Pot o' Sauce Sunday- The Tradition Continues

Growing up, we ate our way through special events and if there wasn't a special event, we'd find some type of fun food to celebrate nothing. I remember coming home from school and smelling something delicious coming out of the oven as we walked up the street. Christmas meant lasagna, Easter meant fastnachts on Shrove Tuesday, and birthdays meant that the one celebrating got to pick what was for dinner. Those were all great but I think my favorite food tradition was spaghetti on Sundays. Mom would make up a mammoth pot of sauce using Grandma Anzalone's special recipe. Sunday at mass, the invitation would go out to anyone that wanted to join us for Sunday dinner. Each time it was a slightly different crowd though over the years some got so accustomed to it that they came with no invitation needed.

Last fall, I went to the church women's retreat. I didn't really know anyone very well yet and I was longing to build relationships. That fit well with the topic for the retreat which was all about building relationships and encouraging one another. We talked about all the excuses we come up with for never having anyone in our home. During one of those discussions I remembered Mom's pot of sauce and how much it meant to our family and to our church family. I told a few ladies that I would continue that tradition and call it Pot o' Sauce Sunday. Two weeks ago I finally got all my ducks in a row, ignored all the reasons not to do it, and invited the Mote family to dinner. It was a blast! The cool part was that my friend, Leslie Mote, was on that retreat and knew all about my plans for getting to know more families at church. Now my only frustration is finding enough open Sunday evenings to have people over.