Gleanings...

Sympathy For the Pope
First I want to express my sympathy to the outgoing Pope, Bendict the 16, Pope Emeritis.  This is a situation the Church hasn't faced for more than 600 years, so a bit of confusion at first is perfectly understandable.

It appears that after much to-ing and fro-ing, the Pope will be allowed his usual white, floor-length robe, but the seal in his ring has been taken out and smashed and he is no longer allowed to wear the bright red shoes.   They have been taken from his closet and replaced with plain, brown leather slip-ons.    That must have been a tremendous blow to him..  Once the cynosure of all eyes, now relegated to plain brown.  

The Sous Chef
Yesterday Richie remarked, "We've got everything we need - I'm going to make meatballs and spaghetti for dinner tonight."  I said, "Okay," while thinking, "No way in hell;  I'm going to make the meatballs."

The afternoon passed peacebly enough and it was prep time in the kitchen.  Lazily I unwound myself from my favorite chair and sauntered out to the kitchen to tell him I would be making the meatballs.  .  He objected, "But I've got my apron on!"  I dismissed this with a wave.  "Fine, you can be my sous chef -- in medicine there's a saying, 'Watch one, do one, teach one'   so today you start by watching - get me an egg, okay?  And the hamburger."

"Do you want onion?" he asked, rummaging in the vegetable bin.  "No," I replied.

I walked him all the way through to forming the first meatball, which I placed on a round pizza pan.  "Now, you can make the meatballs and bake them at 300 for 30 minutes, but be sure to check them after 15 minutes.  The reason I bake them is that it cuts down on the fat rather than frying them."   

"Ah," he said and began making meatballs.  Richie is so painstaking that all of the meatballs looked to be absolutely the same  in size.  As for myself?  "I wish I'd thought of that sooner!  Having a sous chef is the only way to fly!  I wonder if I can pull that con again...." and settled back in my chair to contemplate future plans...

What's Up with  Tomato Sauce Being Called "Gravy" ?  
I have wondered about this before but never so much as when actually cooking meatballs and spaghetti.  Is "tomato sauce" literally "gravy" in Italian?  Did arriving immigrant Italians want so badly to fit in with "Americans" that they picked up "gravy" as it's used for meat?   Is "sauce" a forbidden word in Italian?   If you know, tell me at racebookwriter@aol.com