New England Pumpkin Pie

November 16, 2018 by Sophie Barrows in baking, sophie

This is a Pakaluk family favorite. Marrying into the Barrows family brought about making it with a graham cracker crust. It’s a happy marriage.

Easter Candy

March 31, 2018 by Sophie Barrows in baking, sophie

For the past three years, my younger sister-in-law and I have been trying to make the bulk of the Easter basket candy ourselves. We have a lot of fun doing it, and the candy is all the more special. Here are the recipes we've used, if you'd like to give it a shot too!

Living with Family

March 09, 2018 by Sophie Barrows in sophie, home & family

Two years ago, when Edith was just about to be born, Philip and I decided we wanted to move closer to family. Seeing that his family had been in the same house since he was 3 years-old - whereas my family hadn’t stayed in a house for longer than five - it made much more sense to move to his family in Maryland than to my family, then in Florida. We were living in Massachusetts at the time, but as soon as a job in Maryland worked out, we took it. (Quite hilariously, my family actually moved to Maryland within the same year.)

St. Nicholas' day

December 07, 2017 by Sophie Barrows in sophie, food

Whenever I think about family traditions, I realize some of my strongest and most beloved center around food. Christmas and Easter strongly evoke a Polish breakfast feast (my paternal grandmother is 100%) consisting of Kielbasa, horseradish, babka, and pierogi. Christmas also brings to mind halvah, marzipan, sesame honey candies, and pepperoni sticks -- our stocking staples. On any given birthday, it was an absolute given that the celebrated person got to decide what special breakfast, dinner, and cake that they'd like. Saturdays and Sundays always began with either pancakes, waffles, or crepes. In fact, we never let a special day or occasion (sometimes, even just a hint of one) slip by without ensuring it was punctuated by suitably festive bakes and makes.

preparing for Christmas

December 03, 2017 by Maria Almeida in home & family, maria

The weeks before Christmas can be tricky. I'm like anyone else: I get all the warm and fuzzies when I see lights on houses, wreaths on doors, and hear Christmas jingles on the radio. But I'm just as interested in preserving the expectation of the weeks before Christmas as I am eager to celebrate it. After all, Christmas is about the birth of a baby, and just like with the birth of any other baby, the months beforehand are ones of preparation and joyful anticipation.

Family Recipes: Fresh Pasta

October 25, 2017 by Sophie Barrows in cooking, sophie

As promised, here is the family recipe for fresh pasta. It comes from a little cookbook of recipes from Southern Italy, specifically the town of Roseto in the Province of Foggia. Many Italians immigrated from this town and established a sister town of Roseto, Pennsylvania. This cookbook was created to preserve traditions and recipes for the immigrant relatives and families. In the preface to the cookbook, it says how important Rosetans held their culture to be. Homemade food "prepared in the peasant tradition, yet "fit for a king'" was a dominant part of this.

Family Recipes: Fettuccine Alfredo

October 16, 2017 by Sophie Barrows in cooking, sophie

I married into an Italian family. Having always loved bread and pasta, embracing and making my in-law's family recipes took no time. Falling in love with them was even shorter. One of the first dishes I fell for was Fettuccine Alfredo.