Tradition is the key word today. The type that warmed you in Fiddler on the Roof. But of the Italian variation.
I spoke with my friend Gus last night. Gus lives in upstate New York in Utica. He told me he had just completed that which he does every year. Once a year.
The family made sausage.
Every year Gus and his cousins and aunts and uncles get together for one day to make sausage. About 30 of them. They even come in from out of town.
They get together at a cousin’s home. Two boxes of pork loins. Sixty pounds per box. A total of 120 pounds of pork.
They gather in the kitchen. The pork is trimmed of fat. Not entirely, however. A bit is left for flavor. The meat is then ground and mixed with sweet pepper, hot pepper, fennel and salt. Especially salt. A thousand years ago and today salt is needed for preservative purposes.
The mixed meat is then stuffed.
The sausage must be made in the north country where it is cold. It must be hung in a home that is old. So old that the structure is not insulated well.
The sausage is hung in the attic. The attic must be a certain temperature. Exactly what I am not sure. But it must be hung in the attic of a poorly insulated home. The heat in the home rises. To the attic. Between the cold in the attic the result of poor insulation and the rising heat in the structure, the proper temperature is achieved.
The sausage hangs for two weeks during which time it dries.
At the end of the two weeks, the sausage is taken down and placed in glass jars containing corn oil. It is permitted to soak for a period of time.
The result is sausage in oil. It is considered an honor to receive a bottle of sausage in oil from some one.
Gus and his family have been making sausage for years. Just as their parents before them.
Tradition.
A terrific basketball game yesterday afternoon. Villanova v. Georgetown at Georgetown.
Villanova #2 in the rankings prior to the game. Georgetgown #7.
I have been telling people the past couple of weeks that Villanova was the best team in the country. Even a bit better than Syracuse.
Georgetown killed Villanova yesterday. Villanova was never really in the game. Interesting! Syracuse destroyed Georgetown 2 weeks ago. At Syracuse. They meet again in 2 weeks at Georgetown.
And Syracuse plays Villanova in 2 or 3 weeks, also.
Both games are big time! The biggest! The Syracuse/Villanova game at Syracuse is already a sell out.
I only got out briefly yesterday. I went over to TGIF for dinner. Ate a couple of appetizers at the bar. And then it was home again.
The weather was getting cold last night. Uncomfortable. It dropped into the mid 60s during the evening. It is 66 now at 6 in the morning. The high today is projected at 64. Yes, 2 degrees less than it is now!
Tonight is worse! The temperature is projected at 56.
Turn on the heat weather!
My Sunday today is already set. The Sunday papers and Meet the Press this morning. The Syracuse/Cincinnati basketball game on national TV this afternoon. Dinner with Lisa and the family tonight. And then the Super Bowl game!
What a day ahead!
Enjoy your day!
Lou, I am trying to send you a private message but can't seem to find the email button?
We are in town.
Tom and Cindy
Lou,
We want to thank you for recommending Antonia's. As we passed by Antonias last night, we looked in the window and saw that there were a couple empty seats at the corner of the bar, so in we went.
After a few drinks, the coveted seats around the corner of the bar opened up and TK let us move there. He reminded us a few times that these were the best seats in the house.
Christopher and Alex also made sure that we had everything we wanted, the atmosphere and their attention to the smallest detail made for a beautiful night.
Tom and Cindy (Cindy is the girl who shares your birthday).
Lou, is this guy Tom or this woman Cindy, or both of them, undermining your effort to stay out of Antonia's, or maybe thy got a free meal to write that. Anything is possible.
We would rather have contacted Lou by private email but couldn't find the way to do that on this site.
There was no hidden agenda here, but it does look like an advertisement for Antonia's since it is posted for public viewing. Sorry about that.
If we had eaten at La Trattoria first, (and found it good) we would have written to Lou about that place, since he recommended both places.
Lou told us to contact him when we were in town and this was the only forum I could find.
Tom and Cindy
Are you sure there is a Key West Lou? This could all be the figment of a guy living in his mother's basement in Brooklyn. Or a dog. Remember on the inet "No one knows you're a dog"? Or, that you're in a basement somwhere. ROFL! … … (Hey if you have to explain the jokes, it not so funny anymore.)