I see that when people in America say, "Watch the paint dry" it is a bad thing, or boring. Right? In Italy the same saying means something completely different. Here it means, "To take the time to see how things change". By carefully watching you can learn great things. Perhaps your saying, "take the time to smell the flowers" is very much alike?

My grandfather, Egidio, he was a great sausage maker. He wasn't always good at making the sausage, but by the time I had the tooth, he make the best sausage. My grandfather, would sit for many hours in the smokehouse watching and experimenting with sausage. Over the years, he would try different proportions of meat, fat, spices,seasoning and types of wood for the smoke.

Sometimes, I would try to visit him. I would knock on the door and ask if I could have some sausage. He would say,  "Go away Lucia. I'm busy with my sausage. I will bring some for lunch".
Almost everyday, we had the best sausage.  Egidio, he bought some oak barrels from Giovanni, the wine maker. Inside he put in lard that he rendered from many years of sausage making. He then packed it with his prize winning dried sausage, sealed the lid and dated it.

My best friend was my grandfather, while he never let me watch as he played with the sausage, he took time to make sure I had the right proportions of good, bad , humor, humility and respect for others. I always make the laugh, when he say to me, "Lucia you got the nice sausage". I know, you thinking he was saying my penis. Yes, he was, but he was a nice old man.

As you might guess, Egidio died. Some of the people joked, "He spent so much time in the smokehouse, Egidio would make the best sausage. Today my girls and I removed the lid from the wine barrels. I removed an old dry sausage from the lard. My girls they scream and run away.

I tasted the sausage and it was incredible. Most dry sausage is stringy, this was soft while the casing had a snap to it. Tonight I will slice and make the pizza, from grandfather's sausage.