Last weekend was the weekend that our family looks forward to every summer. We only see each other Christmas, weddings and funerals. But the 3rd weekend in August, we all try to get together at my house for a picnic. It is so much fun. My cousins from Endicott come out and they spend the weekend visiting as much as possible and shopping even more. We eat at different restaurants. Lately Smoky Bones and Bellaria are the favorites. We keep trying to find some small "mom and pop" places, but Sunday is usually when we get out and those places are closed on Sundays.
Our family has a golf open every year on this weekend. It's called the Anthony Ciavarella Golf Open, named after my cousins Paul and Kim's son who passed away at the age of 6 in 2004 from leukemia.
The eight that came from Endicott this year were Marsha and daughter Leeann, (did I spell that right? It doesn't look like it.), Marsha's son Joey and his wife Becca, Paula and her daughter Amber, Luann and adopted sister and cousin Nadine. (She's not legally adopted...it's very illegal....it's actually a crime...that's how much we wanted her in our family).
I'm not sure when the "beer wench" tradition began. But one year, Luann and Leeann, went to the golf open dressed in German Wench costumes. They rode around on a golf cart serving beer, pop, and bottled water to the golfers. Of course, the next year the golfers were looking for the "beer wenches" and they have been labeled that since. Every year, they try to dress up as something more ridiculous than the year before, but "beer wenches" is definitely the best.
The rest (not including Joe, who is golfing) go shopping and then we all meet for lunch. For some reason I ALWAYS have something on Sunday morning, so I usually just do the lunch thing. This year after lunch, Paula and I went to my Mom and Dad's and "raped" their photo albums. Pictures will be posted in future blogs.
On Saturday evening we met at my house and invited the Ciavarella boys and their families and also Annette and Chris (who's in Florida). This year Annette didn't make it and Chris hasn't been able to, yet, but someday we'll keep inviting him until he's able to get up here.
The food is GREAT! This year the Endicott crew brought meat for spiedis, not knowing that I was going to do the same and we ended up with like 25 pounds of spiedis (or more). They brought Lamb (yum) and chicken (the Lamb deserves the capitalization) and I did chicken and beef. We had the roasted pepper and tomato salad, tossed salad, pasta salad, creamy cheesy potatoes (thanks to Gary and Patsy; Patsy was unable to make it), Aunt Pauline (who is in her early 80's) did fried zucchini, Annie (Tom's wife...Tom's band was playing, so he was not there) made this incredible dessert with cookies and whipped topping and pudding, there were chips and fresh salsa made from our garden and guacamole, Luann brought her olive spread. There was bread from Endicott and ciabatta bread from Hogan's bakery and of course, pepper cookies. My brother brought a couple different kinds of pie. Oh my gosh, we ate until we burst(ed) (is that a word? because it's a feeling!)
After we got done eating everyone went into my husbands garden and there was much raping and pillaging of produce. We were thrilled. I will try to get a picture of Ken's Amish tomatoes (sounds sexy in a very demented way). They are pretty magnificent and taste spectacular. (okay quit laughing and get your minds OUT of the gutter)
You could find most of the recipes in previous posts. But I will tell you, if you like olives (I love them), you will love Luann's olive spread. She told me quickly how to make it, so I will give you THAT recipe.
LUANN'S OLIVE SPREAD
Okay, here's how she told me. You can use canned black olives (she didn't say how many and I doubt that it matters...so let's just say....to taste) and green olives in a jar. Some olive oil (of course I would suggest extra virgin, because I like the taste) and garlic and put it into your food processor or blender and grind it up. There were no measurements, but I'm thinking if just put enough olive oil to make the mix spreadable.
This stuff is great on crackers and a good crusty bread. I took a sandwich to work with this spread, sandwich pepperoni, Swiss cheese and hot peppers on ciabatta bread and it was really great.
So enjoy the pictures. There's old and new. And try not to overeat...at least not all of the time.
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