Spaghetti and Yarn

Christmas Season is Here

I am a quilter. There I said it. I hoard fabric. But, I have not been sewing much in the past year as this blog and writing posts has taken over my days and nights.

I have belonged to two local quilting guilds which I had to give up with taking care of my 94 year old mother. I work part time in a local fabric store which has become my therapy. During work time, I also have someone stay with  mom. It works great for both of us.

I also belong to a local genealogical society which is also fantastic. Sometimes I cannot make it to all of the meetings, but when I can I am there.

I started a small group of quilters named the UFO Society. To any crafter this means UnFinished Objects. We also have members that knit, crochet, paint, do jewelry, and had some scrapbookers. But mostly quilters. We meet the first Saturday monthly. We started with three, including me, back in 2009. We now have over sixty members, with the average of 35 attending each month.

Waiting eagerly for our Bachelor Spaghetti in Japan.

For our December meeting, we have a pot-luck. I started bringing my mother's traditional Bachelors' Spaghetti that I grew up with and enjoyed this dish every time she served it as seen in photo below.

The story goes after my parents married, my father would invite a small group of bachelor officers from the Navy ship or base he was serving on several times a year.

Every year since I have been baking it; I bring home an empty pot! I now call it Spinster Spaghetti in my honor as a "Spinster Genealogist." Try it out. It is a scrumptious spinster spaghetti dish.




Where does yarn fit into this? My mother loved to knit and crochet. She tried to teach me with great frustration as I am a leftie. I tried several times growing up. I found a box labeled YARNS out in the garage and opened the box. Memories came flooding over me.

When my father was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, in the mid sixties; mom started serving with her craftiness of crocheting for the Navy Relief Society. She would crank out baby caps,  jackets and booties of matching colors of blue, pink, yellow and green.

She was rewarded with pins and certificates. In fact, serving in this manner was great for her health. She quit smoking! Hooray!

Look what I also found inside the box. A UFO baby cap! Mom tells me that there are some crochet hooks around somewhere. I have yet to find them. Someday, I just might.

Where does this lead me? I am now ready to start how to learn to crochet as a leftie again. I am determined this time. I love peacocks. I found a beautiful crochet pattern I want to make. It is called Peacock Pretty as seen here. I now have the book and am ready to start. I find out this is an intermediate pattern for righties. HELP! I find a book for Lefties and go to You Tube. This is how I have been spending my time this past week!

I also took a workshop. Here is what I learned in two hours.
I know it is not much; but, it is a lot for me. Keep practicing. I will get to those feathers.

Family Concoctions

A page from one of my many scrapbooks.

I am one who does not like to spend much time in the kitchen if I can help it. I love to eat, but would much rather enjoy someone else’s concoction. About ten years ago (2005), I found an envelope filled with my maternal grandmother’s recipes that she copied by hand. Mary Sarna GABUZDA loved to cook. Her husband, Steven Andrew GABUZDA, was a butcher, in the small town of Freeland, Luzerne, Pennsylvania. The Gabuzda Meat Market was located at 899 Centre St. (corner of Centre & Chestnut) right across the street from St. Anne’s Catholic Church.

Mary Gabuzda with her daughters 1986

I came up with the idea of putting together a cook book of family recipes and started earnestly on it; but, as we know other circumstances can interfere. To my delight, another cousin had the same, yet “different” idea. She contacted our aunts, her four daughters, for family recipes, to include with our grandmother’s recipes. 

On the first page of her family recipe book she states my identical intentions, feelings and memories. Thank you, Maureen.

“This recipe book is for my mom, Marion Denion and my aunts, Irene O’Donnell, Martha Cooper and Beezie Clapper and for all the Gabuzda offspring. When I think of my mom and her sisters, I think of women who love to laugh, especially at themselves. I’ve always enjoyed listening in on their conversations...

“In my memory, my grandmother is always in the kitchen preparing food. We spent many Easters, Thanksgivings and summer time visits with her in Freeland, Pennsylvania. At the end of these visits, she lade us with food for our trip home... 

“In her later years she loved to collect recipes from many sources - her daughters, magazines, her neighbor, Anna Stunz, and the radio... She would sit in her kitchen listening to “Alice” read recipes on the radio. She would copy them down until she heard an ingredient she didn’t like, then she would scratch out the recipe and turn off the radio. She also got recipes from magazines she read at the hairdresser. She wouldn’t tear them out, but would memorize them and write them down when she got home. Wow! While these are the recipes of the Gabuzda sisters, it is obvious their mother is the 

main contributor.  

Maureen Gray 

September 2005”

I am so thankful my cousin, Maureen, caught the cooking gift from my grandmother and collected our family recipes. We are both into scrapbooking and quilting. 

Check out Maureen’s blogs. One on quilting and the other on the farm life. 

Pursuit of Quilts - http://pursuitofquilts.blogspot.com/

Glen Almus Farm - http://glenalmusfarm.com/wp/

I will post some of grandma’s recipes from the “old country” and even the “newer ones” she picked up that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren still enjoy today. Here are two for a start. See above. Enjoy!

I visited east coast families during the summer of 2012. Maureen and I share our current projects.