Mike, glad you joined in the mid-March cooking good times at the home of Karl and Sherry in Herndon. And every one of my U.S. cooking classes aims at uniting “food, fellowship and fun” as you so aptly put it in your very appreciated note to me: “Thanks for wonderful food, fellowship and fun! ….fabulous…
Anna (born in Abruzzo), co-host with Andy of my Bethesda cooking class, brought such joy with her note to me, post-cooking class: “Spettacolare! Enjoyed every minute. From an Italian-born sister (who thought your menu was too elementary..) The food was spectacular but better yet, YOU were the best surprise! Famiglia, amore e abbondanza.” Yes, family,…
Kathy, Steve – and daughter, Carolyn – hard to believe that this was the sixth time commemorating our time together in Umbria through cooking up Umbrian rural goodness. From the astounding floral carpets in Spello years ago to yet another memorable cooking class united in your Washington apartment: our links remain. Kathy, thanks for your…
Leslie and Ted, my final February/March U.S. tour stop – always Washington, D.C. – is sparked each year with a few highlights: cooking together with you two, appassioned Italophiles, is always one. From the Italian handcrafts and art in your home, to the cooking group name tags (with a Naples Bay scene painted by Leslie)…
Elizabeth and Brian, mille grazie for hosting such an enthusiastic, united cooking crew in Fairfax, VA! Elizabeth, you had savored (with your mother) Umbrian rural life and cuisine during my Rural Life Revisited tour some years ago. Glad to reconnect and bring to life Umbrian goodness in your kitchen. Kathy and sisters, daughters, wonderful to…
Sharing food is always communion. Ironically, the day after a “cooking communion” with family and new friends in Madison, Wisconsin, my note on food as communion came out in Italian Notebook. Lisa and Suzanne, mille grazie for bringing such a warm and welcoming group together (including my brother, Bill!) to cook up Umbrian rural goodness.…
Cooking with the TEMPO women in Madison, Wisconsin is always a joy: and this year, too. (Our third or forth year, signore?) What lively chatter and interaction as we cooked in a “dream of a kitchen” – and afterwards at table as each woman shared with me tidbits on their lives and professions. What a…
Cooking together always forms links. In Milwaukee, our cooking class in the Milwaukee Catholic Home kitchen, connected various generations of students of DSHA, my own Milwaukee high school (at that time, Holy Angels Academy). Certainly appropriate to re-connect with others from DSHA cooking up Italian: the seeds were planted there with an excellent academic education.…
I sometimes wonder if the hosts booking my cooking classes have any doubts about the good times we’ll have cooking Umbrian rural cuisine together? Now I know for sure that guests might: a guest of Denver cooking hosts Susan and Paul, Clif, was dubious. But he changed this mind: “..was not so sure about this…
A stop in Denver nearly always includes a “cooking reunion” with Steve and Donna, their family and friends. Third time around this year. Our first meeting? During their year-long stay with family in Assisi five years ago. We shared so many Umbria “memorable moments”: the Trevi celery festival, Assisi’s wondrous medieval May festival, Calendimaggio ..and…