Your French aunt dodging German Stuka bombs, an older brother having visions of the Angel of Death, the Ku Klux Klan burning crosses in front of Grandfather's house, your father, a mob member attacking innocent Jews, and your own experience with another mob, the American Mafia. Family stories are rich and varied and become family legacies, noble treasures that honor family name and history. But what of stories that do not honor or salute family heritage? What of these stories that tell it like it was, unpolished and rough? Stories that honestly tell the truth. Experiencing two World Wars, one Cold War, an immigrant Odyssey, learning and becoming proud American citizens, the actors and characters survived to tell their stories in warm kitchens where they gathered each Christmas. This collection of warm kitchen stories relates their stories, connecting the rich and often bloody history of "Old Country" Eastern Europe with the new World of 20th and 21st Century America.