oh, are you of italian descent? when i lived on long island, an italo-american friend always bemoaned the way her mother would do the full turkey dinner PLUS lasagne, insisting that my friend have seconds on every darn thing. then she'd pick on her for gaining weight. ah, how i love italians.

biscotti, mmmm. i have to dunk them in something, though, as my teeth aren't as invulnerable as they used to be!

My ancestry is northwest European, with Scottish and German predominating. The German-Swiss part of the family lived along one of the main routes to Italy, though, so I can't discount the possibility of the occasional Italian merchant (or mule driver) behind the woodshed.

But in California spaghetti is so well entrenched in the regional cuisine that it's considered as American as tamales or chow mein. We had quite a few Italian neighbors when I was a kid, too, so I'm familiar with mangia, mangia!