Sandra Scalise Juneau photo: CANDRA GEORGE mycreativereality.com
St. Joseph Altar by Karen B. Gibbs Devotee
Saint Joseph Altar, Our Lady of the Lake School, Mandeville, LA, 1987.
Marc Juneau, Michael Mule, Allen Marquez Back row: Sandra Scalise Juneau, Reverend Monsignor Joseph L. Chotin, Gina Wischan, Joan Taravella. 26 Inside Northside
photo courtesy: SANDRA SCALISE JUNEAU
Front row: Greg Harris,
After her husband of 57 years died in 2017, Sandra Scalise Juneau wondered, “What is my life’s purpose now?” Before long, the answer came. Considered an expert on St. Joseph altars, Sandra has traveled the country sharing the history, traditions and foods of this beloved Sicilian custom. At the conclusion of one such presentation to the St. Tammany Council on Aging, the hostess told Sandra about a gathering the next Saturday for those interested in publishing a cookbook. That caught Sandra’s attention. More than once, she had thought about compiling into a cookbook her family’s time-honored recipes. And more than once, life got in the way. “My commitment has always been to my family first, so I tucked away that idea, somehow knowing that when the time was right, it would come together.” Despite a blinding rainstorm, Sandra drove over the Causeway to the event. There, she met Cynthia LeJeune Nobles, editor for LSU Press, with whom she shared her idea for a St. Joseph altar cookbook. That set in motion a flurry of emails between the two in which Sandra detailed her vision for the book. “It would definitely include centuries-old family recipes, vintage pictures and descriptions of altars as I experienced them in a loving Sicilian-Louisiana family. I also wanted to include the history, traditions and religious symbolism of the earliest Sicilian St. Joseph altars.” Meanwhile, Sandra placed her faith in St.
