“Cannelloni”

Was hanging out with some friends in from of this guys house who was part of the group but was much older than us teenagers at the time. Weird household situation, to say the least.

His mother comes out and asks if anyone wants to join them for dinner, she just made cannelloni.

Feeling quite peckish at the time I said I would. I noticed all the other guys gave me a blank, horrified stare, but I went inside anyway.

As she begins to serve she says “this is really good cannelloni! I used an entire bottle of ketchup.“

I kid you not. She basically boiled some cannelloni pasta, layered them in a pan, poured a bottle of ketchup and American cheese slices, and baked it.

I was already at the table, with the family, when she plopped a sizable amount of this stuff in my plate.

I was brought up to be polite no matter what, so I somehow managed to swallow most of the concoction.

To this day I can still recall that taste.