How I gotten myself here....

Oh where does "this" all begin? I guess I can only say that after coming from a long line of some pretty fabulous cooks {from both sides of my LARGE Italian family tree}, being a person who truly LOVES to eat, and finally having a beautiful family of my own to cook for...I now find myself loving the many adventures of cooking!

It has taken me almost 40 years to get to this wonderful place of where I am currently at in my culinary life, for it has been for many years that I was not the "Most Likely To Succeed" in the kitchen. Lets just say that after moving out of my grandmother's/mother's house at a ripe old age of 24 {and moving a full two states away}, it was only than that I had to learn how to do my own laundry, make my own bed, and yes do my own cooking. I tried, believe me, I tried to channel the great cooks of my ancestral history but I always came up short ~ very short.

After our first daughter was placed into our arms {through the miracle of adoption back in 2005}, I knew that I must try and be the 'best mom' I could be. My grandmother & mom raised me on home cooked meals. Seriously! I had never eaten processed food or sauce from a jar in all my years of living at home. Everything was homemade and I wanted to do the same for our daughter, Francesca and my wonderful husband, Keith. I started out with easy recipes and with a lot of help from my very-talented Italian mom, Elissa. With her patience & amazing ability to make almost everything that touches your mouth delicious ~ and ~ my artistic creativity, our old family recipes started to take on a life of their own.

So it is now that I want to document many of these fabulous recipes I have made/or plan to make over the next several...days, weeks, maybe months or do I dare say it even years to share with my family and friends. I have commented myself to posting one day one recipe that I have shopped for, cooked, and eaten. Even if it is the most simplest combinations of ingredients, I will post it here.