Czech Meatballs

My maternal granny, Veronica Caroline Rovnak, came to the United States in 1902 from what was then called Czechoslovakia. Her village, not much more than a single street dominated by a white clapboard church, sat deep in a leafy green valley. At 17, she married my Italian grandfather in Pennsylvania, and they passed their fiery emotions to my mom and to me. I never learned much of Granny’s personal history, but I liked to make up stories about gypsies and the evil eye. As a teenager, I gave