Happy 2009

YHappy New YearY

2009

Christmas At Nana's

Every Christmas morning since I can remember, my mom wakes up around five in the morning, throws a ham in the oven, makes her famous sausage balls, fries bacon, makes hashbrowns and grits or cheese grits, and makes biscuits. Next to the dining area she sets up a table with the coffee, flavored creamers, pastries, donuts, cookies, pies, and cakes. This year she made a marshmellow & donut hole tree. The three tables that we eat on are all set with different flavors of jellies and jams, and the eggs are made to order. It is a wonderful breakfast. It is food that we all love and grew up on. Nana loves to cook for us. She tells us to invite whoever we want, and down throught the years many of our friends have come by to spend time with us and of course have breakfast. There is sooooooo much food. So much, that we all end up taking some home with us.

The kids eat and eat and drink and drink, and then go back for more.

Some eat faster than others.

I asked them all to smile and say cheese.

There's Nana probably trying to get Chelsea and Cassidy to eat some more.

Here we have the youngest, Nana's great-grandson, Johnny Angel.

Great grand-grandaughter, Jenissy, eating ice cream. There is always ice cream at Nana's house.

Uncle Jimmy is feeding, great-grandaughter, Jaylynn cheese grits.

Tyler, Kelsey, & Nishelle in pink are great-grand kids, Cassidy & Chelsey are grands.

Thanks Nana for another wonderful Christmas.

We All Love You

Merry Christmas to All & To All A Goodnight

All My Love, Joyce

Noche Buena

This is what my husband and I cook every Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) translated it means Night Good, or The Good Night. It is a traditional Cuban Christmas Eve meal. Roasted Pig, usually a whole pig, the old timers cooked them in the ground. Nowadays the pig is cooked in the oven or in a "caja china", or Chinese box. Moros & Christianos, ( translated means Moors & Christians), black beans and rice cooked together. Yuca, or cassava root, and Cuban bread. We had already eaten when I decided I would post some pics of our meal. I can't show you the picture of the pork roast because we devoured it by the time I decided to do this. As you can see we didn't touch the bread because first of all, we wouldn't of had room, but second and most important, the bread is for the Cuban sandwich tomorrow. You cut the bread like a sub, then stuff it with heated diced pork meat, diced onion, sprinkle a little of that mojo that you see in the picture on it. It is delicioso!!!!! It's like the after Thanksgiving turkey sandwich. You know that's what you'll eat the day after.

This old cast iron kettle is the BOMB for cooking the beans and rice because you cook them in the oven.

Here you have the cuban bread and the mojo. Mojo is the marinade used on the pork. See that humongous avocado that we grow here in Miami? When it ripens we will eat it with the beans and rice. The pork with probably be gone by then. The plantain is also good with this dish.


Take Care and Merry Christmas Eve to All.
Loveee, Joyce

Happy Birthday Tyler

"Tyler"


He is the middle child
Seems almost unfair, and all the while
In the middle of two girls demanding so much attention
He has no choice in the matter, not to mention
He is soft spoken and sentimental and so willing
To help whoever asks him he says okay
I will help you, I'm coming, right away
He wants to be a jet pilot when he grows up
Maybe he'll have all the right stuff!!
But for now he'll grow and learn and see
Watching over his sisters so lovingly
Inside my heart he will always be


By Joyce N. Matta

Doing homework.

Eating my spaghetti. Where have all the meatballs gone???

Oldies But Goodies

These are some very old Christmas decorations that I have had for many years and do not want to part with. When the time comes to bring them out again, year after year, I get a lot of enjoyment and pleasure because they bring with them wonderful memories of past Christmases and family.

Love, Joyce

"The Twelve Days of Christmas"

Every year around this time me and my munchkins (my grands) make four copies of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", and we sing it everyday until we once again memorize every word. We always remember "five golden rings" down to "a partridge in a pear tree", but we forget from "six geese a laying" to "twelve drummers drumming". Anyway, so everyday after school we sing it over and over and over again, in the car all the way home, during and after homework, and mostly the whole afternoon, and our every waking hour until Christmas day. Believe me, by Christmas day we've got it down pat. "And a partridge in a pear tree".............I can't get it out of my head.

Someone is not so happy about the homework, can you tell which one????
I think he'd rather be singing!!!!!

Love, Mimi

Buster & Barbara

"Bucker & Nana"

aka

" Buster & Barbara"

When my parents got on the dance floor I would always stop whatever I was doing and watch them. It was so exciting because "their jitterbug" was so original, it was smooth and sexy and all their own. My dad would twirl my mom around three times and then bring her very close to him, their bodies touching, cheek to cheek. It gave me the chills. They had wonderful rhythm. And you
could see how much they loved each other.

My mom and dad married in Miami in 1950. They both went to Miami Edison Senior High School and my mom is still on the committee of the "Miami Edison Over the Hill Gang". Every two years they have a reunion. They had so many friends and kept in touch with them all their lives, and my mom still does.

My mom, we all call her Nana now, (since that's what the grand kids call her), was always a "housewife" or "homemaker". She never had a job outside of our home, but she worked her little Irish/Italian buns off everyday taking care of my father and me and my two brothers. On many occasions my brothers and I would get home from school and she would be covered head to toe in paint, her long thick black hair covered with a scarf, cooking our supper. She'd done painted practically the whole outside of the house in one day by herself. She could and would do anything around the house. She always had a smile on her face. She is a wonderful mother and was a very good and loving wife to my father for fifty-one years. She hosted elegant parties and family reunions and her decorations were original and beautiful. She could sew anything from her own clothes to draperies. Good manners and etiquette was very important to her. She cooked wonderful meals, mostly southern comfort food, but she is known for her delicious lasagna and spaghetti and meatballs. You could very proudly say she was an all around real woman.

My father worked and supported our family his whole life. Even after his retirement he mowed lawns, and did odd jobs mostly because he couldn't be still. He had to always be doing something. If you complained to him that you had a cold, he would tell you to go out and mow the lawn to sweat it out. He was active in sports all of his life. He was tough but he was gentle and he loved kids. Our house was the one to hang out at because dad made it fun and he played with us. We played softball games, ping pong, basketball, tether ball, football , hide and seek, billiards, Simon Says, monopoly, Parcheesi, dodge ball, and we also had a tree house that we camped out in at night. He made sure everybody who came to our house had a good meal. You could very proudly say he was an all around real man.

Thanks for the memories, your daughter, Joyce