Losing Yourself in Italian Cooking

      Are you as tired as I am of winter weather, bad economic news, world trouble spots and constantly running up hill just to keep up?

      For all of the above reasons, I've decided to share with all of you what I've found to be an excellent escape mechanism. It will cost you less than a dinner at a medium priced restaurant, allow you to escape from worries for a time each day, and delight your family and friends. It's a cookbook!

      For the past eight years, as I became more and more involved  with the Research Chefs Association and its' members while publishing their official magazine, Culinology, I have become very interested in cooking, and have become an efficient cook, i.e. one who finds good books containing good and easy to follow recipes and, most importantly, follows the directions closely. It's amazing how good a meal one can create if one merely follows directions.

      Italian foods have always been my favorite, so I was thrilled when my wife, Barbara's Christmas present to me was Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking", a 688 page tome filled with not only hundreds of recipes with easy to follow directions, but also brief histories of each as to the region of origin and in what season each should appear. In addition there is a brief history for each regional Italian cuisine as well as suggested full meal menus from each area. There are enough appetizers, soups, pastas, fish, shellfish, poultry, veal, beef, lamb, pork, salads, vegetable, breads and dessert selections to keep an amateur like me happy and challenged for years to come.

      I've now read the book cover to cover and have begun to execute some of the recipes, much to Barbara's delight. She is an excellent cook herself, but after cooking for the family for most of our marriage, she has been very happy to turn that chore over to me.

      The book is published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc and can be found in most bookstores or online services. If you like cooking and love Italian cuisine, I strongly suggest you check it out.