Contributed by Mark Leslie
"Travel and Food Experiences in Italy~ their influences on my American life, plus photos and recipes, too!" by Mark Leslie, author "Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language & Life with an Italian Family"
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Last week I ran into a friend from Mississippi and asked him how he was doing. In true Southern form he replied, “Blessed and encouraged.” I laughed because only in the South would you hear that response.
Surprisingly, “blessed and encouraged” has been running around in my Yankee head ever since. It is such a simple saying, but it is having a profound affect on me—it speaks to me in a way that I find difficult to explain. Maybe it is because as I look back over this past year and set my sights on the coming year, I find myself in the same place as my friend from Mississippi.
My wish for all of you this holiday season and 2010 is that you find yourself in a Mississippi “blessed and encouraged” moment of your own. Whatever you choose to call it, however it dawns on you, whenever it reveals itself—I hope it happens and, in that moment, brings you joy.
Con affetto,
Mark
***In 2010, videos of Nonna in the kitchen are coming to the site and some recipes, too!
-The photo is from a wood panel in the Vatican Museums, Rome.
Contributed by Mark Leslie
Mark Leslie works in professional theatre as a stage manager and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Currently he is busy working with Gemelli Press on his first book "Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language & Life with an Italian Family." http://beyondthepasta.com
Every year, Mark vacations in Italy and lives to eat his way through every plate of pasta and cone of gelato placed before him. In 2005, he had the good fortune to live for a month in Viterbo, Italy with the Stefani family. There he took cooking lessons from Nonna, the grandmother of the family, and Italian language lessons from Alessandra, the mother. That experience is the basis of his first book "Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language, & Life with an Italian Family." SEE DETAILS ABOUT THE BOOK: http://mark-leslie.net/we-have-a-publisher
THEATRICAL CREDITS:
Mark is in Winona, MN working on GRSF's production of COMEDY OF ERRORS. Recently, he wrapped up LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and AIDA for Opera Birmingham in Alabama. Last September, he stage managed CABARET at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina in Hilton Head, SC. He also worked at the Arts Center in 2005 on its production of Evita. This past summer, he worked in Minnesota on Great River Shakespeare Festival’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Over the past 22 years, Mark’s regional theatre credits include: Denver Center Theatre Company (White Christmas, Noises Off, and a reading of a new adaption of The Unsinkable Molly Brown directed by Kathleen Marshall and authored by Dick Scanlon), Alabama Shakespeare Festival (resident stage manager on over 65 productions), Actors’ Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival (D. Boone by Marsha Norman), Arizona Theatre Company (Amadeus, Loot, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ directed by Arthur Faria), and Maine State Music Theatre (Phantom, South Pacific, Jesus Christ Superstar, La Cages Aux Folles, and the world premiere of Chamberlain).
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