Strudelfest 2013

Strudel dude with his family

I am a bit toasty. But even before this busy weekend, I could not recall how long it had been since I had seen my parents and my sisters for three consecutive days. Well it didn't quite happen because one sister skipped the picnic on day two. But all made the drive to my place today for a strudelfest. Now I'm wishing this weekend could stretch on for a fourth day, but not necessarily with family. Just a day to be a slug.

 

May you celebrate the food you love with the people you love ~ Strudelfest, where art thou

from the past
I think I was taking a healthy lunch break before stuffing myself silly later

Normally by now a Saturday has passed by when I have a steady stream of facebook posts about making strudel.  That stream in part was a way to let my sister in California know what she was missing, but soon enough it would be cold and gray here in Pennsylvania and she would be glad to be missing that aspect of living here.  Well, I never got around to scheduling a day of strudel in October, but today was to be the day.

The other day I blogged that my sister had had a stroke.  My parents have flown out to support her.  So today's celebration has been postponed.  I talked to those in California the other day and let my dad know it will happen soon after they return.

thanks to all of you who have offered up prayers for my sister.  She is doing generally well.  Her balance is a mess and some of that support is literal since she has fallen twice since her return home.  Also her eyes are functioning well on their own, but are not communicating well with each other when they both are open.  

It was my dad's mom who taught me how to make strudel fifteen years ago.  Soon after that she had a stroke and I have always counted that day in her kitchen as one of the greatest blessings in my life.  

So what of today then.  Pizza.  My year of pizza slowed down a bit when the school year kicked in, but of late it is showing signs of being alive and well.  This evening I will make pizza for the 49th and 50th person in just over 10 months.  I would highly recommend venturing forth on a similar journey.

If you did, what food would you make?

and in the end...

after gluing down 67 pieces of glass
... after meeting friends for breakfast, who desired a glass penguin
... after buying apples and cabbage from local farmers
... after getting the kitchen prepared
... after making 8 doughs (which didn't bother my bum wrist at all)
... after grating potatoes and cabbage
... after greeting mom, dad, and aunt
... after turning the oven on
... after stretching and topping and rolling 8 strudels (2 of each, those mentioned plus grape)
... after greeting sister here and saying hi to sister out west
... after eating with family as the last strudels baked
... after greeting friends
... after seeing my family to the door with hugs and thanks for carrying on the tradition
... after greeting more friends
... after finally turning the oven off
... after serving plates of food and glasses of beverages
... after sitting back and enjoying the presence of friends
... after maybe one or two snarky comments
... after saying good bye and your welcome
... after a few moments alone with Mosaic Woman in the living room

I stretched out on the couch, awake enough to hear jazz.  And I realized that I almost never stop and just listen.  So I did.  I closed my eyes and listened.

Hopes of recovery, listening to Pat Martino and making strudel

From Pat Martino's website...

When the anesthesia wore off, Pat Martino looked up hazily at his parents and his doctors. and tried to piece together any memory of his life.

One of the greatest guitarists in jazz. Martino had suffered a severe brain aneurysm and underwent surgery after being told that his condition could be terminal. After his operations he could remember almost nothing. He barely recognized his parents. and had no memory of his guitar or his career. He remembers feeling as if he had been "dropped cold, empty, neutral, cleansed...naked."

In the following months. Martino made a remarkable recovery. Through intensive study of his own historic recordings, and with the help of computer technology, Pat managed to reverse his memory loss and return to form on his instrument. His past recordings eventually became "an old friend, a spiritual experience which remained beautiful and honest."

Mosaic Woman and I went out to see Pat Martino play guitar on Friday night. I am humbled by this experience. My hands that are connected to a brain, that oh so loves music, have made very little music themselves. And here is a man who learned twice, and both times became one of the best.

The last time my grandmother made me strudel was the first time I was her student. Shortly there after she had a stroke from which she struggled to recover. My grandmother did not lack the desire to heal, but it proved to be beyond her effort. In my mind she gave up her life after failing to recover and I respect her for her fight to recover and her letting go of life. Every time fall comes along and I dedicate a day to making strudel for my family, I marvel at having moved back to Pennsylvania and asking to learn a family tradition in such a timely manner.

I imagine Pat Martino listening to the music he made, but unable to perform it. Where would his life had gone if he failed at relearning how to play guitar.

I try to imagine my grandma seeing me make strudel. I am hoping she is pleased. I am in possession of a card I drew for her. I am not sure why I have it. I am blessed to have hands that can make art and strudel. I try to imagine a situation in which I would have to reemerge into my own life and I hope I have the strength and desire to do it...

something new for Christmas Eve but will this become tradition

I have a friend who needed a change from a tradition she loves. So she travelled far from home for Christmas. She is clear on why she needed to take a new road. What happened to me? Could it just be life.

Did it start last June when I asked a friend to water the garden or when it was difficult to take her out for dinner for her kindness, or when I suggested I give strudel making lessons over break?

Plan strudel for Christmas Eve day and your life will change. For one thing the annual shrimp and garlic pizza I make, gets moved to little Christmas Eve.

The last strudel is in not even in the oven when it becomes very clear that the gift was in the teaching, not in the feeding. She leaves with a handful of strudel and a dough to make new traditions at home. She leaves me with a lot of strudel.

Did it start when another friend accepted a new job while the housing market collapsed?

Two years ago they would be gone to where the new job is located. But last Tuesday I was reintroducing my body to yoga at their house. "I will give you strudel for lessons and dried lavender."

4pm you are napping when the phone rings. "Will you really bring us strudel?" I will.

6:30pm I go to church carrying a large tray of strudel. I find a friend and say, "I want this eaten, maybe I will be back at 11 pm."

11pm You are at the yoga friend's house laughing. This seems to be where you are meant to be.

Did it start with how hectic life becomes when you add craft fairs to the advent season?

I turned into a pumpkin for it is Christmas Day when we arrive home. I see the church is still lit up, and head inside my house. We had decided to give presents on Epiphany because we did not want to go shopping with the masses. I joke that I can't try to get a present before morning this year. Mosaic Woman surprises me by giving me the only one she has bought. It is a new drum to replace the one she accidently broke this year.

We fall exhausted into bed. I wonder if any of this will become a new tradition?

...

Merry Christmas.... may it be filled with Joy, as my Christmas Eve was.

strudelfest 2008

I need Advil. I have a fridge full of strudel. My mom asks if I remember seeing the Phillies win the world series. I say how could I forget and laugh at myself for saying such a thing. My dad and I try to remember some details of that night.

I started at 11:00 am. By 7:30 it was cleaned up. My mom is an amazing cleaner.

I put a bit too much salt in the new strudel... potato leek. If I was a manager for a losing team I would say I have no regrets. I do. It smelled so incredible in the oven. Couldn't the manager be sad for losing and joyful for an incredible season? Are they not allowed more than one emotion at a time? How many did I have today?

I dug into my box of memories and found tickets and a world series program from 1980. My dad remembers the night we sat in a fancy box at a Flyers game. I remember a Monday Night game in which the Eagles got trounced.

My mom even watched the world series this year. To 2:00 am.

I prayed before I started. Thanks Michelle.

All the doughs (7 batches were stretched) were good to great. You can tell as soon as you pick one up to stretch it. Bad ones take forever, well it seems like forever. The joy and relief of feeling a good dough.

The last time my grandmother made me strudel, was the day she taught me how to make it. Soon after a stroke put her in no shape to bake anything let alone strudel. Before I sat down to write this I was in my studio thinking of that day. I dug though old photo albums. There were my grandma's hands stretching dough. How blessed am I?

My sister did not feel well and did not come down. She was missed.

I just feel so groggy. Now that I am filled up on carbs, it is time to hibernate.

How many emotions? good thing I am stoic or I would feel something.

well, I do feel something.... off for some Advil.

STRUDELFEST 2007

Mom Mom may have never used a table cloth with Korean print to make strudel while listening to Miles Davis..... but she was still with me.

It came late this year, then delayed a few days. Strudelfest usually happens in October, then it was to happen on Sunday, but a desire to help Mosaic woman at the craft fair and a possible ice storm caused a delay. So I got up at 6am on Wednesday and made dough.





For the first time since Mom Mom taught me how to do this (amazingly less than a year before she had a stroke), I went solo. Usually my mom shows up and helps with the veggie/fruit prep while my dad does a tiny bit and makes comments (son of Mom Mom type). Mosaic woman likes to help roll, this time she took photos of me rolling...










Back up, before you can roll it, you have to stretch the dough, and you better make it thin enough to see through it.... This one was one of those doughs that feel like heaven when you pick it up, others say something like... "go ahead and try to stretch me."




Anyway, Mosaic woman heated up some black bean soup for lunch during which I forced myself to pick up a piece or two of potato strudel.....





at 2:20 I jumped in the shower but got downstairs to add a pan of grape strudel to the potato, cabbage, and apple already on our table.





all that was left was getting it into our car and driving up to my parents where my sister, who was visiting from California (reason for the delay from October), and 10 other local relatives were waiting to feast.

We eat strudel, it is a full meal, though there have been times that we eat Mom Mom's chocolate cake for dessert!

Ask me if I believe in family Ghosts any other day of the year and I will likely say no, but strudelfest is different... why not have some faith and imagination and believe that Mom Mom's spirit is flowing through my hands while stretching dough.

so after a week of craft fairs, some teaching, strudel, my sister, and finishing my paper..... I am taking another day off and later will be driving to spend some quiet time with Jesuits this weekend.

Peace and family traditional foods be with you all.