Sarah,

My mother married into my dad's Italian family during WWII. While my dad was serving in the Pacific she and my sister lived with my Italian grandparents and learned how to cook Italian foods.

Years later, when I was in college, mom bought a pasta maker. It was a hand crank device (I think I have it around here somewhere now) that could make several different shapes and thicknesses of pasta. Cranking it was a lot of work. You'd work the dough and then flatten it as best you could and run it through the hand cranked rollers several times, then run it through the cutting blades.

The local grocery store had a display they were about to get rid of. It was a vertical pole with horizontal arms sticking out of it. Mom asked for it and they let her take it home. She put a clean sheet on the living room floor, put the display on the sheet, and then hung the freshly cranked pasta on the arms to dry. Every now and then we'd hear a "crack" and two pieces of pasta would fall to the sheet.

Mom used to box up the pasta and give it to me when I was headed back to school after being home for holidays.

My Italian aunts came over to the house one day to look at the pasta machine. They watched mom crank the thing and churn out pasta. They just shook their heads and said no, they'd keep rolling their pasta out the old fashion way, with a rolling pin.

Every time I think about my mom's homemade pasta I smile. Every time I think about my aunt's reaction to it I chuckle.

Carol,

I have years of VHS and Hi-8 family movies. I've put this on my Christmas list: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/Studio+MovieBox+Ultimate+version+12.htm

 Quote: Rich Pallechio

Carol,

I have years of VHS and Hi-8 family movies. I've put this on my Christmas list: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/Studio+MovieBox+Ultimate+version+12.htm

Now that would be cool.........

I am really pushing for a video camera, my tiny digital camera takes video but it's pretty bad. I keep telling them that I NEED it for training.

And if I get it, you guys are in trouble.

Rich,

I think we need to give you your own forum here on LB. You have such a wonderful way of telling a story. I really enjoy these morsels of Pallechio family history.

I plan to give everyone a gift card because it is easier than picking out stuffs.

I always tell my family and friends to send a donation to a rescue that I believe in (I adopted my Belgian Draft Winchester from them) and I support them any way I can. If it were not for them, Win would have been dog food when he was 18 months old.

I have enough crap in the house, and if I need dog or horse stuff, I prefer to pick out my own.

We need a new sofa, so any and all christmas contributions are going to that. We need no more stuff! But a gift card to the local store where I buy most of my cat/fish/dog food supplies and medicines is always a nice thing.

This year we talked my family into going in together to buy animals for villagers. The total amount we are pooling isnt clear yet but once it is we will pick a few of the animals/areas of the world to contribute.

http://www.heifer.org/
It is a great program!
Last year we did chickens and bees, this year we hopefully do a larger animal as well since other are pitching in.

 Quote: Kelly At Leerburg

If it were not for them, Win would have been dog food when he was 18 months old.

Is Win a dog or a horse?

A horse. A Belgian Draft.