A week ago today, our family laid to rest an awesome and influencial lady- my husband’s grandma, Elvira Cavallari. For fifty two years, her and her husband owned a family-run restaurant in Northfield called The Willow Inn Club. My husband’s family lived above the restaurant and he started setting tables when he was six. His family knows a thing or two about hard work. When I met Elvira thirteen years ago, she told me to call her Grandma so I did. She told my dad, who lost his mom to cancer a while back that he could call her Mom. So he did. That’s just who she was; she accepted everyone and always made us feel comfortable and welcome when we visited her home.
Elvira taught me to make homemade spaghetti, gnocchi, pumpkin bread, sugar coated pecans, Italian chicken with peppers and so many other delicious recipes. Her spirit lives on whenever we make one of them now.
In a way, she inspired me to start this blog. Her recipes were always unique and practically fail proof so I referred to them often when I started writing here just over three years ago.
We miss you Elvira, but we know you are with many of your loved ones and looking out for us down here. Cheers Grandma!