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WHY LOVE & LEMONS? Because once, we walked by an Italian dog with a lemon in its mouth. Obviously. Italy. Its part of my ancestry, its part of my love story, and its really the beginning of my food story.
In 2008, my now-husband Jack and I craved an adventure. We hadnt traveled much together, so, to satisfy our wanderlust, off to Italy we went. Little did I know that Jack had a secret plan. He boarded the plane with a ring in his pocket and he was going to propose. He usually cant keep a secret, but this time he got me. So after dinner, on our first night in Rome, I was suddenly engaged.
But something else happened in Italywe also fell head over heels for the food. I know... its a pretty clich story. We were inspired not only by the dishes but by the quality of the ingredients, the care, and the love in everything. Every time I slice into a tomato, I think of the sweetest ones I had on the island of Capri... when I stir kale into a hearty soup, Im immediately taken back to Tuscany.
Everything was fresh, vibrant, and bright. Dishes were finished with lemon (and meals were finished with limoncello!). Simple food, mixed with love for your ingredients quickly became our new mantra. ), snacking on Spanish tortillas and sometimes spicy padrn peppers in Barcelona, or sitting on the rooftop of a riad in Marrakech, taking notes about a simple carrot salad. These experiences made me look at ingredients and their preparation in a new way, which ultimately made me appreciate the local ingredients that are right here in Austin. I found myself visiting local farms and farmers markets, and getting a deep understanding of the vibrant food scene in my own community.
As I started to cook locally and seasonally, I felt a sense of place with my food, and it became something I wanted to share. We started the Love & Lemons blog as a place to share not only my recipes but the idea of local seasonal cooking. I generally make food inspired by the place that I live (hence the fact that there are no fewer than five taco recipes in this book), and I hope to inspire others to do the same. So what about the dog, then? As we were coming up with names for the food blog, we both remembered an idyllic afternoon walk in Capri, where this love story truly began, when a golden retriever trotted past us with a lemon in its mouth. We joked about the romantic notion that Italians probably play fetch with lemons instead of tennis balls.
IMPATIENTI MEANIMPROMPTU COOKING While our travels sparked my passion to get into the kitchen, something always stopped me from being a practical, everyday sort of cook.
Id get frustrated trying to plan and shop for a weeks worth of mealsa certain vegetable wouldnt be available at the store, Id forget an ingredient that was on my list, or Id simply not feel like eating what I planned to make on Thursday by the time Thursday rolled around. I enjoyed spending time cooking on Sundays, but I couldnt get it together to easily eat at home Monday through Friday. Until one day I did. Eventually, I figured out that Sundays leftover vegetables could be quickly tossed into Mondays scrambled eggs or Tuesdays pasta. I didnt suddenly become a list maker... instead something clicked in my mind where I could turn one nights dinner into another days breakfast into another days lunch, and so on.
I figured out how to use ingredients in resourceful ways that still left a little room for last-minute cravings and creativity. Id finally found food-making freedom. Maybe youre a pro (chef or mom or otherwise) and you know these things already, but as I learned them, they felt like rocket science to me. So here goes... COOK BACKWARD. Weve all been thereyou head to the store with an asparagus recipe and theres no asparagus to be found...
You get home and realize you forgot to get basil... Your CSA box arrives with a cauliflower bigger than your head... Those carrots at the farmers market are so pretty, but how the heck do you turn carrots into an actual dinner? Thats why this book is not organized by breakfast, lunch, and dinnerits organized by vegetable so that you can come home with something beautiful from the farmers market and then figure out what to make with it. Or you can start with a vegetable or two that you have on hand and build from there. Every vegetable under the sun isnt represented here. These recipes include some of my favorite ingredients as well as the fruits and vegetables that happen to be available in my area in central Texas.