Meals From Magdalena: A Family Affair Cookbook

Mary Campisi

Oct 2017 · Mary Campisi Books, LLC

About this ebook

Food has always been an important part of our family and our history, which is probably why it shows up so much in my writing. The characters in my A Family Affair books have cooked several of my family recipes and I thought it fitting to publish them as a cookbook from their hometown, Magdalena, NY. You'll also see a few recipes from the mother in Simple Riches (That Second Chance series), and yes, she may resemble my own mother with her wisdom as well as her culinary expertise. Of course, pastas are among the twelve recipes included, but there are also meat and vegetable dishes. And would any meal ever be complete without a selection from the breads and desserts.

·      *   STELLA ANDROVICH’S PASTA & BROCCOLI

·      *   HARRY BLACKSWORTH’S PENNE PASTA WITH SPINACH

·      *   RAMONA CASHERDON’S LASAGNA

·     *    JEREMY ROSS DEAN’S AGLIO Y OLIO

·      *   MIRIAM DESANTRO’S MEATBALLS

·      *   STELLA ANDROVICH’S STUFFED CABBAGE

·      *   STELLA ANDROVICH’S ZUCCHINI & PEPPERS

·      *   LUCINDA’S MINESTRONE

·      *   GINA REED’S LENTIL SOUP

·      *   MIRIAM DESANTRO’S BANANA BREAD

·      *   POP BENITO’S VANILLA PIZZELLES

·      *   RAMONA CASHERDON’S PUMPKIN-PECAN CAKE ROLL

My grandma never quite trusted dishes like lasagna, ravioli, or gnocchi. She liked her pasta without the extras of cheese and potato. I’m not sure what she would say about Harry Blacksworth’s Penne pasta with spinach and garbanzos. One of my very favorite dishes is Pasta and Broccoli, perhaps because it was the last dish my Aunt Marie made us, but I think it is also because it is representative of food we enjoyed as kids. (We ate calamari too; cleaned it, removed the insides, got all itchy from the inky water!)

My mother is the one who makes a great lasagna, ravioli, and pretty much every dish I’ve included in the cookbook. I have never seen anyone whip up a pumpkin roll like she can or make a pie crust as though it were second nature. Practice, she says. But she should know that practice means I will eat those pies...and not just one piece!

Mom is in so many of the “cooks” I write about in my stories; Stella Androvich, Miriam Desantro, Ramona Casherdon. And let me tell you, that Banana bread recipe is delicious! I do hope you enjoy these recipes and maybe they’ll make you think of your own family history of meals and the memories that accompanied them.

Mary

Ratings and reviews

Brilliant

About the author

Mary Campisi writes emotion-packed books about second chances. Whether contemporary romances, women's fiction, or Regency historicals, her books all center on belief in the beauty of that second chance. Her small town romances center around family life, friendship, and forgiveness as they explore the issues of today’s contemporary women.

Mary should have known she'd become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.

When she's not working on her craft or following the lives of five adult children, Mary's digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab mix, Cooper, or, on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own hero/husband on his Harley Ultra Limited.

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