Rice Balls In Rome

My brother Deacon Paul Lissandrello Jr of Limerick Maine enjoying two of life's pleasures. an ice cold beer, and a Rice Ball in the
'Eternal City' of Rome! ~ doesn't get any better than that!

This photo was taken on a recent trip to Rome.

I miss you Paul & Pat

Love ya

Something in My Eye

Well, for the past
week, it felt like something was in my eye, I was getting nervous thinking I was
getting a tumor, so we went to the Hospital here in Merida Mexico, and I have a
wart on my eye lid, they need to operate. So, all nervous Bobby said okay, Now
we do not have medical insurance here, and we were sweating to find out what the
bill was. The doctor gave me a shot to numb the area, and burned the wart away,
and sent out a sample for a Biopsy.
The bill $27.00 USD

This is when I
Love Mexico!!!

My Recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese

My Recipe for

Spaghetti Bolognese

1 lbs Ground Beef or Pork lean

2 Large cans of tomato pure - imported is the best

1 small can of tomato paste - imported is the best

2 packages of spaghetti # 7 or # 9

1 Cup of Parmesan Cheese

3 Chicken Stock Cubes

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Cups Diced Celery

2 Cups Diced Carrots

2 Cups Diced Onions

1 Cup of chopped curly parsley or Italian Parsley

3 Tablespoons of dried oregano

Salt and black pepper

1 Large Onion sliced in crescents

10 cloves of diced Garlic

1 Large Green Bell Pepper diced

2 Cups Dry Red Wine hopefully from my Lissandrello family
winery!!!

My Sauce:

In a large heavy sauce pot

1) add olive oil, 5 cloves of diced Garlic, and the Large
Onion sliced in crescents

2) sweat the onions and garlic ( http://www.ehow.com/how_2083641_sweat-onions.html )

3) add the tomato paste and melt it down, than add the 3
Tablespoons of dried oregano Salt and black pepper.

4) Add 1 cup of dry red wine let simmer for 10 mins,

5) Add the 2 Large cans of tomato pure - imported is the best

6) Add the Diced Green Bell pepper

7) simmer for about an hour or two, make sure you have on LOW
HEAT, keep stirring the sauce

8) when almost done add some fresh parsley

9) Then add 3 Chicken Stock Cubes

10) Add the 1 Cup of Parmesan Cheese to the Hot Sauce and stir

My Bolognese meat sauce

In a Large Dutch Oven or a Large Sauté Pan

Sauté Pan

1) Heat the pot up and then add some olive oil, and then
Sauté the diced celery, diced carrots, diced onions and 5 cloves of diced
Garlic, again sweat them till they are soft and tender,

2) Now the ground meat a little at a time

3) cook and keep breaking the meat up with a spatula,
cook the meat through, and drain any fat if you see it at the bottom of
the pot.

4) Add sauce to cover all the meat ( only after the meat
is cooked and drained of fat.)

5) Add 1 cup of red wine

6) Simmer for 2 hours on low heat, make sure it is on
very low heat.

Make the pasta, and drain and serve with the sauce on top
of the pasta, than add the meat sauce on top of that then add cheese and
then parsley.

Buon Appetito

Chef Bob Lissandrello

My Love For Italian Rice Balls

For our Birthdays growing up as a kid, my Mom would make us Rice Balls, to this day, it is by far my favorite dish, I have such fund memory's of my Mom cooking Rice Balls, with the side dish of Peas and Onions, and Stuffed Artichokes. She would only make them for our Birthdays, and since there was 7 kids, we had a chance to have them often.

When my Mom would cooked them, she said that if any cracked on her, she would let us kids eat the one that was cracked. My Mom got to be very good at cooking them, without cracking them. So I invented a Rice Ball Cracker, it was an old mop stick, with a small tennis ball attached to the end of it.

My Mom would cook, and then sit down to read a little and this is when I made my move, like a Chinese Ninja, but I was more like a little fat Italian Ninja, moving with the speed of light. I would wait till my mom was reading, and with a whack of the stick, the rice ball would crack. And when My Mom, got up to check her food, I would stroll in, and say, oh my a cracked one, but sometimes it would back fire, George my Brother would happened to walk in, and he too knew the Cracked Rice Ball rule, and would grab it with no mercy, and it would be inhaled in seconds. My Mom, never knew this trick, until 1993. 

 

This past March 18th was my 52nd Birthday, and my wife Cristy treated me to a 3 night get-a-way at a ocean house, with a pool.

Now, anyone that knows me, know I love to swim, in fact my nick name was Bob the Bobber, here is a photo I took, in a Pool, with my Rice Balls, yes, I was in my glory, rice balls, in a pool, dear God, I thought I died and was in Heaven. 





 I made 35 Rice Balls, they came out great, but not like my Brother Johns or my Sister Margaret's. My Mom, was number one in making them, but now she is making them for the Saints and Angels. She passed away in December of 2004, but in 1997, she made her last batch of Rice Balls with me in my home in New York, she was so happy to be making them with me, this is a memory that I will treasure the rest of my days.

On my head Stone, I would like it to read " Here lies Bob, he loved his Wife, he loved his family, he loved his dogs, and he loved Rice Balls"

Happy 106th Birthday Charlie Barcio

Happy 106th Birthday Charlie Barcio

By Michael A. Aun, Special Columnist to St. Cloud In The News
http://www.aunline.com/


He is a modest man that has accomplished something that few others ever have. He turns 106 years old on March 22, 2010. Happy birthday Charlie Barcio!

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.” That might be a good way to describe the challenges that this centenarian has faced.



Three years after his birth in 1904 in Erie, PA., Charles Barcio’s father died. His widowed mother faced the hardship of supporting a family, and the only work she could find was as a cook. She had no choice; she put Charlie in an orphanage. At least there he could be fed and clothed.

Charlie’s grandparents protested and after a year they took young Charlie in to live with them, making him the tenth child under one roof. Charlie’s mom married again and after three years they moved with him to Rochester, NY where they lived for the next five years.

Charlie and his mom moved back to Erie, PA, the place of his birth, where they resided on a farm while he attended school. Though only a child, he worked part time as a gardener and a handyman, saving 100% of his wages during a summer vacation. The $75 he earned over those three months bought him his first set of wheels, a brand new bicycle.

After graduating from high school, Charlie worked for Burke Electric Company. The company saw his potential and urged him to pursue electrical engineering. He later worked for Edison Electric.

Charlie’s first wife, Winnie, was his best friend’s sister. They had a daughter and two sons, one of whom was killed in 1944 in World War II. His father-in-law sold him his first parcel of land and he built his own home, all of this during the Great Depression.

Charlie was always well liked and had many friends, as is the case today. Every Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. Mass, dozens of well wishers drop by to shake his hand and wish him the best at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Cloud, Florida.

It was friends like those that brought him their cars for him to fix back during the Great Depression. This motivated him to enter the auto repair and mechanic field. He furthered his education by taking courses in St. Louis, MO. What started as an avocation became a full time business for him and it blossomed into a very successful business.

He decided to build his own garage but money was scarce. It was not uncommon for folks to barter in those days for goods and services. For instance, he negotiated an agreement with Scriber Lumber Company for building materials in exchange for gasoline that he sold out of his new garage and gas station, all done by a gentlemen’s agreement… just a handshake. “In those days, your word was good enough,” said the jovial Barcio.

In no time at all, it was clear that the gas station proved to be too small and he needed more garage space. As business increased, he hired 13 employees.

In small towns across America, all fire departments were volunteer. Charlie was one of the founders of West Lake Fire Department and later became Assistant Fire Chief and later Chief. He was also State Fire Instructor for Pennsylvania and a First Aid Instructor for the Red Cross.

A devout Catholic all of his life, Charlie was one of five men to start and build St. Julia’s Catholic Church in Erie, PA. He might have been a mechanic by profession but he could just have easily been a broadcaster. He articulately narrated Mass on radio station WLEU for 32 years.

While operating his garage business, one of his contacts, who had a Kaiser-Frazer franchise, asked him to take the West Erie district dealership. Kaiser-Frazer later closed its doors and Charlie became a Ford Dealership.

Charlie was an entrepreneur before that was even a word. He furthered his business by installing and maintaining coin-operated dry cleaning machines that service the majority of Pennsylvania.
Never one to shy away from challenges, he also took on the Presidency of Millcreek Chamber of Commerce and Commodore of the Presque Isle Yacht Club.

Charlie moved to Florida in 1972 and quickly became the go-to maintenance guy for Father William Corry at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Sharpes, Florida near Cocoa. He actually installed the ornate wall that is the background behind the altar.

In 1990, Charlie moved to St. Cloud, Florida with his second wife, Dorie, who was also widowed. Her late husband, Don Fry, was one of Charlie’s closest friends. They were wed in 1990. The day they arrived, Father Fabian Gimeno called on him to help with the maintenance duties of St. Thomas Aquinas, a job he held for 14 years. At the age of nearly 100, the insurance company that provided coverage for the church said “no more.” He was forced to retire in 2004.

Now six years later, Charlie remains active in the church and maintains a daily exercise regimen that includes 6-8 miles on a bicycle, weather permitting. An active Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus, Charlie still stands outside of stores handing out Tootsie Rolls to raise money for exceptional children.