An Italian Cookbook - Buon Appetito

La Cucina DiMambro

Available at Picking Daisies through the holidays...

...is this wonderful Italian Cookbook.

It's filled with family history and family recipes.

YUMMY Italian authenticity!

Even lessons in napkin folding, much to our delight.

From the author....

Author Gisella Capraro-Kaplan

Gisella Capraro-Kaplan is a first generation Italian. She was born in Cassino, Italy in 1964 and immigrated to the United States in 1967 at the age of 3.5.  Her family settled in the suburbs of Detroit where she lived in very middle class non-Italian neighborhoods.  Her upbringing, however, was very much Italian.  Eating pasta every night at dinner was normal.  Her parents spoke very broken English to the rest of the world and only Italian in the house. 

After college she returned to Italy to reconnect with her Italian roots and spent a year with her maternal grandparents.  It was during this time that a seed was planted for the love of Italian cooking and cuisine. Returning to the U.S., she left Michigan and started a life in California.  She met her husband, Craig Kaplan, they were married in 1990 and moved to the Central Coast where they built a life and a family.  In 2008 an new job for Craig moved the family to Orange County, California.

Gisella and Craig have two daughters, Adriana and Daniella.  It was in the process of raising their daughters that she became aware of the richness in the traditions that she experienced as a child; in many, if not all of those experiences, food was a very important part.  Over the years many phone calls were made to her mother wanting to know what the recipe for this dish or that meal was.  As her daughters got older she began to realize that those recipes may get lost forever if 'someone' didn’t write them down.  So the process was begun of collecting family recipes.  The cookbook was never intended to be sold or given to anyone outside of the family but as word spread of its inception many people started to inquire about getting a copy.  One thing lead to another and the cookbook was created with the intention of selling it.  

“I was quite surprised at the initial interest people had in wanting to purchase our family recipes", Gisella said. 

As a result of putting together this cookbook, Gisella discovered her true passion is to become a chef.  Culinary school awaits her as she embarks on a new career and one day hopes to open an Italian Bakery/Market and maybe even expanding it to a full restaurant.  

Enjoy the simplicity of La Cucina DiMambro (DiMambro is her mother’s maiden name) and know that it comes with a lot of heritage, tradition and memories. 

Buon Appetito!