Have I mentioned I’m writing a cookbook.  I am, I’m writing a cookbook.  It is a process that started well over a decade ago.  I wanted to give my sister a family cookbook as a gift.  We both love to cook and it just seemed like something she would really like.  So, I started asking my parents and aunts for family recipes and collecting them.  Recipes that were traditions in the fabric of our youth.

Over the years it continued to evolve until one day I decided to write a real cookbook to share with the world.  As you might guess, the cookbook is based heavily on family recipes.

The process has turned out to be much more involved than I could have imagined.  Everything takes 10 times longer than I think it is going to but, it is also so much fun!  I’m getting together with my family who are so generously sharing their secrets with me.

Here is a snapshot of the first official meeting with my Aunt May; I was learning how to make her Lemon Caper Pasta.  The cookbook would not exist without her because not only did she pass down my Grandma Inchiostro’s recipes but contributed so many of her own.

My girls and I got together with my Great Aunt Helen and she shared her Scaccia (pronounced “scotch-a”) recipes with me.  She is 97 years old and she rocks! Without a doubt the youngest 97 year old on the planet.  And the scaccia…. AMAZING!  I still need to practice a few more times but it is coming along.

I tested out another recipe while making it with my kids, niece and younger cousins.  So much fun!  And, learned a valuable lesson that I need to distinguish between which sugars are mixed with cinnamon when making Monkey Bread.  My instructions were lacking.

So, when the cookbook becomes available it will be filled with family secrets and have a heavy Italian influence.  Creating it is my honor, privilege… obsession really.  I want everyone to feel the passion I do when they step into the kitchen.  This cookbook will be a little different than any you have seen before and I can’t wait to share it with you one day (hopefully) soon.

As I was working on the book I realized how many dishes I make that seem like family staples.  The only problem is that they didn’t come from my family.  They are meals in our regular rotation and so normal for us it seem like they have been around forever.  When I was getting ready to put them in the cookbook I realized- I didn’t come up with this; I got it out of a magazine (or off the internet, or from a cooking show… you get the point).  Even though I almost always adapt the recipes as I am making them I still can’t claim to have created them.  Therefore, I can’t include them in the cookbook.  And that my friends was the birth of this blog.  There are so many amazing recipes out there that shockingly didn’t originate in my family.

So stay tuned for more delicious recipes from so very many sources.  And I will update you when the cookbook is getting closer to completion.  In completely related news… the girls go back to school in 3 weeks!