b"Iwrote this book for one reasonto smile. The pandemic affected so many of us, causing us to suffer from heavy hearts and joyless souls. So few of us were exempt from these overpowering feelings. To say the least, the past few years of the pandemic were beyond challenging.I derived so much joy from writing the stories you're about to read in the following pages. Some of them take place during moments of my precarious youth. Some are original stories, never before told, and others are rewritten versions of previous true tales, but with some added flair and recollections. Yet, regardless of what I was writinghappy, sad, somewhere in betweenthe mere act of writing gave me enormous pleasure. It's so difficult to articulate how wonderful it is to express my feelings in a once foreign language (English) that I now speak better than my native Italian. But in my head, whenever I give myself the freedom to remember my youth, it still sounds Italian. As it turns out, my life is a series of stories that thrive inside my soul. Lately, they've been knocking on my brain, begging to see the light of daybut then my heart decided it, too, wanted credit, so finding that perfect balance of writing with thought and emotion was not easy. I started with gratitude, which really helped me a lot, because regardless of what went wrong in my life, somehow, I ended up here, next to the woman I love, writing my stories and sharing my passion in this bookthis is definitely a win.The stories I chose for these pages were meant to mirror the expressions of beauty we all share in ordinary, daily moments; far more than we care to admit. Despite our many differences, we're still the same in terms of love, joy and sorrow. We all feelsomething. I like to say that a smile is like sunshine in my pocket for a rainy day. Even before I started talking, my mom told me that I was always solare, full of life. At the time, I never understood what that meant; she says I was made that way. Even my wife said the exact same thing about me to her family before we met. Still, over the past few yearsstarting from around the time we locked down for the pandemicI often found myself on my knees asking for God's help; I was having difficulties comprehending the world around me. It turns out the answer was always there. Cooking was like my medicine, as was my love of storytelling, which you'll soon see in this book. Life is full of bad newsmy desire, in telling these stories and sharing my recipes, was to depict and express nothing but joy, hope, love, and the beauty of life. I want to make you, my readers, smile when you least expect it! Lofty intentions or not, that is my one primary intention with this book.When all is said and done, I'll know I've accomplished my goal with this book when, after reading one of my stories, you've called your mom just to say hi or you've put on your favorite music and danced around the kitchen with a loved one like no one is watching. My greatest joy would be to learn that my stories made you laugh out loud when you least expected it. Now that, for me, would be a huge success! It would mean the world to me to know that one day you might teach one of your children, or someone else's child, how to cook using recipes from this book. Nanci, my wife, and my coauthor, has been on this journey with me since it started, regardless of all the work that bears my name. This is why, for this book, I wanted her name on the cover as wellit's a credit she more than deserves for all our life together.As the expression goes, happy wife, happy life! Nanci chose not to write anything for this introduction. Rightfully so, she prefers that her stories in this book speak for themselves. She decided to save her words for her stories, which she felt would make the biggest impact. I couldn't agree more, Nanci! So please, I hope you accept your beautiful moments where you can find them. Rememberlife is beautifulbut it's even better with good food.Now, put the book down and go cook something!6"