Food can relate us to a memory. Creating it with others is a kind of “communion of the stove”. Passing on the recipes and the sacred place of the kitchen to family members is one of the most significant terms of endearment we can offer. Diana Vreeland said it best when she expressed, “People who eat white bread have no dreams.”

Some people love to eat, some people love to write about what they eat, and then there are lots of people who love to read other people’s writing about what they eat. When listening to NPR, an interview with Gourmet Magazine Editor, Ruth Reichl, explained the new foodie book genre this way: “People are writing their lives in food. They are actually looking at the world food-first.”

This is exactly how my friends and family operate. Everything we do revolves around food. While eating breakfast, we plan for the next meal. We aren’t obsessive about it, but we are aware that food and the process of creating a great meal and sharing it together brings us joy and a sense of feeling loved.

This family activity of noshing and reveling in great eats has extended to our family travels too–to the extent that it has morphed into our own food memoir entitled, The All American Cookbook: A Collection of America’s Favorite Restaurant and Family Recipes. This manuscript speaks to anyone who wants to bring comfort home through food and cooking. The recipes serve as a valuable tool for home chefs and families to revisit fond memories and experiment with restaurant style cuisine. It also reveals our excursions and experiences with restaurant staff and the fabulous cities throughout the United States. Truly, it is a journal of our family travels, cooking and dining experiences, great quotes and inspiration.

In ‘The Gastronomical Me’ written by M.F.K. Fisher in 1943, one of the earliest food memoirs, Fisher says that when she’s writing about food, what she’s really writing about are larger things — about love and our need for it. She also comments that, “We would all be better people if we paid attention to our appetites.” I would have to agree. However, T.S. Eliot also has some great food words of wisdom when he suggests, “Never commit yourself to a cheese without examining it first.”

The All American Cookbook: A Collection of America’s Favorite Restaurant and Family Recipes is currently seeking the perfect publisher–surely to be decided over a scrumptious meal.