Author Archives: Lorna

Rodeo Bob

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Sunday (6/10/12) we celebrated an early Father’s Day at the Livermore Rodeo. This was Bob’s first rodeo. His favorites event was the barrel racing.

 

Mabel’s Poppy Seed Rolls

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Mabel’s kitchen had the best smells especially on bread and roll baking day. Her poppy seed rolls were the best (with real butter) and we had them each day at 10, 3, and just before bed.

RECIPE:

Ingredients:  2 cups milk, scalded  3 tablespoons sugar  1/4 cup butter  1 teaspoon salt    1 envelope or cake of yeast  1/3 cup lukewarm water  2 beaten eggs  5 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:                                                                                                                    Combine milk, sugar, butter, and salt and stir cool to lukewarm. Soften yeast in lukewarm water and add to milk mixture. Beat in the eggs and add flour gradually. Turn out on a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and not sticky.

Place dough in a buttered bowl, brush with melted butter and cover with a towel. Let rise in a warm place two hours or until double in bulk. Punch dough and roll out with a rolling pin into  1/4-inch-thick 8-inch circles. Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon (9 parts sugar to 1 part cinnamon) Cut into pie-shape wedges. Roll from wide end. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle poppy seeds on top. Cover with a towel and let rise again, 15 or 25 minutes. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Best if eaten with real butter three times a day.

A Story of Bravery

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A Story of Bravery~The Story of Leopolde and His Companions

The story begins in the valley above Introbio, carved  out by the raging Troggio river. Upwards, beyond the mountain tops, lies the Biandino Valley. This is where the resistance was based. This  is the ancient road of Bitto, a strategic position that leads into the Troggio Valley. It was here, at dawn, on October 11, 1944, that Guerino Besana was wounded in a trap set by the nazi-facists. He manages to free himself and laboriously starts to make his way back up the mountain to warn his companions of the imminent danger.

Bessana travels this rocky road, determined to warn his companions. At five in the evening it is here not far from the valley that Bessana’s companions find him dying. There is a cave to the side of the road. Carletto Bessano does not want to leave his brother. He drags him into  the cave and stays at his side until he dies.  As he masks the entrance to the cave, he is surprised by the nazi-facists, is captured, imprisoned and shot the next day.

As we proceed higher up in the valley of Troggia, at the mouth of the Biandino, is this stone and aluminum monument commemorating  the resistance fighters. It reads: Company Garibaldi “Rosselli 55”

The Val Biandino opens upwards to the Troggia Valley. For hundreds of years during peaceful times this was the summer place to pasture animals for the people of Introbio.

 In the valley is the ancient sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna of the Snow. It was destroyed by the nazi-facists on October13, 1944. Immediately after the war it was rebuilt. As we make our way up  there are other shelters used by the resistance. At the beginning of the Val Biandino is the Tavecchia shelter. During the war it was the base for the resistance. As one moves up the valley there are other resistance shelters: St Rita’s, Il Grassi and St Pius X.
 The Tavecchia shelter, destroyed also on October 13, 1944 was rebuiilt after the war. The Pius X shelter was half destroyed by German bombing and then bombed from the ground by the nazi-facists from the Mouth of the biandino.

 This is the tombstone that commemorates where Carletto and five of his companions were shot on October 15, 1944.