I’ve been promising this Snickerdoodle recipe for weeks. Sorry it’s taken so long…but when you get back from a vacation you need an additional week to be a slug, and get over the time difference. (I was in Iceland – it is unbelievably gorgeous!) Then a few days to catch up on laundry, mail and email. Plus, I’ve been in book mode every day, all day trying to…
Thank GOD! I can finally breathe. Kirkus reviewed both my audiobook and the paperback of Come on Down! A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream and gave both what I consider a ringing endorsement! Now you people in the above photo can proudly say, “Hey I read it and it really didn’t stink!” In the publishing world, a good review gives you credibility, which then gives…
On Saturday I attended my very first Author event at the Northland Public Library. It was fun meeting people and getting to read a few chapters from my humorous memoir, Come on Down! A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream. It was a little surreal being in front of a room like Jenny Lawson, or David Sedaris or Dave Barry, people who’ve made their living as…
I was in my bathroom, naked when the phone rang. I was in disbelief when he said who he was. Conan was lovely, telling me how much he enjoyed my book and wanted to have me on his podcast, Conan O Brien Needs a Friend. We chatted for about five minutes, then he said he’d have someone get back to me to schedule. To all my followers in…
Today I was going through old blogs I never posted and found one about an evening in 2012 I still remember clearly. It was an ordinary evening, but it stuck in my mind because every so often, those are the best evenings. Here’s what I wrote: You know, sometimes we sit around the table and talk; lingering because we’ve eaten too much and can only be moved by…
The wait is over! If you’ve put off buying gifts because everything at the mall costs eight billion dollars, here’s your chance to make up for it. Come On Down! A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream, is now out as an audiobook and available to order! (The paperback and ebook should be out in January – sorry to make you wait book lovers.) Ordering is…
Well, I’ve gone and done it now. I just recorded the audiobook for “Come On Down! A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream.” Lucent Audio, run by my friend, Jeff Guillot is producing it! This brings me one step closer to getting the book published, at least in audiobook form, which I think/hope will be a fun listen for you. I just spent two days recording…
I met Roger (my ex-husband) 40 years ago this month. He took me to a Thai restaurant and said, “You have to try the coconut chicken soup.” Being a sheltered Italian from Pittsburgh, I turned up my nose and thought, Yuck. Then I tasted it and lost my mind it was so good. So, thank you Roger for that…and the three kids. The kids and soup were totally…
It’s amazing how much a reasonably confident bread baker can learn by screwing up a recipe. This week was a learning experience for me after attempting my mother’s scrawled Easter Bread recipe. I learned: Once it finally rose, my mom’s bread looked pretty good. I was feeling very positive, but was still concerned because I’d never used her recipe before. So, I decided to make that Finnish Spring…
“We were so poor, I was lucky if I got an orange on Christmas,” my father always told me. He seemed to marvel at his good fortune, via hours of bricklaying work, to be able to give his four kids gifts on Christmas. I never thought twice about getting any toy I saw repeatedly advertised on Saturday morning cartoons. I started begging for my desired prize months ahead…