Friday Evening: Creating La Dolce Vita, one bite at a time is not just a cook book, it is a guide to a new way of approaching food, its preparation, and the way we eat. It is also a wonderful guide to getting back to the basics of food. Certainly not easy, but overwhelmingly fulfilling.
I shudder to think of the amount of prepackaged food I buy and I am someone who works hard to buy all-natural, organic food. That still doesn’t mean it is all good for you. Why is it that I feel better about myself when I buy organic boxed-pasta? It’s organic, it must be healthier, right? No. I realized after reading this book that I desperately need to get to know my ingredients again and to remind myself that often, the best way to prepare food is to use simple, basic, and most importantly, fresh local ingredients.
Michele Carbone, the author, lives La Dolce Vita in Santa Barbara, California with her husband and two daughters. After her daughter Kristin’s catastrophic brain injury in 1996, her life in the fast lane came to a screeching halt. Her career ended, and life in the slow lane became the norm. Throughout the sleepless nights, days of therapy, and slow rehabilitation, her life’s priorities changed. Her love of cooking and eating sustained her creative urges and became the catalyst for a transformation into a new, simpler, and more rewarding culinary lifestyle, based on using recently harvested local seasonal foods.
From the book jacket:
“Michele reveals to us her techniques for shopping, taking advantage of fresh seasonal produce, equipping a kitchen and producing authentic meals the Italian way. Her seasonal menus and humorous stories will inspire you to begin your own culinary journey. Michele reminds us that the most important aspect of living is Friday Evening with la cucina e la famiglia!”
I’m not sure if I can do this book justice, but I can promise you this: if you know someone that loves to cook or someone that is an aspiring cook, this would make a fantastic, inspiring gift. You can’t go wrong, the book also happens to be absolutely beautiful and would look great on a coffee table! Find it here.
Filed under: Budgeting, Organization, recipes | Tagged: budgets, home, Moms, Organization, recipes | 7 Comments »