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This tape recorder was Angelo Solera’s friend and confidant on a 400-mile pilgrimage across Spain. We hear the tapes, and the story behind the journey, this week on The Signal

“The year that I spent in Spain was like being born again. I learned from the pilgrimage that the path is already there… all you have to do is to keep walking.”
-Angelo Solera

Angelo Solera ran away from an abusive home in Spain and found his way to America. He got married here in Baltimore and became a father. Then came a divorce, and Angelo found himself sinking into an abyss of cocaine addiction. Five long years later, he finally got clean. Along the way, he started his own Spanish-language addiction recovery group. From there, Angelo became a political activist for the rights of Latinos in Baltimore, and he eventually made a run for city office. But after a failed campaign came a sense of disillusionment. So Angelo left behind his life in America. He went home to Spain and set out on a soul-searching pilgrimage. He walked alone for hundreds of miles, with only a tape recorder to keep him company. We hear about Angelo’s life, his struggles, and his transformative journey, this week on The Signal.

Angelo wrote a book about his life and his pilgrimage. It’s called “The Journey” – check it out at www.angelosjourney.com

Uncle Doran of the Parsons Family prepares a batch of biscuit dough while The Signal’s Aaron Henkin keeps a safe distance

***THE SIGNAL AIRS FRIDAYS AT NOON & 7 P.M. ON 88.1 WYPR***

(Click here for mp3’s of some recent stories from the show. And PODCASTERS, click here for a link to subscribe to The Signal’s weekly podcast.)

Three stories to help ring in the holiday season!

• A visit to the home of the Parsons family to witness an annual tradition that’s been passed down through the generations for more than a century – the making of “Maryland Beaten Biscuits”
• Writer Rafael Alvarez shares a holiday story about Aunt Lola’s kitchen, a place where the aroma of fresh-baked cookies evokes powerful memories of Christmas past
• And storyteller Therese Lynch recounts an ill-fated Christmas ten years ago when her boyfriend met her family for the first time – and everything went as wrong as it possibly could. Therese told her story in front of a live audience as part of the Baltimore storytelling series The Stoop.

Young Erin learns family secrets from veteran biscuit-rollers Christine and Theresa

After being beaten, the biscuit dough’s density approaches that of a neutron star

After 20 minutes in a hot oven, the biscuits come out golden brown

Have a glass of milk or water on hand when you try one of these!

Here’s the recipe for Rafael Alvarez’s Highlandtown Pizzelles:

“In my story, Basilio figures out a way to work the pizzelle iron himself, but it can be pretty difficult. Two people are really needed when an old-fashioned iron is in play. As for finding such an iron, try eBay or antiques stores in neighborhoods that were once Italian strongholds. New-fangled electric pizzelle irons are easy to find at Bed, Bath & Beyond or any housewares store.” —RA

6 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons oil of anise
1/2 tablespoon lemon extract
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups sifted flour

Mix eggs, vegetable oil, anise and lemon extract in a deep pot or bowl. Thoroughly mix in the sugar with an electric mixer, adding flour gradually for proper consistency, which should be thick like dough— not like batter.
Drop a dollop of dough molded into a sphere roughly the size of a golf ball into the center of the hot open iron. Close the handles of the iron and hold them tightly together for about the time it takes to say a quick “Hail Mary”— perhaps 20 seconds, or so. Then turn the iron onto the other side and repeat the process. After 20 seconds, open the iron and pluck the cookie by the edges with the tines of a fork.

Hint: Dribble a little oil over the dough in the pot every now and then to keep it moist and to prevent it sticking to the iron, which will ruin the cookie. Makes approximately 7 dozen cookies.