All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘my book’
Lesson Number 1:
Le presento Nonna~ The New Year has started and we are all in a deep freeze. It is time to warm up with a little video of Nonna. To bring everyone up to speed: Nonna is the grandmother of the family that I lived with in Viterbo, Italy, in 2005 through a university program in Siena (http://www.dantealighieri.com/italian_language_school_viterbo.html). She is the …
The long and winding road~
The book’s the thing… It is cold and rainy here today and I just received my very first rejection from a literary agent—how cliché is that? I am not too concerned about it because it was in response to a “cold call” e-mail query. It was to an agent listed in one of the many “Agents, Publisher, Editors” books I …
Italia or bust…
We’re off on the road to Viterbo~ “Pronto.” Nonna answered the phone this morning when I called the house in Viterbo. Italians do not say “Hello” or “Good Morning” when they answer the phone—they say “Pronto.” It literally translates as “ready.” Hmmm, that doesn’t seem quite right, but that is how the phone is answered. “Pronto” is only used when …
Pasta del giorno…
It is more than just about the food~ For me, cooking has always been about more than just the finished product on a plate. It is about the journey you take while getting to that plate. As a child, my mom got up every morning and cooked my breakfast. Sometimes, it was as simple as pouring cereal into a bowl …
Italy’s most famous dessert~
La Dolce Vita~ The Sweet Life My days lately have been filled with editing the manuscript for the book, which also includes cooking and editing the manuscript’s recipes. There have been several occassions, by the end of the day, when the refrigerator is full of the various, and failed, attempts at a single recipe. Ignoring my German heritage, I truly …
“Beyond the Pasta” takes a step forward~
Biba Caggiano says, “Mark, you have captured the essence of the Italian people.” via biba-restaurant.com “Beyond the Pasta: 28 Days of Recipes, Language, and Life with an Italian Family” is a labor of love for me at the moment. The book is a travelogue/memoir/cookbook with each “chapter” being a daily entry based on the e-mails I sent home from Viterbo …
“All it takes is some flour and a couple of eggs…”
“There is nothing as simple as, or more difficult than, the beginning.”~ Starting something completely new is never easy. There is the fear of not getting it “exactly” right or not meeting expectations. For the longest time I was terrified to make pasta. What can be so complicated about some flour and a couple of eggs? Nothing. But after a …
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A little birdie told me:
