Someone who makes braciole

I've always been told I should have been born in a different era.  I agree.  When I was little I had an obsession with the 1950s.  Everything retro, the fashion, the tough guys in white shirts and leather jackets, you know, like in Grease.  Even now I get a smile on my face when I read my children Little Golden Books first published in the '50s and '60s.  That whole mother with an apron and heels, children dressed up for church kinda thing.

Then I hit the Mafia fascination.  That one still exists too.  My scope was more the 1960s-90s though, not so much the days of moonshine and prohibition.  lol  The classic movies like Goodfellas, Godfather, A Bronx Tale, and the list goes on..until I discovered The Sopranos.  Not until after everyone went crazy on Sunday nights watching on HBO...not until the reruns started playing actually.  I'm always late for stuff like that.  Now I have the entire series on dvd and I watch them over and over.  Seasons 1-4...after they kill Adriana I really couldn't stand watching Christopher with someone else.  You can almost feel the end is near.  Janice and Bobby together was beyond ridiculous...and Carmella should have SO gotten together with Furio..at least once..but anyway, enough about that.  lol 

So with all things Mafia comes a love of Italian food.  They go together.  Say those two things together and someone will almost always remember the scene in Goodfellas where Henry talks about being in "prison" and Paulie slicing the garlic with a razor blade...so thin it just melted.  I love that.  The scene, not so much the garlic.  I'm a fan, sure..but my mom...she's on a whole 'nother level with garlic.  Pops them like it's candy, raw, pickled, cooked, roasted...you name it. 

Now for this generation of Italian-lovers there's Jersey Shore.  Guidos and guidettes on the beach in Jersey living it up and avoiding "grenades".  I got hooked the first season but when chicks start fighting...that's the end of that.  Not a classy show to begin with but I gotta draw the line somewhere.  There was the very first show when they film each member leaving their home and families to go to the beach house and Vinny's mom was packing him food to take.  She was making broccoli rabe and picking red grapes off the stem and he goes, "Ma, you don't have to do that." and she goes, "Yes, I do."  I totally understand.  I bet I'll be doing the same thing for Gino when he's 20.  ;-)  Snookie was saying how Vinny's mom is like her own grandmother, feeds everyone and when everyone is all fed and happy, then she finally sits down to eat in the kitchen.  That's ALREADY me!  I know, I know, everyone teases that I'm already an old lady but seriously, I feed everyone, clean mouths and clean the floors and get everyone on their way...and THEN I sit down to eat.  I've tried sitting down to eat with everyone and getting up a million times to get something, getting another drink for someone or just dealing with the commotion, I don't even know what the hell I ate by the end of the meal!  I'd rather sit in peace and quiet and enjoy my meal. 

I want to be one of those women that has Sunday dinner at 2pm every week at her house.  Not a huge thing but like, Carmella style...the parents, the husband, the kids and maybe a couple of extra guests.  Real food too...like homemade meatballs or something as delicious as a braciole.  I saw a youtube video of some guy that looked like he was straight from the Goodfellas lot making pig skin braciole.  Now, the pig skin thing would have been weird enough...but no actual meat?  There is no satisfaction if there is no meat.  lol

This is a random picture of braciole so you know what I'm yammering about.  ;-)

I found a great recipe with none of that weird crap in it like raisins.  Hate sweet in my savory..ylekh.  Sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic, pancetta with crushed red pepper flakes, spinach, cheese all rolled up in the meat and simmered in the "gravy" for hours.  Sounds like heaven, right?  Yup, never made it.  Sounds good though.  I want to be someone that makes braciole.