It's October already. I will tell you what I do the most times in October, November and December. I go shopping for birthday cards. I go shopping to get birthday cards four or five times each month. Two-thirds of my family must have been born in these three months. The rest of the months, I go one or two times here and there. I never paid attention to that before. Some are even in the same week.

When I was a teenager, I suddenly noticed whenever anyone would ask my mom how old she was, she always said 29. She never felt it was anyone's business how old she was.

Finally, when I became 29, was married and had already had two children, I asked my mom, “Now that I'm 29, could you please say you are 39?” If anyone asked my aunt Mindy, who was her twin, she would say, “ask Mary,” 'cause she didn't want my mom to get mad from telling their real age.

I might have mentioned this before, but my dad never knew the date of his birth except for the year. His mom died when he was born, and his father died when he was 2, so he was raised by the women in his village in Greece. His brother brought him to American when he was about 12. We always celebrated his birthday on Feb. 22. We were celebrating his birthday one year after I was already an adult and that's when he told us he never knew the real date.

I said, “but daddy, we've always though Feb. 22 was your birthday.” He told us that when he was coming through customs, and they asked him for a date; he told them Feb. 22.

I asked how come that's what he chose, and he said: “If it was good enough for the first president of the United States, it's good enough for me.”

We certainly laughed over that. Actually, it was pretty amazing that anyone that age could think of that when he wasn't even an American yet.

Some of his stories were great. When he was in his 70s, he was notified he had to take a drivers test because he had never taken one. He had his license, which was legal. I asked him how he had gotten one.

When he told us, it was unbelievable. When he lived in Erie, he owned a restaurant there and went to buy his first car. He went to the car dealer, bought a car and the dealer made out his license for an additional 25 cent charge. That's how it was done in the early 1920s. Then the dealer showed him how to drive it and gave him the key.

My dad got in the car, and with just one lesson, drove it home. He said it took him a few hours because he would drive a couple of blocks, stop for a bit and then very slowly start again. That to me sounded amazing, but in those days there were not the lanes we have now.

One final family story.

My aunt Mindy and my mom during the depression shared a hostessing job in a restaurant for three years, and the owner never know there were two of them. They looked so much alike no one could tell the difference. Since everyone was paid in cash at that time there was no problem and it gave both of them some money to live on.

Not that mom, dad and my aunts have passed on, I felt some of these stories were great enough to share. I hope you enjoyed them.

Well, it's time to go buy my October cards. Hope you have a healthy, happy October.

My ethnic recipe this week is Greek (surprised?). My other recipe is for peanut butter bread.

Today's blooper:

My blooper this week is about a woman who was dining with an employer who was a female physician who came from another county. They were conversing about a lot of different places they had been and seen. The doctor told her about a place she had been, and it was wonderful. The woman was horrified when she heard it, and said she couldn't believe the doctor had gone there. The doctor was puzzled and could not understand why. The woman said, “I can't believe you went to a topless bar.” What the doctor had said was she had gone to a tapas bar, which in her country is the name of a bar with hor dourves. Accents do make a difference, don't they?

Diana Sobus, of Auburn, specializes in making ethnic foods

Stifado - Onion Stew with Beef

Makes 4 to 6 servings

2-3 pounds lean beef, cut into cubes

4 tablespoons butter

Half a 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

2 pounds small white onions

1 cup walnut halves

Feta cheese, cubed

Brown beef in butter in casserole.

Add remaining ingredients except walnuts and feta cheese.

Bring mixture to boil, cover and simmer until meat and onions are cooked. Add walnuts and feta, cook five minutes more.

Peanut Butter Bread

Makes 1 loaf

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup dry milk powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cups peanut butter

1 egg

1 1/2 cups 2 percent milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, oats, cornmeal, milk powder, sugar and baking powder. Mix well. Using a pastry blender, cut in peanut butter.

Mix together egg and milk. Add to flour mixture. Blend well. Pour into a greased and floured 9- by 5- by 3-inch pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 70 minutes. Cool and remove from pan.