jeanie Francis for the first time. Very heartwarming story about forgiveness and finding an adoptive parent in a round about way.

The only classic movie that I never cared for was Christmas Story. I believe this is the 20th anniversary of it being released. The most watched movie around this time of year , It’s a Wonderful Life, with none other than Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed is my second favorite. It just makes you feel good all over and so thankful for your life and those in it.

Now, after a marathon of christmas movies, I better get cracking and ready for Christmas Eve. I’m off to the Strip to buy the seven fish and about a hundred other things!!!!

Buon Natale to all and to all a buona notte!!!