I grew up surrounded by women that were darn good cooks. My grandmother made down-home biscuits and gravy like nobody's business, and her collard greens were to die for. My mom, to this day, still makes a mean pot of pork and green chili. An aunt is still the queen of fresh guacamole and picaros (these delightful creations, shredded beef rolled in tortillas). Our style of food was and is Southwestern/Mexican-American tempered with some Southern influence. I didn't discover Italian food- real Italian food- until I was an adult. But man oh man, what an awakening it was for me.
I lived in a small town as a kid; we had a few restaurants, mostly fast food, and the one sit down place served food like we already ate at home. I was in college before I had my first authentic Italian meal. My now-hubby, then new boyfriend, took me to this quaint Italian place tucked in between two New Age shops in downtown Flagstaff. There were tiny candles on each table, actual cloth napkins (which at the time, made me a bit nervous), and a menu in Italian. Our waiter was kind enough to translate. The cheeses are what blew me away. I ordered a spinach ravioli. Until that point, my idea of cheese was the processed squares we kindly call American cheese- which, so as not to be too derisive, I still think makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches in the whole wide world. But all of the sudden, my world expanded to include such things as romano, fontina, asiago ... hold on, I'm drooling. Italian food was new and exciting ... and sexy! A decade later, my stance hasn't changed.
I set my first paranormal romantic short story, The Phantom and the Psychic, in Italy to pay homage to a culture, and by extension a cuisine, I find exotic and sensual.
You can't go to a fancy Italian restaurant every night. Tonight, we're having home-cooked Italian, stuffed eggplant, and boy does it smell amazing. Followed this gal's recipe, mostly, but I have enough native Arizonan in me that I substituted the ground beef with spicy Italian sausage, and added some red chili flakes to spice it up.
How about you? What foods do you find sexy?
I lived in a small town as a kid; we had a few restaurants, mostly fast food, and the one sit down place served food like we already ate at home. I was in college before I had my first authentic Italian meal. My now-hubby, then new boyfriend, took me to this quaint Italian place tucked in between two New Age shops in downtown Flagstaff. There were tiny candles on each table, actual cloth napkins (which at the time, made me a bit nervous), and a menu in Italian. Our waiter was kind enough to translate. The cheeses are what blew me away. I ordered a spinach ravioli. Until that point, my idea of cheese was the processed squares we kindly call American cheese- which, so as not to be too derisive, I still think makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches in the whole wide world. But all of the sudden, my world expanded to include such things as romano, fontina, asiago ... hold on, I'm drooling. Italian food was new and exciting ... and sexy! A decade later, my stance hasn't changed.
I set my first paranormal romantic short story, The Phantom and the Psychic, in Italy to pay homage to a culture, and by extension a cuisine, I find exotic and sensual.
You can't go to a fancy Italian restaurant every night. Tonight, we're having home-cooked Italian, stuffed eggplant, and boy does it smell amazing. Followed this gal's recipe, mostly, but I have enough native Arizonan in me that I substituted the ground beef with spicy Italian sausage, and added some red chili flakes to spice it up.
How about you? What foods do you find sexy?
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