Love, Linda

Let me tell you a little bit about what made my aunt so freaking great including a few recipes to back it up

My Aunt Linda. To anyone who knew her, just her name speaks volumes. My aunt is my dad’s sister, older by almost five years. I kinda look just like her, the D’Alessandro genes run strong with us…and I definitely have her sass and attitude. She was the consummate host and loved to fill her home with the people she loved and cook for them and bake for them and just make them feel at peace…sound like anyone you know? My earliest memories of my aunt are centered around holidays and her answering the door in her red and white apron and immediately telling us about the new recipes she was trying out that year. I feel for you to properly get to know my aunt, I have to set the scene of her home.

My Aunt Linda...one of my favorite photos of her.

My Aunt Linda and Uncle Frank lived in a red clapboard house built in the mid 1700’s at the top of an enormous hill. When we were kids, we would play in the basement that was straight out of a horror movie. The basement door was at the very back of the house and as soon as you opened it you could feel the temperature change. The walls were made of stone and it was musty as hell and as you moved further back into the room, to the original part of the house, it got even colder…and spookier. We used to dare each other to see how far back into the dark we were willing to go by ourselves and I definitely never made it very far. There was a wooden support beam in the far corner that had a date of September 1777 carved into it…we’re talking American Revolution times here. The old house was always freezing…even in the summer. Every Christmas, Santa would without fail, bring us all new sweaters that we would inevitably wear to Linda and Frank’s for Christmas dinner in preparation for the chilly afternoon to come. My dad would call her a few days before to make sure she had wood for the fireplace.

Linda and Frank's 200 year old home...complete with an indoor brick stovetop. As a kid, I used to love running up and down the hidden staircase in the kitchen to the upper attic apartment.

But the temperature was the only thing in my aunt’s house that was cold…because as soon as you walked in, you could feel her warmth and love. I can hear her voice now in my head as I would walk in with arms full of gifts or later in life, with my arms full of my own kids…

“Hi, Bubbe…” she would exclaim when she answered the door and envelop me in a huge Linda hug. I legit just texted my sister in law to check on the proper spelling of that and she informed me it means ‘grandmother’ in Yiddish so I have no explanation for why she called me that. But it always made me feel loved and wanted and it always made me smile. It was followed by hugs and kisses and “Come in here and smell what I’m making.” Sometimes I was excited to try it, other times I was already trying to figure out how to make my brother eat it instead of me.

Frank and Linda on their wedding day June 26, 1964

My Aunt Linda was the only person I have ever known that gave SO much thought to gift giving. She always tried to really give the person a gift they would truly love…and there was always a story behind why she gave you a particular gift. Some of the gifts were absolutely ridiculous but when she told you why they made her think of you…well that’s when the real hysterics began. Here are some of the gifts my aunt has given to us and her reasoning as to why we would like them:

One Christmas she gave my dad three bags of freeze dried astronaut food. When my dad said, “Um, Linda…did I open the right gift…did you get me astronaut food?” My aunt replied, “Yes!!!!!!! When I saw that I immediately thought of you.” My dad, in all his snark looked her dead in the face and yelled, “WHYYYYYYYYYY?” There was an awkward few seconds of silence and we all proceeded to fall off the couch in laughter.

For his birthday that same year…she gave him a potted azalea plant and a doorstop that was a huge knitted owl. Her reasoning behind this was that my dad likes owls and the plant was pretty…forty years later, I’m pretty sure my dad still has the doorstop.

Another Christmas she gave my parents a voice recorder that stuck to the refrigerator by a magnet and you were able to record your grocery list into it instead of writing it down. She took it out of the box to demonstrate how to use it and the spring fell off the back and it fell apart into a million pieces right there in front of the wrapping paper it came out of. My dad met her with, “Thanks, Linda…you always find the most durable, long lasting gifts.” Cue insane laughter again.

Then there was the absolute all time favorite gifts for my brother and I. I think it was the year my parents put an above ground pool in the backyard, so in preparation for the summer, she had bought me a floating pool radio. When the waves made it move, it wasn’t supposed to get staticky. Okay, for 1982 that was big technology. In the car on the way home we were talking about it and my mom asked my brother what my aunt had gotten for him. Without missing a beat, he told her she got him a headband radio. When my mom inquired further, he said, “Ya know, it’s like a sweatband but it has a little radio attached to the side so I guess you can listen to music while you’re running and stuff.” To this day, at LEAST forty years after the fact, I have never heard my mother wheeze so hard in laughter. She couldn’t breathe to the point we thought she was going to throw up. By the time we had calmed her down, we arrived home and my brother put it on to demonstrate how it worked and I think I may have actually peed my pants.

One year she bought seven year old Preston a book about lighthouses. When I asked what made her choose that particular book she told me she had noticed he was once looking at a book of lighthouses she had on her coffee table when he was visiting one day. Preston still remembers that book…core memory activated. So like I said…we all looked forward to receiving a gift from my aunt. They came straight from her heart with enough love to last several lifetimes.

But at the very heart of Linda’s home was the food she cooked for everyone who entered. I’ve chosen a few of her most memorable recipes and stories to share with you and I’ll add the disclaimer of ‘Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it,’ because some of these sound downright terrible…but will be some of the best things you’ve ever eaten.

In case anyone doubted that these recipes were legit, here they are in original form in my aunt's handwriting.

The first time my aunt made ‘Marilyn’s Corned Beef Dip,’ I was a teenager and it was an appetizer for Easter Sunday. As I sat down in the living room next to a bowl of what honestly looked like, well, I’m not sure what it looked like. Everyone else was afraid to ask her what it was but I was feeling a little ballsy so I went all in.

“Hey, Aunt Linda…what exactly is this um, this stuff over here?”

“Oh!!!!! That’s the corned beef dip! It’s incredible…try some.”

I may have asked her if I had to and she stared me down until I did and that afternoon I consumed an entire loaf of marble rye smothered in that bowl of corned beef dip and I had zero regrets. She was spot on and it WAS incredible and just the thought of it makes me want to make some.

Marilyn’s Corned Beef Dip

1/2 lb freshly cooked corned beef chopped into small pieces, by hand

1 cup mayo, 2 Tbsp each fresh parsley, dill and minced onion

Mix all of this together and chill one hour or overnight. Serve with crackers or pumpernickel or a marble rye cut into squares.

Rosa’s Beef Brisket might be the most alarming recipe I have ever encountered. I’m going to just ask you to trust those of us who walked so you could run and rest assured that this will be one of the best briskets you’ve ever eaten. My first attempt at making it, I sat down to read through the recipe and texted my cousin to say, “You have GOT to be fucking kidding me with this.” She said, “I know it looks like dog food right now but I promise that after it’s cooked you’ll be thanking me…” and I was. It’s freaking delicious and I have had a lot of great briskets to compare it to. Make sure you have some bread for dipping into the heavenly gravy that is created from slow cooking this gem.

Rosa’s Beef Brisket

1 brisket, 3-4 lbs

1 can whole cranberry sauce, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 envelope onion soup mix, 2 yellow onions, chopped

Place your brisket in a shallow baking dish, pouring all the ingredients on top, placing your chopped onions on top. Cover with foil and bake at 325 degrees for 2-3 hours or until the meat falls apart. You’re welcome.

Mrs. Froman was Eleanor’s mom and Eleanor was my Aunt Linda’s very best friend. Eleanor befriended Linda at the age of four the day my dad’s family moved into an apartment on Haviland Avenue in the Bronx in 1946. Linda was sitting on the curb as the moving truck pulled up, Eleanor plopped down next to her and a lifelong, epic friendship was born. Countless times, my aunt would tell me stories and they would inevitably begin with something like, “Eleanor and I were just howling in laughter when so and so happened.” Like the time my aunt showed up to Eleanor’s house for her own engagement party and they were wearing the same dress. My aunt said they looked at each other, their eyes got very wide…and they both laughed so hard they had to sit down on the front steps to recover. Genuine friendships are such a gift…may we all go through life with an Eleanor by our side. When my aunt passed away, I actually got to speak to Eleanor on the phone for the very first time and I could immediately understand why my aunt loved her so much. These raspberry squares were apparently one of her mom’s most requested recipes, so I figured I’d share:

Mrs. Froman’s Raspberry Squares

1 cup flour, 2 sticks butter

1 cup powdered sugar, 2 large eggs

1/2 lb mixed nuts ( she liked walnuts and pecans)

12 oz raspberry jam

Using two knives, cut together the butter and the flour, add in the sugar, eggs and nuts and stir until well mixed.

Knead dough into a ball and press out flat onto a greased cookie sheet. Refrigerate overnight.

Remove from the fridge and spread jam over the top, bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool and cut into squares.

This last recipe has a story that goes with it akin to the Smithfield ham. Again, it is a lasting reminder that my aunt did anything and everything she could to make you feel at home and to have all of your favorites right there waiting for you. I’m going to give you the recipe first…and then explain the hilarity of it all.

Linda’s ‘Never Had A Holiday Without It’ Apricot Mousse

6 oz apricot jello, make the night before and use 1/2 cup LESS cold water for consistency

fully drain a 16 oz can of apricots and crushed pineapple (one can of each)

1 container Cool Whip (13 oz)

Mix the ‘set’ jello, fruit and Cool Whip together for a few seconds in a blender. Or by hand…it will work just fine.

Pour into individual cups or one large bowl and chill for several hours. Decorate the mousse with slices of fresh apricot, pineapple, etc.

This mousse, or some version of it, has graced every holiday table I can remember. If my Aunt Linda wasn’t hosting the holiday, she cheerfully brought it with her to place on OUR table. As a kid, all I saw was the gelatinous, foamy consistency with chunks of fruit suspended ‘mid mousse’ and I couldn’t understand WHY anyone would want to eat it. I also feel I can confidently say that my brother and both cousins were in full agreement with me on this one.

As with every holiday, when we cleared the table, there would always be one, single solitary spoon taken out of the top of the mousse and the entire bowl would remain untouched. Many years later, when I was grown and married with kids of my own…mind you, the apricot mousse was still gracing our holiday tables, I finally got up the gumption to ask my aunt WHYYYYYYYY she keeps making this damn mousse.

She didn’t miss a beat. “Your mother LOVES that mousse. I make it for her!”

Well, the look on my mom’s face will go down in history as the most perfect combination of shock and horror I have ever seen.

“Me??????? You make that for ME???????”

“Of course I make it for you…I always see you taking a spoon of it every holiday so I know you enjoy it, so I keep making it.”

“Linda…I keep taking a spoonful off the top because I feel so bad no one else touches it and I don’t want to make you feel like no one likes it.”

My aunt followed with a stunned look of horror all her own. “So wait…no one likes it??? Why the hell am I making it then?”

We all laughed so hard we couldn’t breathe for several minutes but my Aunt Linda had the greatest, most boisterous laugh ever and I can still hear her like it happened yesterday…and that went down as the night the ugly truth came out about the apricot mousse.

As I’ve said before, my Aunt Linda was in a league of her own. She never once in 47 years forgot a birthday or a holiday or a special occasion or accomplishment of mine…and that continued well into the lives of my children. She was kind and loving to everyone she came into contact with and was someone who trusted first and asked questions later. She was known to our family as the ‘Keeper of All Things D’Alessandro,’ saving and treasuring every black and white photo and journal and letter and recipe and record of our family because she felt a great responsibility in not only remembering but continuing to carry on our traditions from years past. I’m nothing short of honored to be the new ‘keeper,’ and only hope to do as good a job as she did.

Good God, I miss her. I miss her laugh and her smile and I miss when she disagreed with someone and this look came across her face like she was about to tell you why you were wrong…I know the look well because I have the same one. I miss her insane concoctions in the kitchen and how even a simple cup of tea and a piece of cake in her home felt like the fanciest, most special of occasions. I guess most of all I miss the feeling of walking into her house knowing I was loved and wanted and she was just so genuinely interested in hearing what was going on in my life. I’ve come to realize many of the things that were most important to her are also the most important to me…so I hope I’m making you proud, because I kick myself everyday that I didn’t really realize how special you were to me and my life until you were gone.

Frank and Linda with their very best friends, Ralph and Carol Gianella...never have a group of friends shared so much love and laughter. My Grandma Augusta with a baby Linda circa 1941