This is a book about good food with heart: 80 easy-to-prepare comfort food recipes. What is it about comfort food...especially in stressful times. That's when food becomes more important to us than ever. We now know that certain foods can trigger the part of our brain that connects to pleasurable early memories: think of apple pie, mashed potatoes and butter, the smell of garlic and onions sizzling in olive oil… By early childhood we are imprinted with these sense and taste preferences. For co-authors Chris Fennimore and Chef Daniel Agüera, their food memories started as children in their grandmothers’ kitchens. Chris’s Italian grandmother could make magic out of the simplest ingredients; Daniel’s Spanish abuela taught him to cook from the heart. In this book, they showcase their families’ best-loved comfort food traditions, along with American classics that should always have a place at the table. Test kitchen approved – with mouthwatering color photos for every recipe. " Simple Pleasures is the perfect last-minute gift for the cook on your gift list, especially if he or she loves easy-to-prepare comfort food. … Illustrated with mouth-watering photographs, the cookbook will appeal to beginners as well as more accomplished home cooks. ― Pittsburgh Post-Gazette This is a cookbook for you and me – accessible food, with recipes that you don’t have to go to chef school to be able to prepare in your own home. The promise of pleasure comes from big flavors of dishes passed down from the authors’ Italian and Spanish grandmothers. ~ Janet Mendel , author of Traditional Spanish Cooking and other books on the cuisine of Spain A COOKBOOK WITH A STORY All of us remember special mealtimes from our youth. Early Sunday afternoon dinners with Mom or festive holiday gatherings at Grandma’s house... these get-togethers remind us forever of the loving bond of food and family. Simple Pleasures is a book about good food – real food – and the stories behind them. Popular TV cook Chris Fennimore and Chef Daniel Agüera celebrate home cooking at its best with 80 easy-to-make recipes, from pasta e fagiole to flan. Drawing from the authors’ own Italian and Spanish family food traditions as well as all-American classics, Simple Pleasures invites us to get into the kitchen and create our own lasting food memories. Chris Fennimore/b> is a popular figure on Pittsburgh’s WQED public television. Since 1993 he has produced and hosted the series "QED Cooks," winning a James Beard Award along the way. He has produced, contributed to and edited more than 100 community cookbooks in WQED's "America’s Homecooking Series". Daniel Agüera is a world-traveled chef – born in northern Spain to a restaurant family. He has a formal culinary education and long experience in restaurants (one of them his own), hotels, stadiums and large commercial food centers. His philosophy is "simple ingredients done well." WOODEN SPOONS [from “Simple Tools”] Daniel – Aside from being things of beauty that connect us with all our cooking ancestors, wooden spoons are usually the best tool for the job – mixing, stirring, folding. And the handles don’t get hot when you leave the spoon in the pot. For various reasons, wooden spoons aren't often used in restaurants anymore. Before they were banned, a wooden spoon was like a maestro's conducting baton in the hands of a chef, including my grandmother. Chefs would use them to point, gesture for emphasis, or even threaten. My grandmother delivered a few well-deserved smacks with a wooden spoon. The memories of her shaking that spoon in the air will forever be dear to me. From time to time, I see a nice piece of wood and think, "That would make a good wooden spoon." I have quite a stash of these pieces of wood by now. One of these days when I have plenty of spare time I may carve some spoons again as I did when I was a kid.