Ital-Canadian!!!

August 21st, 2010

After living several months in Kazakhstan we must say we have never been so proud to be Canadian and especially proud to be Italian! Canada is just such a beautiful place and a wonderful civilized country with many opportunities.

Being the descendants of a typical Italian family, we realize how glad we are to have such strong family values and traditions.

We can now relate and have a small understanding of what it was like for our parents, relatives and friends that immigrated from Italy to Canada. We know and understand living in a country where nobody speaks your language.

Our parents immigrated to Canada to provide a better life for themselves and especially for their future kids. They came to Canada with no money, not knowing a word of English or French, not having much (if any)education, not knowing anything about the country’s culture, weather etc, and worst of all having left behind their parents, brothers, sisters and many other family members. They worked extremely hard and accepted all the jobs that no one else wanted day and night trying to make ends meet. Apart from their daily jobs they also continued the tradition of making their own home made pasta, sausages, prosciutto, soppressata, tomato sauce, wine, grappa, limoncello, vinegar, cheese, marinated vegetables, olives, jams, pesto, pizza, spices, desserts, and they grow any possible vegetable and fruit in their garden.

Unfortunately we the younger generation are slipping away from making these homemade goodies. I hope that we can continue this tradition because it’s simply the best food and tastes amazing compared to the commercial bought products filled with preservatives and chemicals.

I dedicate today’s blog to our parents, all our family and friends that immigrated to Canada for a better life. It must have taken a lot of courage to leave a beautiful country such as Italy and move to Canada to start a life from scratch.

Attached are some pictures of Fil and I helping his parents make the tomato sauce. It’s not difficult to do but it’s a very long procedure and it took us all day.