He Ain't Heavy (He's My Brother)

The time had come. M, P's brother was to leave for France to continue his studies and whatever else it is he's doing within the Catholic order. He came a few years ago, new to New York and even lived with us for a year. We had so many great times with him here. And we began our journey at the Savoia Restaurant on Smith Street, where we welcomed him and shared the best brick oven pizza and appetizers.

It became a bit of a tradition to come to this inviting, warm spot to talk and share with M. This time it was to be the last time. For a very long while at least if ever again.

M's super easy to be around and doesn't like speaking much about himself so thoughts and conversation always seem to drift back to us. As a matter of fact M himself might have a gift of mirroring as I call it. Instead of ever being able to focus on him, he always mirrors your self image back to you. It's kind of incredible. As if to say whatever questions you're looking for in him, you need to find in yourself. It's brilliant actually and true. But in addition to that M is a funny, interesting, smart genuine human being that is the best pizza eating partner.

We had three pizza's, the Quattro Stagioni - tomato sauce, mozzarella, artichokes, black olives, ham, mushrooms,the Paesana - tomato sauce, mozzarella, sausage scallions, black olives and roasted peppers and the Krotone-tomato sauce, hot soppressata, spinach, mushrooms, onion and mozzarella. These were great! But the real stars that night for me was the appetizer, the Mushroom And Fontina Cheese Bruschette. And the dessert which I can't remember the names now but the white one was one of those roll-your-eyes-back-its-so-good type desserts. I blacked out a second during the conversation falling completely in love with this cream, dreamy combo. The little cookies on the side MUST have been made from the gods. A fitting Bon Voyage for M.

Kid you good lookin' but you don't know what's cookin' until you Mambo Italiano!

A serious migraine kidnapped my head this week so today I was just happy to be up and not feeling the crushing debilitating pain and nausea. I considered cutting my own head open for relief. Exedrin usually helps a lot but this time it just left me with a caffeine stomach and the jitters. But last night I slept well and to top it off the weather was sunny and crisp, a beautiful fall day! P had the Ryder Cup and wasn't even trying to irritate me all morning. These are the days. These are the times when life makes a lot of sense to me. The neighborhood feels alive in a positive way and for some reason I won't research too far, I do too.

Italian was on the brain because P kept talking about the Molinari brothers and how much he liked them. Plus in classic golf goofball style they played 'Mambo Italiano!' when they did their little story clip montage. I love to watch golf but the guys behind the scenes are a bunch of sentimental old fools, always tugging at the heartstrings with their back stories. What a crock! I think the brothers lost the last two holes to Zach Johnson and Mahan though.

I wanted breakfast to have some spunk so I went for an Italian pizza inspired omelet. Fresh basil, pepperoni, red peppers and mushrooms laid the bed for some mozzarella cheese and then I topped it with some diced tomatoes dressed in oregano and salt. Surprisingly special! Crappy picture though sorry!