Biscotti - 27. Chapter 27

It has been a year since Pa has joined Nonna, it has been a year of missing the family that was drawn to Nonna and Pa. We haven’t seen Gene and Lou for several months. Things didn’t seem right something was missing. One night I was talking to Mom and I mentioned that I haven’t been to Nonna’s and Pa’s home since his funeral. She told me maybe I should think about building that outdoor oven. I remember that’s where Pa and I had the best times, we talked, drank his wine and I got to know the man he was.

It was 2 weeks after talking to Mom, I was sitting on the patio drinking a cup of coffee. Looking across the lawn I envisaged an outdoor oven, just to the left of the swimming pool. Then I remembered Uncle Gene had an outdoor barbecue pit that I thought was neat. I sat there for about 30 minutes, I knew what I was going to do.

I called Gene and Lou, told them what I wanted done. They agreed to come out that Sunday and look the space over. But I knew I had to do something else. I called the people who built the pool, I told them I had another job for them.

I was going to create Nonna’s kitchen and Pa’s wine cellar in our basement.

Gene and Lou did come out and spent Sunday with us. I gave them a tour of our home, they were surprised that I had two libraries, one that came with the house and one that resulted from moving my library from Mom and Dad’s house. They turned that room into a bedroom for Angelina when she stays there.

Our Moms and Dads came as well. I told Gene and Lou what I wanted to do, they said it wouldn’t be a problem and they could start next weekend. They told me what to order for the barbecue pit. The outdoor oven would require a special stone and that would take time to find.

During the week, I looked for wine barrels, I didn’t want the 500-gallon size Pa had but something smaller. I found on the net an advertisement for wine-making equipment. The smallest barrels they had were 50 gallons, I bought two. I started to visit used furniture stores, I found a table and chairs exactly as Nonna had. I bought them and then wondered if they might have been hers. Brad was curious as to what I was doing. I told him I was creating Sunday. He was totally confused.

The people that built my pool came and I told them what I wanted to be done. They said it would take several days with a backhoe. Of course, I had to explained what I was going to do. I think they thought I was crazy.

When Gene and Lou came over on Saturday, I was ready for them to build the barbecue pit. I watched from the patio, supplying ice water and the occasional glass of wine. I didn’t tell them about the work I’ll be doing in the basement. I did mention that I was going to make a stone ovenlike Nonna and Pa had.

The barbecue pit seemed to provide an excuse for them to visit on Sunday.

About two weeks after the barbecue pit was finished, they brought over Nona and Pa’s brick oven. They said that their dad didn’t want it, “I knew you did so we brought it over.”

I was really glad and couldn’t wait to use it. I had ordered some wood for the barbecue pit but now I needed a bag of charcoal briquettes as well.

I had the contractor remove all of the dirt in front of the concrete wall under the house. Then I was going to call a stonemason to build a slight wall, provide a door and windows. Of course, Gene and Lou saw this and that was all it took. They came out on the weekends and built my wall, made a door into the cellar, with steps down to the floor. That was when I told them what I wanted to do. They smiled, I think they also missed the Sundays at Nonna and Pa’s. By September, the outside was finished, the kitchen room and the wine cellar were finished as well.

The back part of the cellar contained the laundry area and space for me to set up tables to cure the meat for sausages and salamis. I was glad Pa had taken the time to teach me how to do that. When Gene and Lou found out what I was doing, they had to help, for a share of the final product. That was okay by me and Brad. Angelina knew all about making sausages and salamis, she told me she watched the men in the village do it. Gene taught her how to tie off the sausages.

I now needed to fill the wine barrels, hang the sausage and salami in Pa’s cellar, that is what I named the part of the new rooms. The kitchen, I called Nonna’s kitchen. It might be a little over the top but I missed them, they were an important part of my life.

But I wasn’t done yet. I needed a stove, refrigerator, and an old fashion icebox. I did find a cupboard similar to Nonna’s. Back to the internet, checking for places that sold the items I needed. I found a company in Vermont that advertised hand-crafted furniture. I took a weekend off and flew there.

I met with the owner and told him what I wanted, he showed me an old fashion icebox, it was perfect only there was no way I could get blocks of ice. He said he could provide a refrigerator coil if I could give up the small space at the bottom, which was used to collect water from the block of ice. I agreed that the purpose was more for the look than the actual use. As I walked around the store I saw an old refrigerator, when I asked about it he told me he bought it at an auction sale. “I was going to use it for cooling sodas.”

I bought it and now I just needed a stove. I told him what I was looking for. He said he would keep his eyes open and let me know.

Two weeks later the icebox arrived along with the refrigerator. Pa’s place was beginning to take shape. I used the space under the hanging salamis and sausages for storing fresh vegetables, which I now bought in bulk, except what the Dads contributed when they visited. Now all I needed was to fill my wine barrels and provide a stove. Nona’s kitchen would be complete.

Gene and Lou tried to get me to make wine, they said they would help. Brad said I should try it and if didn’t work out I could buy wine next time. So with their help, I ordered the grapes. Brad wanted to trample them in his bare feet, I said no way.

With Gene and Lou’s help and their grape press, we pressed the grapes. The juices were placed in the barrels, I cheated and added some yeast I bought for home winemaking. The crushed grape skins the cousins took to make grappa.

I hadn’t shown Mom the basement yet. I told her the door I had made was to be able to access the basement from the outside.

Two months later, my friend in Vermont found a wood-burning stove. “I guess you’ll want to turn it into an electric stove?”

I did, he said he would have it done in two weeks. I wired him the money and waited. The week before Thanksgiving the stove arrived. I had the delivery people place it in the kitchen and to make it look authentic I had a fake stove pipe installed to make it look like a log burning stove.

The following weekend, after Thanksgiving, I showed Gene and Lou what I had done. They smiled, “I guess Sunday is back on.” They smiled and nothing was more important to me when they said that.

That week-end our Moms and Dads came for our usual dinners. I showed the basement to Mom, she had tears in her eyes. I then showed her Pa’s cellar and she laughed. “I didn’t fully realize how important they were to you, now I know.”

Sunday at our house was a smaller group than what was at Nonna and Pa’s. But it was a second-generation, of course on occasion my uncles and families would come, but for them, this special day died with Nonna and Pa. For the younger generation, it became a tradition.

Bread baked in the outdoor brick oven was the same, only now I was sitting like Pa sat, with a glass of wine, and sometimes, I felt his presence. My wine was better than Pa’s, I had bought some commercial wine and added it to the barrels. It made a big difference.

Gene had a young boy who hung around me, as I once did with Pa. I smiled as he sat with me, I hoped he’d be the one to keep the Sunday tradition going.