Reconnecting with your roots

As an American in this day and age it can be difficult to feel like you have a culture or heritage worth talking about. Sure, we have the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, BBQ, delta blues and so much more noteworthy things but none of that seems to matter when discussing heritage. With the United States being a relatively new country, the melting pot of the world, a lot of us feel like we came from somewhere yet feel disconnected.

For me, my family came here four and three generations ago from all over Europe. My mother's side is Hungarian, Polish, Austrian and Russian. My other side is Sicilian and pure Southern Italian. I feel as though I have always felt connected with that part of me more than the other, probably due to the fact I hold those physical traits at a larger degree. With this, I have recently embarked on a journey to further that connection within myself, and become educated on my heritage and my family's old world culture.

Starting off strong, my first project is making my own homemade limoncello! I am very excited to see how it will turn out and all of my friends and family are eager to try it. Limoncello is an italian lemon liqueur that is mainly made in southern Italy, where my family hails from. For that reason, and the fact that I enjoy italian drinks immensely, I chose this as my very first Italian conquest. I posted a video on my TikTok of the entire process, which I will link here incase any lookie loos are curious about it. The process took a total of 30-40 minutes, peeling twenty lemons can be very time consuming. We will see how the liqueur turns out in about six months, in which I will be able to share the final update! I am not sure what my next task will be however I am leaning towards experimenting with panelle, a sicilian street food. I will update in four weeks time when the first part of the fermentation process is finished. Until then!