'Tis the season for food, family and friends. WNYC's community partnerships desk is asking New Yorkers to share stories behind their favorite family recipes and the memories they bring to life. We talked to Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons as part of a collaboration with the Queen's Memory Project. Fitzsimmons lives in Astoria, Queens.
The transcript of Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons' story has been lightly edited for clarity.
Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons:
I'm 47 years old, and I live in Astoria, Queens. Even though my last name is Fitzsimmons, my mother is Sicilian. I grew up much more with the Italian culture and traditions, and I always think of what my mom calls Vinulati (what also might be known as Struffoli), which I don't know the proper spelling of. But it's these little, tiny dough balls. So, you would make a big mound of dough and then roll them out into little, almost like worm-like shapes, cut them up into little nuggets, and kind of fry them up. Then pile them all in a plate, and you cover them with honey, and then bits of chocolate and bits of nuts, and little, tiny rainbow sprinkles. I both loved it because I love the process, but I also thought they were kind of gross. It just would stick together and get really hard to pull them apart, but it's something I always associated with Christmas. Just the activity of making them, and my mom used to always kind of slap my hand away because I just wanted to eat the toppings instead of putting them on top.
What made me think of the Venulati is I think it's more important, kind of the preparation or bringing people together with the food than the product itself. I mean, those are the ones that are always the most important to me. There was something about it; even though it was never my favorite thing to eat, it took all of us to make, and so that was kind of a way to bring the family together and to do something together.
My parents are older, so they have a harder time kind of joining in on all of that, and I think a lot of times we imagine that if you can't do all of it, you shouldn't do any of it. I was thinking how the really hard, laborious part was making the dough and cutting them into the pieces, and if we did all that and brought it over that, my parents might have fun doing the toppings, and that might be a way to find that middle ground. So, you don't have to let go of everything, every family tradition, even though Christmas this year isn't going to be like other years, it makes me feel like I'm able to give them back a little bit of the past.