Our family was a group of huge eaters and Carol was going through a period of self-exploration by renovating a Colonial home (by herself) and baking fresh bread every day. We ate like Kings and of course it was mostly – Italian. Pasta with everything! Tomato Sauce for all!!
Occasionally however, Carol would wake up completely Irish and resent her three children’s Italian identity. (We were all quite dark).On those occasions she would decide to cook authentic Irish (whatever that is). She would never tell us, just surprise us as we sat for dinner.
Imagine getting to your favorite part of the day and being told we were having Corned Beef? Irish Soda Bread? (yuck pass the butter). But the worst of the worst was liver and onions. We would all complain and finally she would arrive at the table with a heaping plate of dried and curled liver with slimy onion s all over the top.
We would immediately gather condiments and proceed to disguise this unbelievable turnabout in dining. How could she make us eat this? We were not allowed substitutions.
“Pass the salt” Steven would say. “Pass the catsup” another would yell. “How about Peanut butter”?
Carol was getting angry. How dare we begrudge her a single meal of “Irishness”. Why were we so selfish and rude?
“Hey look at how high mine bounces” I yelled. Now she was mad.
And today I think how really badly I behaved that one particular Irish day. Why did I hurt her feelings just in an effort to make the others laugh?
I think I will make it a goal this year to learn how to cook liver and onions and surprise her on her birthday. I wonder if she will remember? I hope she doesn’t get the catsup out of the fridge.
--Debbie Russo is the owner of both A Royal Flush, a portable toilet company that serves Massachusetts to Delaware, and Bridgeport Bio Diesel, a new CT based company that converts kitchen grease into renewable fuel
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