My Biggest Family Secret

This is so sweet. I don’t have any living grandparents, and haven’t for many years. I wish I could have had more moments like you have, cherish them!

This is a really beautiful video, PJ. Thanks to you and granddad for sharing. I also love learning about greetings in different cultures. Its beautiful to see what a community of people say or do to say "hello". In my religion, Sikhi, we often say "Sat Sri Akaal" to each other in the Panjabi language, which in English means, essentially, "truth is the eternal wealth", or "truth is the timeless One".

oh boy i cried a lot watching this video and remembering my grandma, miss her :(

I still make Funfetti cake mix cookies because of my grandma :)
And I already know my "thing" to pass down is going to be cornbread xD

I recently got to sit with my grandma and record her stories, she's 92 and this video gave me the same warm feeling that sitting with her gives me. sending much love to you and your grandad

This was such a lovely video

I loved this video 🥲
I've been baking since I was a teen & have a lot of recipes like this, I always wonder what might be passed on when I have kids in the future. Also need to learn my granny's trifle recipe, she does it every Xmas & I look forward to it all year 🥰

the possibility of evil hater pj

RECIPE:

5 Eggs
550g Flour
300ml Neutral Oil (I used canola)
324g Sugar
1.5oz Brandy

Bake at 350F/176C for 25 minutes

Incredible beautiful video. Thank you for sharing with us.

Thank you for making this. my nanna and I used to do all the Christmas baking together but she stopped cooking a few years ago and this brings back memories of us in the kitchen together 💗🥺

My dad’s been a baker since he was 16. He’s taught me everything I know how to make. But nothing will ever taste as good as the way he makes it. It’s made with soul and love and nothing can recreate that

Lovely storytelling, PJ :)

Beautiful

my nonno responds the same way when he doesn’t hear/understand what i’ve said. the exact ‘hehehe’

extremely wholesome i loved this slice of life introspective type video
your grandad really made me chuckle as did your reflections
ps
all of these years pj's been on a quest to understand fashion, and i must say, you're really killing it in these clips, i mean a dnd christmas jumper and that awesome red and black skull jacket?!?! totally sick
anywho, thanks for sharing

i loved seeing this and your reflections. reminded me of my grandpa who also moved to the uk from italy as a young man and we always did the same greeting

PJ's heart-to-hearts are one of my favourite elements of his channel.

My grandad used to make a pineapple soda drink. I don’t like fuzzy drinks but that’s the only one I always had when I came over because he had his own soda machine and was so excited to make some for us

this is such a beautiful video PJ :)) i really wish i'd done the same thing with my grandma's recipes a few years ago, but we lost her so unexpectedly when i was 16 that i never got the chance. thank you for showing such appreciation for grandparents ❤❤❤

my grandma (who immigrated from Italy to Canada as a young girl), wanted all her amazing recipes to die with her, so she refused to teach them to anyone or write them down. Her pizza was my favourite food of hers though. I remember her teaching me to make her pizza when I was a child, and I said something like,
“Why are you showing me if you don’t want people to know?”
And she said, “You’re 6, you won’t remember.”
She was right, I don’t remember the recipe lol, but I’m glad I remember cooking with her :) and that memory still makes me laugh

"how long do we bake them?"
"Till they're ready" 💀

The handwritten recipe at the end is the gem for me. Elders are archives. Lovely.

Just the kind of wholesome video I needed!

Growing up (especially during Brexit) I used to really hate being different and having different traditions and way of doing things. But now my god I love our culture and language so much, it’s so precious🇮🇹❤️

crying sobbing

i love grandparents and their recipes and how sweet they are! hes such a sweet wholesome old man

I think your granddad thing would be stories, looking back when I was younger, I always held on for dear life of the stories that my grandparents or ants and uncles told me

This video made me cry. The homely feel is so present, thank you for what you do!

every time your grandad hehe'd, i cried 🥹 reminded me of my grandma who was italian too and she sadly passed away last year :( cherish all the moments you have with him, encourage and appreciate his italian heritage, and enjoy those wonderful looking biscuits ♡

The sweetest thing 🥹🥹🥹 grandparents are so special and your grandad seems like such a character. And your exactly right we should cherish every moment we have with them ❤️

What a sweet video! Your grandad seems lovely. I'm taking a trip in a couple weeks to visit family, this video made me realize I should take time to talk to my grandpa more! He just turned 76 I believe, and the way your grandad was saying bye to you reminded me a lot of my Abuelito.

This is so wholesome and sweet, makes me so sad that I never got to know my Nonno 😭this is so lovely.

This is so similar to a project I've wanted to do with my grandmother for such a long time and I'm so glad you took the time to make this with your grandad, its so beautiful! I cried when he gave you the measuring mug

My grandpa was a great baker himself. Thanks for this PJ, this was really sweet

Ti raccomando falli bene 😭😭 thank you for sharing these moments!

SORRY for the super long comment, I don't anticipate anyone reading it, it's more for myself to express the feelings this video brought up of my own italian heritage!

I don't really classify myself as having Italian heritage, despite my great-grandmother being Italian. I don't have any cultural connection to Italy, no family traditions passed on, and not a single relative in the UK who can speak Italian, asside from a great-great uncle (he is 100 years old!).

My grandad's mother, her 3 older siblings and dad came over from Italy as mosaic layers and laid the original frieze at St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church in East London.

They were extremely poor, receiving his breakfast (a raw turnip or carrot) given as charity by a local greengrocer. my grandad always tells us how he was bullied in school for being Roman Catholic, along with some Jewish kids he befriended. He was a child through WW2 and his mum refused to have him and his sister evacuated, so they hid them at home and when the Priest came over they would have to hide under the bed so they wouldn't get caught.

Their home was bombed out and they had to stay with his aunt until his mum found somewhere else to live. Her dad at that point couldn't walk and when the air raids would happen they would have to leave him in the home while they went to the bomb shelter or nearest underground station (you had to book a place to be able to shelter at the station). The men of my grandad's family were all in the military previous to WW2, but were removed from service due to their Italian heritage. They narrowly avoided internment by the UK government as his family had married into a British and Irish family, and had been naval officers. Many people (normal civilians), Italians and Anglo-germans (some Jewish refugees) were essentially imprisoned and sent to internment camps across the UK and other countries.

----------- Side story about Internment -----------

The church I mentioned has a memorial for the sinking of a boat carrying 734 Italian men, 479 German men, 86 prisoners of war, 200 UK military guards and 174 crew members. They were headed to a Canadian internment camp. It was sunk after barely leaving, and had sunk in just an hour.
The shortage of lifeboats, the lack of boat drills and the use of barbed wire around the boat deck all contributed to the terrible death toll. Deaths among the Italian refugees were particularly high probably because many were middle-aged or elderly, housed in the lower parts of the ship and unable to reach the open decks. The boat was called the SS Arandora Star if you want to read more. Over half of the dead were Italians. The few Italians who survived where then sent away again to sea, some later detailing how they were abused by military personnel on the overcrowded Dunera ship, where they had their possessions stolen, made to walk over broken glass to exercise for max 10 mins a day. Theres loads more about this online if you are interested. They were sent to Melbourne, where the first Australian army officer on board saw the conditions and reported this, which still only led to 3 people being reprimanded, the worst punishment being 1 year in prison and being discharged from the forces. The ill and starving prisoners were then sent by train to a town near sydney where they set up a town and were treated much better, later classified as 'friendly aliens'. Most returned to the UK eventually, to their families.

-------------------------------------------

Sadly, my grandad's mum died shortly after the war ended after getting TNT poisoning from working in a munitions factory. This causes liver toxicity and she developed cancer (though it's not certain if it is 100% linked, she was already very sick when the leukemia began). After she died, my grandad (12 at the time) was left to look after his younger sister and baby brother while staying with his grandmother who was a cruel woman, married to his Italian grandad who died around the same time as his daughter. She gave the baby minimal care, leaving my grandad and his sister alone. This continued until his dad eventually returned, finally able to leave the army. However, he was now a single parent. He was a dock worker which is a pretty miserable existence, was a drunk and my grandad had to replace his mothers income for them all to live.

Because of all this, my grandad and his siblings cut all contact with our Italian family. He has since reconnected with some cousins and even an aunt who died a few years ago now. My grandad is a typical cockney, with little evidence of his Italian heritage at all. It feels sad for us to not have anything to show of the hardships my great-grandmother and her siblings had as Italian immigrants. We have no connection to the Italian community they joined. In comparison, we have far more connection to the lifestyle of the dockers, and the Irish and Jewish community my grandad grew up in. His mum's story, and those of the Clerkenwell Italian community is not the kind you often hear glamorised to represent hardwork, leading to prosperity and 'good immigrants'. Not really having many stories or traditions from that feels like their struggles are forgotten.

Seeing you being able to continue Italian family traditions has been so heart warming and has brought those stories of my family to the forefront of my mind ☺️💕

Today is a family celebration in my home. I will try to make these biscuits. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

This was such a comforting video, I lost my nan when I was 14 and I miss being able to share my adult life with her. This is such a beautiful way to create and keep memories with your grandad ❤

pj as an italian my grandma makes some very similar biscuits! Also the italian greeting is very important here!

"be good boy/girl" is a classic 😂

thank you for this very sweet video, it reminded me so much of my Nonno and my childhood

this made me miss my grandma to pieces. everyone found her very serious but when we talked on the phone i could make her laugh for hours. i’ll see her again one day and we’ll laugh again

crying i love old people so much

wow, he does not look 94!

ok why am i crying watching pjs video with his grandad thats crazy

this video made me a lot more emotional than I expected <3

As an Italian fan of your channel, this felt so familiar and so different at the same time ❤ Love to see how culture shifts to adapt wherever it goes

im crying so hard rn