About Us
This might sound cliché, but my husband, Dennis, and I are the ultimate "average" couple. We both go to work 5 days a week and start counting down to the weekend on Sunday nights. We like to hang out with our friends, have some drinks, and listen to our iPod a little too loud on Friday and Saturday nights...and the occasional weekday. We like wine that's under 20 bucks a bottle. Most of all, we like food that's inexpensive and easy to make. We don't like recipes with extravagant ingredients that we can't pronounce, let alone find in our local suburbia grocery store.
From an early age I've made my share of faux pas in the kitchen. You name it, I've probably done it. I've dropped an entire cake on the oven door, forgot to put shortening in a batch of cookies, I've even turned chicken blue in a failed attempt to make a lemon chicken in my new, non-stick pans. A few years ago, I decided to go back to our family's basics, I called my mom and said, "Mom, what do I make for dinner?" From then on, I began incorporating my parents' recipes into my repertoire. Growing up on old world Italian recipes passed down from my grandparents' parents made dishes coming out of my kitchen inexpensive, simple and, quite frankly, edible again. Occasionally Dennis and I come up with our own simple recipes that we add to our repertoire, but nothing too fancy. Early in 2008, I wanted Dennis to start cooking dinner from time-to-time. I knew, since I've made my share of blunders in the kitchen, that if I could do it, anybody could do it. The question was how to get him to open up a cookbook? One night I approached him with my dilemma, but I never imagined that my simple idea would lead to an impromptu night of brainstorming. One idle comment made by Dennis that night was my "Eureka Moment" and lead to me writing and self-publishing "The Pampered Paramour…Your Mistress in the Kitchen."
After 12 years together, Dennis and I finally share the cooking duties. The kitchen is the heart of our home and if you drive down our suburban street at dinner time you're sure to enjoy a hint of spice in the air flowing from our kitchen. You might even detect a hint of cigar smoke and hear our iPod playing, but only on the warmer Colorado evenings.
