Not too long ago, I was at an art festival selling and signing a book series that I write. A very kind woman stood in front of my booth, thumbing through one of the latest copies. When she flipped the book over to the back cover, her face immediately lit up.

“There’s the recipe to the homemade bread made in the story! I love it! What gave you the idea to do this?”

I smiled and thought for a moment before answering.

People who know me also know I not only love to create stories. I also love to create food! Truthfully, if I care about you, you will know because I will feed you … a lot. It all stems from my early childhood in my grandmother’s kitchen on the east side of Detroit in the 70’s. My grandmother was from Sicily and she spent almost every moment of her day over a steamy stove, cooking the most delicious Sicilian staples—and everything was from scratch. She would clean up after making a meal and immediately start the next one. I can actually smell her kitchen now, sitting at that old, beat up kitchen table, the air filled with homemade ravioli, spaghetti with meatballs, and the list goes on … and there was always—and I mean always—an abundance of homemade bread.

At six years old, I remember standing on a stool next to her, flour everywhere, kneading dough on warm summer afternoons. We usually made about 20 loaves of bread in a day. (My grandmother raised six children and had no idea how to cook “small,” even when they moved away.) I would always eat almost an entire loaf right out of the oven. It was truly heaven.

The kitchen was always the heart and soul of the household, and it has remained that way for me into my adulthood. It is one of the ways I spend time with the people I love, and one of the ways I show love. It’s how I unwind and center myself. It’s what I do when I am extremely happy, or especially upset. It’s how I deal with life.

Thinking of that kind woman at my booth that day, it never gets old watching people’s faces light up when looking at the back cover, like they’ve discovered a hidden treasure. My hope is that the recipes revealed on those back covers become precious family favorites, recipes that create memories, ultimately recipes that feed the soul.