So many of you have been using my cookbook and sending me delicious pictures.  I LOVE getting them!  I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you.

Our friends Bernie and Linda sent the picture of the cookbook, earmarked with all of the recipes they wanted to try!!  AND, they have been cooking and cooking…… The votes are in and they win the award for having cooked the most recipes in the cookbook.  Just below is a picture of them enjoying the Pueblo Indian Pork Shoulder, followed by a great photo of Chicken Milanese they prepared.  We have a new, third edition of the cookbook as a prize for them.

I don’t think our friend Mark ever made a pizza from scratch before he received the cookbook.  Now, he is un grande pizzaiolo (a grand pizza maker), making 6 pizzas at a time!  He fills the refrigerator with balls of pizza dough!  I hope he won’t ask his wife Linda if he can buy a refrigerator to put in the garage to store his pizza dough!  As un grande pizzaiolo, he also will receive a copy of the third edition of the cookbook.

Our daughter-in-law Tammy has been helping out home schooling her grandson.  She has been cooking with him as part of his lessons.  Here is a picture of the next master chef, Ben, making ravioli.  He also loves to bake and has perfected bread and pizza and even gnocchi.

We mailed a copy of the cookbook to Pamela Lenzi at Fattoria di Petroio in Tuscany, where delicious wines and other products are made (www.fattoriapetroio.com ).  A long-time friend, who is originally from Seattle, Pamela sent us the most wonderful basket of delicious products including flour and pasta made from wheat grown on the farm and olive oil made from their olive trees.  Such a treat!

This picture was sent to me by Sonia, a dear friend of my Mom’s – she had just made ravioli using my Mom’s recipe.  My Mom will be 101 years old in October.  I truly believe her love of cooking and, of course, feeding people is why she has lived such a long and healthy life.  It brought her joy to have a houseful or people to cook for.  She loved baking and cooking for neighbors, new friends, and church functions.

Missa loves to bake.  She and Lisa work together and are quite the team!  The Trifle Dish she used for the Tiramisù is just perfect and so elegant. Next, the three of us making Cassata while enjoying a little vino.

Our son Scott and wife Tammy use the cookbook a LOT.  Here, we are making pizza together.

I have so many more pictures to share and I hope you will keep sending new ones my way.  I will plan to include them now and then in the blog.

Nothing connects people like food.  Cooking is not about being the best or most perfect cook.  It is about getting together with family and friends, laughing, talking, sharing old memories and making new ones. 

Food is who we are – where we came from and where we’ve been.  The food we grew up eating reflects our culture and heritage and creates family memories.  The places we’ve traveled, the people we meet and the food we eat along the way forge new relationships and memories and make us hungry for more! 

Keep cooking!  CinCin!