One of my biggest dreams in life is to write my own cookbook. I would title it, From Nonna’s Hands: Four Generations of Passionate Cooking (or something like that at least!). Tracing the recipes through my mother’s bloodline, I would start with the most traditional recipes belonging to my great-grandmother, a woman who, unfortunately, I never knew. I will move then to my grandmother, my nonna, who grew up in a time of constant struggle between “becoming” American and holding onto a strong Italian heritage. I will then arrive at my own mom, a woman who is capable of working 60 hours a week and still stirring up something magical in the kitchen. Through these three beautiful women (and with a little inspiration from Martha Stewart, The Food Network and AllRecipes.com) I have formed my own passion for food and cooking. Whenever I return home from Smith, my first trip is to the grocery store where I scoop up everything I could possibly need to prepare all my favorite meals along with some new experiments. Given that my mother’s side of the family is Italian and she was raised in a home where cooking with your grandmother was a crucial part of learning, I am trying to do my own nonna proud. I never did get to cook very often with her but through my mother I have been able to learn some of her secrets and I have made them my own. This cookbook would include tons of recipes, gorgeous photos, and plenty of anecdotes and stories detailing the lives of these women, myself included. I have a Lulu.com account, I have priced out the book, and I am just started to write it. It would be the greatest accomplishment I could ever imagine were I able to pull it off.
Sometimes I lay in bed dreaming about life and I get so overwhelmed with excitement that I can't sleep. I can SEE my cookbook coming together behind my closed eyes, I create perfect designs for my blogs and websites, and I am POSITIVE that I should go to BU for graduate school. I earn enough money from my cookbooks to pay for school, I am asked to write a second, I score a job writing a food column for the Boston Magazine, I find a killer apartment and decorate it with my best friends, I buy the perfect blue American Staffordshire Terrier and I name it Bella, and it goes on and on and on..... Everything is so much easier when you are snuggled up in bed with your eyes closed.
If only life were that simple.
Lots of love,
Sera Jane
P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for this cookbook. It's going to happen. Find it on Amazon.
