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…
This is a re-post of a blog from 2014. The year I started blogging…so Happy Anniversary to me! And thank you to my friend, Linda Friday, who beat me into submission so I would start blogging. I’ve loved sharing my memories and hope you’ve enjoyed them too. A Series of Unfortunate Trees I’ve spent the last week running around furiously trying to get all my shopping done and…
Need something healthy, delicious, inexpensive and easy to make as an appetizer for Thanksgiving? I’m going to say hummus, and you’re going to yawn and say, “Yeah, big deal, I can buy that at the store.” But you will be oh so wrong. You can get it, but it won’t be nearly as good as the recipe I’m about to share. Trust me, I used to buy Sabra…