I need to live in a house. A house with a basement. A basement where I can make wine and cheese. A house with a yard so I can have fruit trees and a garden with fresh herbs and trucks pulling up to my house to drop off 1000 lbs of grapes and I shoo my chickens away as I move the grapes to the press.

This book is informative and belly laugh funny. It is full of common sense and culinary delights. Read this book and you will be a better person.

The chapter on wine is a kick – and had me ready to turn my basement into a vinter’s operation. Todd offered to loan me some of his equipment and told me I can buy grape juice, and thus avoid mashing with my feet or needing to order 2.5 tons of grapes. I learned my Mother (who gave me the book) also had met Angelo Pellegrini back in the day.

I got this off my wish list for x-mas and I am loving it. It is laugh out loud funny – I’ve been snorting my way through the first 40 pages – and I really think it is going to change my life. I’m serious. It was written by an Italian emigrant who moved to Seattle and became an English professor (I think I went to high school with some of his grandchildren, actually) and it basically explains why you should have a garden in your yard, cook simple good meals, drink wine, and take naps.

It rules.