Cooking with Mariaelisa and Friends

"Where there is no bread, there is no love."

--Italian proverb

Cookbooks are second only to travel guides when it comes to books that help you daydream your way to far-off lands. Although, since cookbooks help you recreate one of the best parts of any visit to another country -- the food -- maybe they are the best way to go on an imaginary vacation.

We recently received our latest shipment of woodblock-printed wonders from Mariaelisa Leboroni's Xilocart workshop in Perugia, Italy. Among the treasured greeting cards, journals, prints, and other goodies were copies of three cookbooks Mariaelisa published with writer friends of hers, one for breads, one for seeds and grains, and one about those plump garden favorites potato, tomato, and squash. Each of these cookbooks gives the history and traditions associated with these foods in Italy, and a cornucopia of recipes.

Mariaelisa's woodblock prints of farm scenes, rustic baker's ovens, and lucious plants decorate the pages, and the text for all three books is in both Italian and English. Talk about a way to travel without leaving the house, or even the kitchen!