Ep. 22 Soup Fit for a Queen

[00:00:03] Brian & Ottavia: Welcome to peace, love and soup. [00:00:05] Brian: Audio nourishment for the heart and mind. [00:00:08] Brian & Ottavia: With Brian Delaney and Ottavia Fasche. [00:00:11] Brian: Ottavia? [00:00:12] Ottavia: Yeah, tave is actually short for my longer name, which is Ottavia. Since moving to Italy, all of the Italians call me Ottavia, so I go by it now here, too. And fun fact, Brian, in Italy, women don't change their last name when they get married. So I'm Ottavia Fasche. [00:00:30] Brian: Well, since we last recorded, you're living and working in Italy half the year. [00:00:35] Ottavia: Working for italian culinary tours, doing small boutique custom tours in different areas of Italy, and still producing Mirador magazine. Brian has some news. [00:00:46] Brian: I married my partner of 18 years, David Ciminello. [00:00:49] Ottavia: Congratulations. [00:00:50] Brian: Thank you. Speaking of David, we have decided to dedicate this entire episode to the release of his debut novel, the Queen of Steeplechase park, which is out now. So we'll be talking to David, we'll. [00:01:03] Ottavia: Talk to his editor and publisher, Laura Stanfield of Forest Avenue Press. [00:01:08] Brian: And for the soup in this episode. [00:01:10] Ottavia: We have chef Lisa schroeder, and she is a Portland icon famous for her restaurant, mother's bistro and bar. [00:01:17] Brian: She'll be making a delicious italian cioppino, or as it's called in David's book. [00:01:24] Ottavia: Friti dal Mare, or Fruits of the Sea. [00:01:27] Brian: So sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode we call soup fit for a queen. [00:01:48] Ottavia: We are excited to be in the studio with Portland writer David Ciminello to celebrate the release of his debut novel, the Queen of Steeplechase park. Hello, David. [00:02:01] David: Hi, Tave. And hello, Brian. [00:02:04] Brian: Hello, David. Also joining us at the table is Laura Stanfill, the founder and publisher of Forest Avenue Press. She is an editor and an accomplished writer herself who believes in the power of storytelling and wishes on, indeed, bookstores like stars. Welcome to peace, love and soup. Laura. [00:02:22] Laura: Hi. Thank you for having me. [00:02:23] Brian: You're so welcome. Where to begin? How about, David, can you please tell us about your process in writing this book, starting from the initial spark or kernel of an idea? [00:02:34] David: Well, the initial spark came when I was about eight years old, and I was sitting in the family room of my house in Wayne, New Jersey, and my mother and I were watching the 430 movie, and it was Natalie Wood week, and Gypsy was on. And after the scene where the strippers teach Natalie Wood how to strip, gotta have a gimmick number. My mother was laughing, and I said, what's so funny? And she said, my aunt used to do that. And I said, what aunt? And she said, my aunt Emily, your great aunt Emily was a burlesque performer in Coney island. You know, I had never forgotten that. And that planted the seed. [00:03:08] Ottavia: So this great aunt Emily was the inspiration for Belladonna? [00:03:12] David: Yes. [00:03:13] Brian: Did you ever meet Aunt Emily? [00:03:14] David: I knew her growing up. She had already moved to the west coast. She was in California. But every once in a while, especially on holidays, she would blow into town like a hurricane. She was a larger than life character, hilarious and loud and colorful. And I used to just stand in the corner, half terrified and half fascinated, and I would just observe her. [00:03:33] Speaker B: And then at what age did you decide, I'm gonna write a book on her? [00:03:36] Speaker C: Well, I wrote since I was a kid, stories and little chapters. But, you know, acting was initially my primary desire and focus. And so ultimately, I ended up moving to LA and became a professional actor and then a screenwriter, but took prose workshops at the gay and lesbian center. And when I decided to leave L. A. And come to Portland to find where my creativity might take me, it was novel writing. And Bella was officially born here at a place called the Attic Institute. And it was a flash fiction workshop with a gentleman by the name of David Beisbeel. Portland has such an incredibly rich literary community with many branches, and it's lush and it's fertile, and I'm just so excited and happy to be a part of that community. Bella's a better broad for it. [00:04:23] Speaker B: And was Laura part of this workshop? I know you have a multi shop. [00:04:26] Speaker C: No, that was in 2000, 2001. And I met Laura through, actually through Gigi Little, who did the amazing cover for the book. [00:04:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it's gorgeous. [00:04:36] Speaker A: Yes. [00:04:37] Speaker C: Big shout out to Gigi little for her fantastic cover design. After that first workshop, I found my way to Tom Spambauer's dangerous writing workshops. I was in the dangerous basement for, I think, the better part of a year. That's where I met Gigi and another Portland writer named Kathleen Lane. And they brought me into a small writing group called the Henry Group. That's where I officially met Laura. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:01] Speaker D: Yeah, we have worked together for a number of years, and we all have different genres and different takes on what it means to be a writer. Before the pandemic, we would come together about once a month and share our work and share our triumphs and our frustrations. [00:05:18] Speaker B: And what were you working on at that time, Laura? [00:05:20] Speaker D: Well, one of the things that David and I have in common is a really long birthing process for our books. I was working on a 19th century magical novel about a family of barrel organ makers in France. And when I met David, we were both working with language as sound and trying to create a historical feel with modern themes and with current language. For him, the italian american experience. And for me, I was bringing in little bits of French, and so we both were in the middle of a challenge that we had set for ourselves, and. And we connected over that. [00:06:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we share similar sensibilities in terms of writing. Certainly a similar appreciation for everything odd, quirky, and queer. [00:06:10] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, and a playfulness, too. [00:06:12] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. [00:06:13] Speaker A: You mentioned a long birthing process. How long? When you say long, Laura? [00:06:20] Speaker D: My novel was 15 years. [00:06:21] Speaker A: Okay, what about yours, David? [00:06:25] Speaker C: 20 years. We have a lot in common. [00:06:30] Speaker D: We felt that right away when you walked into that workshop, I was like, oh, this voice. I need to know this person who has conjured this kind of storytelling, and I will learn from this kind of storytelling. [00:06:42] Speaker C: And I felt exactly the same way when Laura would present pieces of singing lessons for the stylish canary. My spine went straight, my ears perked up, and I was right there. [00:06:53] Speaker D: You were one of the first people who talked to me and approached me about the musicality in my language and how I was using that, which, of course, writing about music box makers was really important to me. But the way you articulated what you heard in my voice just opened up all these new doors for me. [00:07:11] Speaker B: That's a love fest. Okay, now, David, imagine, Tavia and I are your therapist, and take us through your emotional journey, these 20 years of writing this book. [00:07:22] Speaker C: Oh, my God. It was a roller coaster ride. Up one day, down the next. Up two days, down ten. You know, there were days when the words would sail out of the pen, and there were days where I would just literally bang my head against my desk. But there were also days that were just pure joy, where the characters completely took over. They came into the room, and they wrote for me. [00:07:44] Speaker B: Sometimes you took months off from the book, right? You just needed that break from it. [00:07:48] Speaker C: Yeah, but I wouldn't even call that time off, because the subconscious is an incredibly powerful thing for all artists. Art that we create is our life experience funneled through our imaginations and put on the page or put on the canvas or put into a song. And so much of that magic comes out of our subconscious. And I have to say that even when I'm away from the computer or away from a pad and pencil, my subconscious is constantly working. I'm constantly dreaming while I'm awake. You know, I can watch a movie, I could listen to a song, and suddenly it sparks something, and Bella is dancing in my head and she's speaking. [00:08:28] Speaker A: I love the visual of this. So do you actually write with a pen and paper? [00:08:32] Speaker C: I do both. I carry a little notebook with me all the time with a pen and jot down notes, you know, sort of very Virginia Woolf. You know, as I'm walking through the rose garden or I'll be muttering to myself, something will occur to me and then I'll pop that fanny pack open, pull out my little pad and start writing. [00:08:49] Speaker A: David, while I was reading the book, I especially loved putting together the puzzle pieces that you must have had. What is your process? How did you decide what to put? Where were you putting paper all over the walls or post its all over the place or colored markers? [00:09:08] Speaker C: Music is a huge inspiration. I always write to music. And as far as the writing process, over the 20 years, I ran the gamut. I did everything. I wrote outlines, I wrote synopses. I took all of my chapter titles at one point and put them on different color index cards and laid them out on the living room carpet so that my entire book was sitting in front of me and I would arrange them and rearrange them. And my initial goal was to write a non linear narrative where everything was sort of out of order and jumping back and forth in time. Ultimately, a professor at Sarah Lawrence by the name of Lucy Rosenthal said, just write it in order first and then you can mix it up later. And I ended up writing it in order, and I liked it. But there are flashbacks and there are these clarion calls in the book, you know, repetitions of things from Bella's childhood and things her father said that drop into the text here and there, punctuating the action, as it were. [00:10:01] Speaker B: And I can remember vividly how you had all those notecards on the living room floor trying to make an order and coming up with the idea to break the book into. [00:10:10] Speaker C: Yeah, initially it was one huge book of about 1000 pages in three parts, and that became overwhelming. And I got an epiphany at one point. Like, this is not one huge book, it's three books. And the Queen of Steeplechase park is actually book one of the Belladonna trilogy, hopefully. [00:10:30] Speaker A: I can't wait for book two and three. [00:10:33] Speaker B: So your book is described as the absolutely, positively, practically, almost true story of famous burlesque queen and magic meatball maker Belladonna Marie Donato. How much of it would you say is true to your experience? [00:10:48] Speaker C: I would classify the book as fact based fiction. So I took various stories that I had heard that came down through urban family legend that were often whispered about my great aunt. The fact that she got pregnant when she was 15. She was incredibly wild as a young girl and as a woman, she did burlesque in Coney island. The fact that the baby was taken away, that she was sterilized against her will, those are the facts that I knew. And I took those facts, the spirit of her personality and her energy, and created this novel from that. [00:11:22] Speaker A: It's delicious. And there was so much depth. Thank you. Especially appreciated the community of characters that you had so black, white, wealthy, poor, young, old, queer, otherwise. And then, Laura, Forest Avenue Press is known for prioritizing BIPOC, queer and neurodivergent voices, along with writers who challenge the status quo. And so to me, your partnership, it's clearly a perfect match. But Laura, I would love it if you could tell us a little bit about how you came to publish the queen of Steeplechase Park. [00:11:58] Speaker D: I started publishing in 2012 without having any idea of what I was doing or any sense that it might continue beyond one slim volume. We started with a book called brave on the page, and it featured lots of micro essays and interviews with regional writers. And it was fun. So I made another book, and then I made another book. And then I made another book. And at some point during the 15 year process of writing my own novel, I started publishing lots and lots of other people's books and loving that experience. [00:12:32] Speaker A: How many books has Forest Avenue Press published? [00:12:35] Speaker D: We're coming up on 25 now. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Congratulations. [00:12:39] Speaker D: Thank you. David dropped his manuscript into one of our open submission periods, and I kind of felt like I had won the lottery because I had heard earlier iterations of this book, I knew it had ballooned into multiple chapters, maybe, possibly multiple volumes. And so when it arrived in my submissions inbox in a form that felt like it was ready to go into the world, I swooned a bit, I have to admit, and then I got really excited to sit and focus on Bella and David's words. [00:13:19] Speaker A: And was it a surprise that he had dropped off his manuscript? [00:13:23] Speaker D: I think it was. Did you tell me in advance you were going to? I knew you were looking. [00:13:27] Speaker C: No, no, I didn't tell you. And in fact, it was Patsy Kohlberg, my critique partner, who said, oh, by the way, Forest Avenue has its open submission now. You should submit Bella. And I was like, yeah. And then, because I know Laura, I thought it was appropriate to send her an email and say, hey, just to let you know, Bella's in the inbox. Oh, my gosh. [00:13:48] Speaker A: This character. Ladies and gentle, people, is David mentioned larger than life when we were talking earlier, but she is so expansive in every single way. And so, David, I have to compliment you on your astutely writing from a young woman's perspective about the complex of these hormonal desires raging in your body and specifically about being a mother. How did you do it? [00:14:17] Speaker C: I used my imagination, I used research. I used empathy. I think as a performer, as a writer, as any kind of artist, empathy is a huge tool. And also, I think, too, I want to just hearken back to my experience as an actor. The magic. What if, you know, what if I was a bodacious 15 year old girl who was wild and loved sex and found herself pregnant in 1935? [00:14:46] Speaker A: Wow. Well, it is a very sex positive book, and I love that. [00:14:51] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a celebration of life. So it's a celebration of eating, of sleeping, of drinking, of singing, of dancing, and of love and of sex. And I think my great aunt was a celebration of life. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Well, you nailed the sex scenes. Pun intended. [00:15:06] Speaker C: Thank you, I guess. [00:15:07] Speaker A: No pun intended. So my question for both of you is, would you call Bella a feminist? [00:15:17] Speaker C: Well, actually, tave, I want to ask you, do you think Bella's a feminist? [00:15:21] Speaker A: 100%. [00:15:22] Speaker C: In what ways? [00:15:22] Speaker A: She is her own person, regardless of with whom she is interacting, whether it is somebody who is male, female, presenting in some other way, whether it's somebody who's at a higher social status, she is just herself. I'm here. I'm a human being. And we all deserve to take up space. It's really important, I think, especially for young girls these days and people of other marginalized genders to feel not just allowed, but empowered to take up the space in the world that we each deserve to have. [00:15:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I love that word empowered, because Bella is all about empowerment and self actualization, particularly in a time when it wasn't allowed. It was not allowed for a girl or a woman to be that self actualized and to be that present in the world and to express herself that colorfully and that profoundly. [00:16:20] Speaker A: Right. Outspoken, adventurous of spirit, but also just going and doing things, making things happen, having that grit to persevere. Anyway, I look forward for everybody out there to read it and then hear what the public thinks. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I just want to add on to that. When I went back east, I took the book and I read it to my parents, who are 85 years old, living in an assisted care facility. And yes, your book does get very sexual. And that's when my parents had no comment. And they're like, can we stop reading for the evening. [00:16:53] Speaker C: Well, from what I remember, your father said, I didn't know any girls like this. And your mother said, I did. [00:16:59] Speaker B: Right? That's true. [00:17:00] Speaker A: But I do want everyone out there to know. Very tasteful, very fun and humorous at times. [00:17:08] Speaker D: And there's a playfulness and a whimsy about it that carries the story through. [00:17:13] Speaker E: Exactly. [00:17:14] Speaker B: I agree. [00:17:14] Speaker D: I'd like to add that I'm from New Jersey and my parents parents also. And so I had a really strong connection to the idea of Bella like figures in the 1930s in New Jersey, trying to live their lives based on their desires and their curiosities and their passions. And I see that my mom didn't have that role model in her life. Her mother was raised by such a strict father that she was only allowed up and down the stairs of their house a certain number of times per day because if she went down and back up too many times, she might wear out the stairs. [00:17:52] Speaker A: Everybody's mouth is agape right now. [00:17:55] Speaker C: Wow. [00:17:56] Speaker A: Wow. [00:17:57] Speaker D: So my mother's mother learned how to parent from that man, my great grandfather. And so I just. Seeing Bella come to life in this book really helped me reimagine and understand more the opposite of the kind of lifestyle my parents had growing up and. [00:18:15] Speaker C: What was possible, perhaps. [00:18:17] Speaker B: David, I really appreciate reading positive, queer centric books, and although your queer characters face many challenges, they remain unabashedly proud of who they are. Thank you for such optimistic representations. But I guess my question for you is what queer writers inspired or boosted you up along your journey in life? [00:18:37] Speaker C: Off the top of my head, I'd have to say Armistead Maupin and the tales of the city books, certainly. Fanny Flagg and fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop cafe. Evan S. Connell, who wrote Mister Bridge and Misses Bridge, who I might say is perhaps part of the unidentified queer contingent. [00:18:55] Speaker B: Laura, do you have any? [00:18:56] Speaker D: I love what you said about optimistic queer representation because that's one of the things I loved about this book so much, and that's something that Forest Avenue tries to do. We want to honor all the hardships and the challenges that people, especially people from marginalized backgrounds, have to overcome to live their lives. But we also look for the joy. So much of what is being published these days is about the hard stuff and the joyful, ebullient, this is who I am ness. That David's characters, and particularly his queer characters, bring to the chapters they're in is just audacious and bold, and it's healing in some really wonderful way. Hard things happen and the characters continue on, and they don't change who they are or how they are in the world because of what's happened to them. They become, if anything, more committed to their identities and to persevering. And that's remarkable. That is resilience and grit. [00:19:56] Speaker B: Tava, do you have any authors that you like? [00:19:58] Speaker A: Anias Nin, as far as coming from a queer or fluid centric background and writing, and Henry Miller, because they ran in the same circle, I just want. [00:20:08] Speaker B: To add Tom Spambauer here in Portland, the man who fell in love with the moon is an amazing book, and his city of shy hunters love both of those. [00:20:17] Speaker D: He's a huge influence on both of us. I studied with him briefly in person for a weekend workshop, but David studied with him more directly. [00:20:24] Speaker C: Who are some of your favorite writers or writers that have influenced you? Laura? [00:20:29] Speaker D: Oh, my gosh. There are so many. I got really into the latin american magical realist authors as a child, and it was the first time that I understood that storytelling could go above and beyond what you actually see in front of you. And that just blew my mind wide open. More recently, I've been very inspired by small press authors. I learned so much. I actually wrote my memoir because I was working on a memoir by Beth Caphart as an editor, and I saw how she was able to use short form chapters to create a sense of urgency and to explore her own agency as a wife, a daughter, and as herself. The book is called wife, daughter, self, and she explored the fracturing that happens to women when we have these overlapping identities. And Steven Allred also has been a huge influence on my life. And Joanna rose as well, both incredible storytellers and teachers of mine and Forest Avenue authors. Yeah. And again, it was sort of like, David, that I knew these voices, and I had long admired these voices, and when they submitted to me, I just felt like the sun had come out. I just. It felt so brilliant and special and absolutely terrifying, too, because to publish people whose work you've admired for a long time can be really scary. I am so excited about your book coming out, David, and I'm also a little bit terrified, because I want all the things to happen for you and for Bella, and we don't know. There's a lot we can't control, but we can sit here and say that to each other. [00:22:00] Speaker C: And that's special. It is incredibly special. And for me, whatever happens beyond the experience of working with you is gravy. And I have to say this publicly, working with Laura Stanfield has been an incredible experience. Any writer would be blessed and lucky to have you as a publisher and an editor. It's been a gift and a true treasure. So thank you. [00:22:20] Speaker D: Thank you so much. Also, you said gravy, and I'm pretty sure that would be tomato gravy, correct? [00:22:24] Speaker C: Absolutely not. Sauce gravy, folks. [00:22:27] Speaker A: I just had to check, as referenced in the book, the queen of Steeplechase park. [00:22:32] Speaker B: Well, as we always do, we get so wrapped up in conversations with our guests that we forget to talk about food. [00:22:38] Speaker A: The food parts of the book are. [00:22:40] Speaker B: Fantastic, and this book is chocked full of it, including 16 italian american recipes which you can cook in the comfort of your own home. And being your husband, I get to experience most, if not all of them on a regular basis. So would you please give us a taste of some of the recipes your readers can look forward to cooking in between chapters of reading? [00:23:01] Speaker C: Well, of course, tomato gravy meatballs, the magic meatball recipes in there. Chicken parmesan, which is one of my personal favorites. Eggplant Parmesan, my grandmother's italian baked chicken is featured in the book as well. A lot of family recipes. [00:23:18] Speaker B: And then throughout the story, you're talking about food so much, it just makes people hungry. So you give them that break of, like, why don't you take a break and make something now? [00:23:25] Speaker C: Exactly. I'll drop in a recipe and say, time to cook something. Brian told me, you know, initially, tave thought, well, I'm going to just skip over the recipes. But then you, I guess, had read one or two, and you realized that there are asides and Easter eggs hidden within those recipes. Like, oh, while you're stirring, think of your first heartbreak. Stir in the lost love that you thought you'd never see again. Conjure that person. Bring them into the kitchen. Give them a kiss. Do a little dance. Wait for things to settle in your pants. That's a bawdy bit of Bella. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Oh, yes. I mean, that was even some of my favorite stuff in the book. And I loved when we would get to say, like, the third recipe, and I thought, oh, he's gonna mention the olive oil, and it's the olive oil of kings. And I, of course, want to read every single ingredient and description. And it was so fresh and original to see that. And it got me really excited about talking, I guess, about this connection that food has for people. I mean, it is a very, very personal and intimate thing, I think food is. And some of these recipes are almost like spells or meditations and what a beautiful thing? [00:24:42] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, for me, cooking is a meditation. I love to cook, and especially if I'm having a particularly challenging day, or I'm feeling anxious and I feel, oh, I can't cook dinner tonight. I'm so tired. But I get in that kitchen, and I start slamming those garlic cloves and taking the skin off and throwing them in the pot with the olive oil, and they sizzle. I just immediately become calm and centered, and whatever happened during the day completely melts away, and I'm so in the moment, and the cooking spirit takes over. [00:25:14] Speaker B: How and when did the cooking spirit find you? [00:25:17] Speaker C: Cooking spirit found me through my mother, who was an amazing cook. She was actually portuguese, and she learned to cook italian food at the corner store on her block on Kruger Place, which is significant in the book from the woman who ran the store. Her name was Mary Lomonaco. In the book, she's big Betty Lomonico, and Bella learns to cook from her. But that's where my mother learned to cook. And actually, her mother was an amazing cook as well. And my father's mother, my italian grandmother, was an incredible cook. So the cooking spirit found me through them. [00:25:49] Speaker B: And were you cooking as a child? [00:25:51] Speaker C: Never. I would just show up at the table, and it would be there as if by magic, you know? I lost my mother in 1999. She passed away at the age of 62. I never actually had the opportunity to cook with her, and I wish I had. I didn't really start cooking seriously until I left New Jersey and was establishing my life and my adulthood in California. And that's how I started cooking that and just the memories of all the delicious meals I ate that my grandmothers and my mother made. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Speaking of food, Laura, during the pandemic, in that time of isolation, when so many people learned to make their own sourdough bread, many people also turned to writing. We understand your next book, forthcoming in 2025, is called Imagine a Door, a writer's guide to unlocking your story, choosing a publishing path, and honoring the creative journey. Educate us on the differences, if you will, between self publishing, independent presses, and large commercial publishers. [00:26:56] Speaker D: Absolutely. In fact, that is the chapter I've been mired in for months. I'm working on revisions right now, and there are a lot of nuances. I wanted to work on this book in the first place because there are so many writers who are brave on the page, as we talked about, and they are ready to put their work into the world, and when they get rejections or when they get accepted, but the press can't fulfill obligations that they expected would happen with their novels or their story collections or whatever, then the writers take it personally. They shut down on themselves. They can stop writing. They can feel negatively about their work. And so I am coming to this project from a sense of wanting to empower writers and wanting to remind everybody that writing is pleasure, writing is play. It can be joy, and it can be emotional also. But when we start putting the process of finding a publisher in the mix with creating the art, we can get daunted easily. I mean, I wrote several novels before my 15 year novel. I've been writing books in second grade, and it took until my mid forties to get my first novel out. So I'm writing for those folks. So, to answer your question, the big presses are now known as the Big five. They're the New York presses. They have excellent, huge staffs, and they've got in house distribution to get the books into the hands of book buyers across the world. Independent presses can vary widely in size. A standard small press, I would say, usually has six to twelve titles a year. Forest Avenue has one to three titles a year. So we're like a micro press. And then there's hybrid presses, where you have to pay something in exchange for getting support and services. And then there's self publishing, where you go out and you do the thing yourself. And there's a lot of overlap. If you want to self publish, you might hire a cover designer like Gigi little to do your cover so your book looks elegant or fun, so readers will find your book. There are a lot of services and a lot of pieces of bookmaking that are the same for all of them. But the big difference is distribution. How does a book get from your laptop screen into the hands of readers? And particularly the physical books, ebooks, you can put them out on platforms and people can buy them. But physical books, presses that have distribution, are a lot more likely to get your books into bookstores. So we're not quite there yet, timing wise. But pretty soon I will be seeing orders from stores in New York and orders from stores in Michigan and even Florida, and we will see these orders coming in for the Queen of Steeplechase park, because I, as forest Avenue Press publisher, work with a fabulous group of field sales reps at publishers Group west, which is owned by Ingram, a big book catalog company. And my field sales reps will go out and they will be telling the bookstore buyers about Bella and about the 16 recipes and about why they think that this book would do well in their stores. And those book buyers will say like, oh, yeah, I'll buy three copies. It's a lot of emotional effort and love that goes into selling books into stores. And when you have a distribution with a sales team that does that, your book is going to be seen by more buyers, which means it will be purchased by more buyers. And then you have to hope you have enough publicity and marketing and all that stuff to get the customers to than buy the book off the shelves. So it's a multi point process to get the book into hands of readers. And with distribution as a small press, I feel it's like the golden ticket for us and for Bella. If I couldn't do that, I would feel like so sad and so small presses and distribution, that's a thing I wanted to add. [00:30:44] Speaker B: When David was querying, it was quite an epic journey, but it's also very different for everyone. Don't get hung up on well, my other friend got their book accepted by the first agent that read it. [00:30:56] Speaker D: That's so much why I'm writing Imaginador is because we hear these stories, and for those of us who have been trying to be writers, who have been writing and doing the work for 20, 30, 40 years, we've heard all these stories about what success means, and we don't have to focus on that type of success. We can go after the experience that we want, and it might not be what we think we're looking for. And so opening ourselves up to the possibilities and looking for the path that makes the most sense for who we are as people, what we want to put in the world, I love that I have distribution for my press, and if I couldn't do that and Bella was only going to be like a set of data points on a website somewhere, I would have said, no, you don't want to go with me. You want to find someone else. But because I have the ability to get Bella out there in physical, voluptuous, bodacious form, we get to do that together. [00:31:52] Speaker C: Thank you, Laura. And aside from the queen of Steeplechase park, you have two other titles. Can we give them a shout out? [00:31:59] Speaker D: Absolutely. Chicano Frankenstein by Daniel a. Olivas. He's a very talented author who has eleven or twelve books out already, and he reimagined Frankenstein from a chicano perspective. And it's set in Pasadena, where he lives, and it's full of political satire also. It's wonderful. And trust me by Scott Nadalson, which is a father daughter story. The father is divorced, and the book, set in Oregon, takes a look at 52 custody weekends of him and his daughter out in the woods. It's beautiful. [00:32:32] Speaker B: So if people go to their local bookstore and can't find any of your books that you've just mentioned, where would they find them? Online? [00:32:39] Speaker D: Bookshop.org is my favorite place to recommend. If you're an audiobook listener. Libro FM donates percentages to bookstores. Bookshop.org does the same thing for print books. So if you go to bookshop.org and you have a local bookstore you love, you can type their name in and then they'll get a percentage of the sale. [00:32:58] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool. [00:32:59] Speaker D: What? [00:32:59] Speaker A: I love all the community building around this. [00:33:02] Speaker B: And will the queen of Steeplechase park be an audiobook? [00:33:05] Speaker D: It will be an audiobook. In fact, thank you for the leading question there. We sold the rights Tantor audio group and we were given a chance to sneak preview the narrator that they had chosen, and we both were excited. [00:33:20] Speaker A: I'm looking forward to hearing it. But I want everyone out there to know that it is so playful and it does go into so many different things. But the chapters are short, they are fun, they are poignant. Everything is like, imbibed down. Like, that's where that 20 years, I think, went, was imbibing down that broth. [00:33:39] Speaker C: Like a good ragu. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:33:41] Speaker B: SNL's gonna make a skin on that, David, I swear. Laura, on behalf of Tave and myself and the writing audience out there listening, we thank you for your knowledge, your contributions, your kindness. [00:33:54] Speaker D: Thank you so much for having me. [00:33:56] Speaker B: But before we let you go, may I ask you what your favorite soup is? [00:33:59] Speaker D: Well, I've been loving making a delicious pot of brothy beans lately with heirloom beans from rancho Gordo. I'm a little bit obsessed. I finally got into their bean club where quarterly they send you shipments of heirloom beans that are very fresh. Sometimes it's just beans with a little broth in them that I can serve over something. And sometimes I throw in carrots, onion, celery, garlic, whatever I have and make it a full bodied soup. The flavor and the textures and the colors make me really happy. [00:34:32] Speaker A: David, what is your favorite soup? [00:34:35] Speaker C: Well, my all time favorite soup is, is tortellini ambrodo. It's usually cheese or meat tortellini in a clear broth with a little parmesan cheese grated over it. Tortellini are intricate to make. I can't make them. So when I see it in a restaurant, I order it. And I want to ask you, tave, have you had that in Italy. [00:34:55] Speaker A: I have had that. It's very famous in the Bologna area. So for those who don't know, Portland, Oregon is the sister city to Bologna. In Italy, they are known for Parmigiano, balsamic vinegar, the tortellini that you're talking about, which sometimes people refer to as belly Button pasta because there's a story that someone was looking through a keyhole and they saw this princess undressing and all they could see was her belly button. And it got them so excited, they went downstairs to make this pasta that would look like her belly button. [00:35:30] Speaker B: So on that note, I want to thank you both for today's conversation. To follow David's journey, please go to his website, davidcimonello.com, which is spelled David. [00:35:41] Speaker D: David. [00:35:41] Speaker A: And then Ciminello. Ciminello. [00:35:49] Speaker B: And to find out more about Laura, hers is laurastanfill.com. [00:35:54] Speaker A: Laura, like it sounds. Laura. And then stanfill. S t a n f I ll. [00:36:01] Speaker B: L. And while you're there, sign up for her monthly newsletter or go to. [00:36:05] Speaker A: Forestavenupress.Com and find your next favorite author. [00:36:10] Speaker B: David, congratulations on your incredible book tave, and I wish you all the best as you and Laura release Bella Donna Marie and her magical meatballs into the world. [00:36:20] Speaker C: Thank you, Brian. And thank you, Tavern. [00:36:22] Speaker A: You are welcome. It's been an honor and a privilege have this time with you and I just am looking forward to following your star. You're listening to peace, love and soup. [00:36:46] Speaker B: Did you know. Did you know that over 788 million print books were sold in the US in 2022? 404 million were fiction and 360 million were nonfiction. [00:36:59] Speaker A: Fun fact. If you read 20 minutes a day, that's 1.8 million words in a year. [00:37:05] Speaker C: Brian and Tave, did you know the word for loving the smell of old books is bibliosmia? [00:37:11] Speaker A: I did not know that. [00:37:12] Speaker B: I didn't either. Did you know? American boardwalk culture was born in Coney island. Its lively promenade of diverse attractions and eateries became emblematic of seaside leisure. In its heyday, Coney island was the largest amusement park in the US, attracting millions of visitors each year. [00:37:30] Speaker A: Did you know? In June 1884, Coney island welcomed its first ride. The switchback railway, considered to be the first american roller coaster, was 600ft long, ran at 6, was powered by gravity. You may be familiar with the cyclone, which has been captivating thrill seekers in Coney island since 1927. This iconic wooden roller coaster continues to evoke screams of delight, preserving its status as a beloved landmark. [00:38:05] Speaker B: I rode the cyclone once. It is painful. [00:38:08] Speaker A: I think it would be horrifyingly terrifying. [00:38:11] Speaker C: It killed my back. Did you know Oconee island sideshow provided a breakthrough in the medical care of premature babies? In 1903, Doctor Martin Cooney drew in crowds with a sign saying living babies in incubators. The setup involved rows of premature babies in ventilated glass cases, tended to by a rotating team of wet nurses and medical technicians. Viewers were charged admission so parents didn't have to pay a dime for the care of their little ones. Doctor Cooney treated over 8000 infants, saving the lives of over 6500. By the time the exhibit closed in 1943, his methods were being used in mainstream hospitals everywhere. [00:38:57] Speaker A: Incredible. [00:38:58] Speaker B: Did you know the word pasta comes from the italian word for paste? There are more than 600 different pasta shapes, each ideal for different dishes and holding different sauces or gravies. [00:39:09] Speaker C: Did you know olive oil is gold? Well, not literally, but it holds a very important place in the italian cuisine scene. Technically, olives are fruit, and like grapes and apples, they are juiced. And that is how olive oil is produced. [00:39:25] Speaker A: Fun fact, in general, olive trees live for 500 years, but some in the Mediterranean live upwards of 2000 years. [00:39:35] Speaker B: Did you know that in September of 2022, the world's longest canolo, which is the italian singular for cannoli, was made in Caltanisetta, Sicily? [00:39:44] Speaker A: I've been there. [00:39:45] Speaker B: Oh, really? It's widely believed to be the birthplace of cannoli. It measured in at a whopping 70ft and destroyed the previous Guinness book record of 16 and a half feet. [00:39:55] Speaker A: It took a team of 80 pastry chefs from all over Italy 12 hours to construct the canolo of Caltanisetta, which contained more than 1300 pounds of ricotta cheese, 77 pounds of sugar and copious amounts of cinnamon, chocolate chips and ground pistachio grains. [00:40:16] Speaker C: Holy cannoli, or should I say holy canola? [00:40:30] Speaker A: Peace, love and soup is here at mother's Bistro and bar in downtown Portland, Oregon, with owner and renowned international comfort food chef Lisa Schroeder. [00:40:41] Speaker D: Hi, Lisa. [00:40:42] Speaker E: Hi. So happy to be here. [00:40:44] Speaker B: We're happy to be here. This is your place? [00:40:46] Speaker E: Yes, I'm the chef here. [00:40:48] Speaker A: And we brought David Ciminello to cook in celebration of his debut novel, the Queen of Steeplechase park, and Bella, his main character. Welcome, David. [00:41:00] Speaker C: Thank you, Tave. Thank you, Brian. Hi, Lisa. [00:41:03] Speaker E: Hi. [00:41:04] Speaker A: Now, you two know each other, I hear. [00:41:06] Speaker C: Yeah, actually, I'm known in the mother's universe as chimmy. [00:41:10] Speaker E: And the reason being is that when he came to our employee, we had so many davids, so we nicknamed him Chimmy. [00:41:17] Speaker C: When I moved to Portland from Los Angeles and decided to follow my creative heart. I ended up on mother's doorstep and she hired me. And I was a waiter and I wrote and waited and wrote and waited. [00:41:27] Speaker E: All the while talking about this book. [00:41:29] Speaker C: We both talked about our books, Lisa's cookbook and my novel with recipes in it. [00:41:34] Speaker A: So what are we making today? [00:41:36] Speaker E: Today we're making a cioppino. Sometimes it's called a cachuco. Also known in the book as Bella Donna Marie's stuffaro di frutta de mari. [00:41:46] Speaker A: Good pronunciation. [00:41:48] Speaker E: Mi piaceri palari italiano. I like to speak Italian. [00:41:51] Speaker A: And today we are using your recipe, though, Lisa. [00:41:54] Speaker E: We are. But it's very similar. The only thing that's really different is I leave out the fennel because I'm not a fan of fennel. And I already made my tomato basil sauce because I use it here as an ingredient in the restaurant. So it's a lot easier for me to start with that than start from scratch like Bella does. [00:42:10] Speaker A: I want to add that like so many things, a recipe is just a starting point and we can use our cooking spirit or whatever we have in the house to make what we want. Right? [00:42:21] Speaker E: Cooking is baking. Not so. Cooking is not an exact science. Here. We're using manila clams, cod and shrimp. If you're on the east coast, you might be using blue crab. Quahogs. Do you pronounce it quahog? [00:42:36] Speaker B: I say quahog. [00:42:37] Speaker E: Quahog. Sorry. You can switch around the seafood just like when you're making a gumbo. You don't want to overcook the seafood. Short and sweet is super important when making a cioppino. Alrighty. So what I'm doing now is I'm getting my ingredients together, my mise en place to be efficient when I'm cooking and talking to you, I'm lining up my ingredients in the order that they're going to go in the pan. All right. So now I'm going to heat my pan and then I'll add my olive oil. See how it's shimmering. I'm going to bloom my three, four of a teaspoon of red chili flour and my three quarters of a teaspoon. I went a little more about a teaspoon of garlic. I don't want it to be too hot because I don't want to burn my garlic. Now I'm adding twelve mussels. So a dozen mussels and a dozen clams. [00:43:26] Speaker A: And they're in the shell still. [00:43:28] Speaker E: They are in the shell. And we're going to get that tossed around in the oil. And now we're going to add six tablespoons of white wine, which is about three quarters of a cup. This is shrimp stock. I didn't have fish stock. Three quarters of a cup of shrimp stock. And we're going to put a cover on this and let these open up. [00:43:50] Speaker A: Will you share with us your origin story of mothers? [00:43:53] Speaker E: Well, the story is, is I grew up with a mother who was an amazing cook. She had a restaurant before I was born. It was called the little spot in Philadelphia. She was a great cookie and would cook for the family and did four course french meals. Eventually I started realizing that I loved food so much. So I'd make coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, creme brulee, cooking on the side, catering on the side, dreaming about food. Anyway, I never thought that cooking could be a career. And then one day, after my 13th hour at my job, I'm trying to figure out what to do for dinner for my husband, my daughter and I. Where can I get mother food? Where can I get the kind of food that I would make? So 1993, light bulb goes off in my head. I'm going to open up a restaurant that serves mother food. It'll have pictures of mothers and children on the wall, will feature the cuisine of a different mother every month. We'll tell her story. And every day is Mother's Day at Mother's. And then everything I did for the next eight years from that moment on led me to opening my restaurant. [00:44:52] Speaker A: And food is a way of mothering people as well. [00:44:55] Speaker E: Gosh, italian mothers, they live for it. [00:44:57] Speaker A: Yes. [00:44:58] Speaker E: I mean, and jewish mothers, too, right? [00:45:00] Speaker A: Exactly. And I want to bring up in May, you are going to be featuring Bella Donna Marie as your mother of May. [00:45:07] Speaker E: Yes. [00:45:08] Speaker A: And what does that look like when you're featuring a mother in mother's restaurant? [00:45:12] Speaker E: Well, we try to offer one of their appetizers, entree and dessert. We're going to see what works. And the seafood stew may be one of them. But what else do you think, chimmy? [00:45:22] Speaker C: I was thinking maybe Bella Donna Marie's magic meatballs. [00:45:24] Speaker E: Yes. Her balls are great. [00:45:26] Speaker C: They're spicy and they're delicious. Can't get a good spaghetti and meatballs in Portland. [00:45:31] Speaker E: No. [00:45:31] Speaker C: And I think with the marriage of mothers and Bella Portlanders will finally be able to get a fantastic spaghetti and meatballs. [00:45:37] Speaker E: Yes. [00:45:38] Speaker C: Your eyes lit up when you saw the cannoli cake recipe. [00:45:41] Speaker E: I've never served a cannoli cake so we're gonna have to look at that and see if we could serve that. [00:45:45] Speaker C: If you do an appetizer, you could do simple burrata with olive oil and maybe some herbs and a nice bread. [00:45:51] Speaker E: Yeah, we can make our own mozzarella. [00:45:54] Speaker C: Perfect. In honor of Francis Anthony Mozzarelli, the father of Bella's baby. [00:45:58] Speaker E: Done. Now I'm seasoning my seafood with salt and pepper. A lot of people just add something to a stew, and they don't bother to season it itself. And I believe every ingredient in every dish should be seasoned. So whether you're cooking mushrooms that's going in a boef bourguignon or tomatoes going in a sauce, season that, and now you smell that amazing. Clams and mussels. Now I'm adding the rest of the seafood. So I've got a dozen fingers of cod here. So it's about 12oz of fish filets, 6oz of calamari, and twelve fresh shrimp. And this is all gonna cook only about five or so minutes. I'm also going to add three cups of already made tomato basil sauce, three pinches of dry basil, and three pinches of dry thyme. [00:46:52] Speaker B: Look at how gorgeous that looks. [00:46:54] Speaker E: So we're going to let this go just a little bit before I cover it and chit chat some more. [00:46:59] Speaker C: Speaking of mothers and mothering, are there any special interesting stories from your upbringing, Lisa, that you can share with us? [00:47:05] Speaker E: Well, my father had a beauty salon, and so most of the men that worked there were gay, and my parents would need a babysitter, and they would call one of their hairdressers. So I was raised by gay men. One day they came home, and the next morning, I said, how was your night? What did you do? And my mother said, there was a contest, and we judged transvestites. I said, what is that? She said, men dressed up as women. And I thought, okay, yeah, sure. That's totally normal. And, you know, no problem. Well, fast forward about 40 years. I'm living in Portland, Oregon, and they asked me to judge RuPaul's drag race up at redcap garage with poison waters being the emcee. And I felt like, oh, my God, I've arrived. I've been asked to judge drag. I'm just like my parents. So I came full circle, and so I feel very at home with the LGBTQ community. They have supported me so much at mothers, I cannot begin to tell you. In fact, the only flag I have hanging is the rainbow flag, because they are my people. They are just my brothers, my sisters, my aunts, you know, my mothers, I wish, and my boyfriends, never. But I will continue to support the community and always have from day one. I mean, I did no one, nine, no one measure 36, every campaign that they could wage against the gay community, and I just will fight until the day I die for their rights. [00:48:30] Speaker C: And the queen of Steeplechase park is such a celebration of queerness and otherness. So you fit right in. Thank you, Lisa, for all of your love, all of your work, and all of your mothering. [00:48:39] Speaker E: Mm. Love ya. So I'm about to now add some spinach. One handful, two handfuls, three handfuls of fresh, clean spinach, and I'm gonna stir that in. I love a cioppino, but I feel like it's just not enough with the seafood. I need a little green in there. That's why I add spinach to mine, which may or may not be traditional. [00:49:04] Speaker B: Do you know the history of this dish? [00:49:06] Speaker E: The italian immigrants brought their seafood stew from Italy, and so probably this got its name from Sicily, south Italy, and Cachuco is in the north, but it really came from Italians bringing their favorite dishes when they immigrated. So in this, I'm adding six tablespoons of parsley. We want it to be a fresh, herbaceous flavor. You could serve this on a bed of linguine, or you can serve it with crostini to sop up the juices. Or just nice, crusty bread, you know. [00:49:35] Speaker B: And over at peace, lemon soup. We get a lot of comments. That's not a soup. That's a stew. What are your thoughts? [00:49:41] Speaker E: I made this a little watery, so I would grab a tablespoon and call it a soup. But typically, a stew is more unctuous than a soup. A soup should be able to fall off the spoon and not look like mashed potatoes. [00:49:55] Speaker A: This is so enlightening. We are hearing things from you in our number of years of doing this that we have never heard from anyone. [00:50:03] Speaker E: Well, I have to tell you, you know, I'm a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. I worked in four star restaurants in New York and France. I learned the way of doing things, all the while knowing I was going to open up this restaurant called mothers. So I know things. There's a reason why we do certain things. And if you teach people why you do things, then they learn how to do it for the future. Teach a person how to fish they eat for a lifetime. Give them a fish they eat for a day. [00:50:28] Speaker B: Now Lisa is tasting the chiappino. [00:50:31] Speaker E: Oh, I think it gets the Lisa, seal approval. We'll let it go about two more minutes, and it'll be ready to eat. [00:50:35] Speaker B: How long did you cook that for? [00:50:37] Speaker E: I would say. People ask me times in this case, until all the fish looks opaque and the shells are all open. That's your sign. This is done. You may want to take the lid off and reduce it a little bit to concentrate the flavors, but don't go too long, or your seafood will get tough. I would say this is ballpark seven to ten minutes. So now I'm going to turn this off, and we'll dig in. [00:51:00] Speaker B: Let's do it. All right, so we've sat at the most beautiful tables at mother's restaurant, and we're tasting the chioppino. [00:51:06] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Delicious. So good. And only a half hour, and we have chioppino magic, right? [00:51:17] Speaker A: Literally one half hour. That's incredible. [00:51:20] Speaker E: Well, admittedly, if we didn't start out with tomato basil sauce, as it is in Bella's recipe, it would have been longer, but we did get a jump start there. [00:51:29] Speaker B: I love the spice in it, that little kick. And I'm a garlic lover, so that's hitting me in all the right spots. I spent a lot of time in Cape Cod, so all these shellfish in a bowl. Amazing. And I'm gonna dip my bread into it now. [00:51:40] Speaker A: I appreciate having the spinach in here. It gives a different texture as well. [00:51:45] Speaker E: You need a little greens in your life, a little fiber. [00:51:48] Speaker A: This food that you have made for us today, it makes me feel cared for and appreciated. [00:51:53] Speaker C: It makes me feel hugged, right? [00:51:54] Speaker A: I mean, we talk about mothering as we're sitting here in mother's restaurant. Like, when I think of people mothering me, it's so many more people than just my mother. And so my question to you is, who mothers you? [00:52:07] Speaker E: Well, sadly, I am not mothered enough. My mother died when I was 21. I had just given birth to my daughter, so I have not been mothered. I looked to other women, to mother me because my mother was an alcoholic. She wasn't really present, and so I. I had to look elsewhere for that. I had a neighbor who mothered me. Some of her friends I used to call aunt. And in fact, at my graduation from high school, I did my speech thanking all the people that had mothered me and ushered me and taken care of me. [00:52:43] Speaker A: I'd like to put it out to the universe that more people come and be in your life. To mother you. [00:52:48] Speaker E: Yes. I'll take it. [00:52:49] Speaker B: Then Tavia and I both go to Burning man and we know you go to Burning man. Do you feel mothered there? [00:52:53] Speaker E: Well, that's a great question, but here's the dilemma. I went to Burning man for twelve solid years, and on my first year I was trying to debate what am I going to contribute to the community? And so I figured I'll be the jewish mother of Burning man. So I set up a booth, I give jewish motherly advice, and over the years people have come with all sorts of questions. So no, I don't get mothered at Burning Man. I go and mother others. I don't know how to stop. [00:53:19] Speaker D: Stop. [00:53:19] Speaker B: So if any burners are listening to this podcast when they see you the next time at Burning man, please help Mama wits. [00:53:26] Speaker E: Mama wits. Just to note, the very first time I was the jewish mother of Burning man. In 2009, a jewish blog came by called the Wanzering Jew Yodel. I hear Jew. So google jewish mother of Burning man. You'll see me doing my shtick. It was irreverent as Mamawitz. [00:53:43] Speaker B: Can we ask you in the characters of. Then you can give us some advice. So David, do you want to go first? [00:53:49] Speaker E: Go ahead. What do you got for me, Jimmy? [00:53:50] Speaker C: Well, Mama Witz, I'm a 15 year old girl and I got knocked up by a really gorgeous guy. My father's gonna frickin kill me. How do I tell him? What do I do? [00:53:59] Speaker E: Ah, that's a tough one. And you're hell bent on keeping the baby? [00:54:04] Speaker C: Yes. [00:54:05] Speaker E: You wouldn't. You wouldn't do anything not to keep the baby? [00:54:08] Speaker C: No. No, no. [00:54:09] Speaker E: Well, is your dad a nice guy? [00:54:12] Speaker C: No, he's horrible. Treats me like dirt, makes me wash his feet, knocked out one of my teeth. [00:54:17] Speaker E: Oh my gosh, you're in trouble. Oi, yo yo yo yo. [00:54:22] Speaker C: Run to Coney Island. [00:54:24] Speaker E: I would. Yup. You have no alternative. [00:54:26] Speaker C: Exactly. And then of course, there's Frances, Anthony Mozzarelli's mother. Who would say Mamawitz? I'm Mary Mozzarelli. And some whore has come into my gorgeous son's life and he knocked her up. I want to kill her. Should I kill her? [00:54:41] Speaker E: No, because she is carrying your grandchild. You need to learn acceptance. They have enough problems in their life. You would be killing the future generations of your family. You were a kid once yourself. Did you not do anything naughty? And you need to ask yourself, do you want to have love in your life and a beautiful child that you can raise and love, or do you want to be like her father and alienate them? You need to be the love in the family. Not the nasty. [00:55:12] Speaker A: I feel like you should open up a booth here in mother's restaurant doing this very thing. Mama Witz. [00:55:17] Speaker E: Yes. [00:55:18] Speaker A: I was born in one body, and I'd really like to be living in a different kind of one. And so in my free time, when I know I'm not going to be around other people that know me as my day to day self, I become what I feel like I really am. How do I know if I ever can or when I should unveil my true inner self to the world? [00:55:42] Speaker E: I feel that in life, you have got to be who you are and not keep it down and hide it, because we all have a destiny in life. And if you are squashing something in you, then you are keeping this from the universe. And it's not fair. It's meant to be out there. So you've got to take the next steps. Close a door, and you know what they say, you close one door and another one opens. Close the door to the wrong self and open it up to your true self. [00:56:12] Speaker B: You're good. [00:56:14] Speaker A: I'm 100% serious about the booth in the front. [00:56:17] Speaker E: I would be honored to be the jewish mother of Portland. I'm here for them. [00:56:21] Speaker B: Lisa, what's your favorite soup? [00:56:22] Speaker E: My favorite soup is, I think, the most important soup in the world, and that is chicken soup. Whether you're jewish, greek, italian, every mother makes their version of chicken soup, and it is restorative and nutritious, and I like to call it jewish penicillin, but it's, I think, every mother's way of taking care of their kids. So my jewish penicillin, I think, is pretty darn good. All it is is whole chickens. We use whole chickens in our soup, not just bones. Whole onion, whole carrot, whole celery, whole parsnip and parsley leaves, salt and pepper. That's it. And that just cooks for hours and hours. And then the final coup de grace, the thing that is the little special something something is fresh dill. [00:57:08] Speaker A: The parsnip is an interesting ad. [00:57:10] Speaker E: Yeah. So it's in my cookbook. [00:57:11] Speaker A: Tell our listeners the name of your cookbook. [00:57:14] Speaker E: Mother's best food that takes you home again. [00:57:17] Speaker B: And if you want to reach out to you, come down to the restaurant. [00:57:19] Speaker E: You have a website, mothersbistro.com, comma. We sell it on the website. You can get the book here. [00:57:24] Speaker B: All right, well, thank you so much for cooking with us today and making this beautiful soup. [00:57:28] Speaker E: It was a fun morning. [00:57:29] Speaker A: It's been a huge treat, and I'd like to thank you again for opening your restaurant and your heart to us. [00:57:34] Speaker E: I knew I could do it for you. [00:57:36] Speaker C: And I want to say Bella Donna Marie Donana will be mother of the month in May. Come on down and taste some of the food inspired by the book. [00:57:42] Speaker E: Yes, come to mothers in May and taste Bella Donna's food. [00:57:45] Speaker C: Bon appetito. Mangiare. Bene. Stare. Bene da lizioso. [00:57:51] Speaker B: Ciao, ciao, ciao, tutti. [00:58:02] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to peace, love and soup. [00:58:05] Speaker B: Audio nourishment for the heart and mind. [00:58:08] Speaker A: With Brian Delaney and Ottavia Fasche. [00:58:14] Speaker B: Who knows where life will lead us next, but we're always excited to bring you new shows of peace, love and soup as we develop and grow. [00:58:21] Speaker A: It's going to be a delicious time. So catch David Ciminello at a reading, buy his book the Queen of Steeplechase park and try some of the recipes inside. [00:58:30] Speaker B: Or contact Octavia and go to Italy and eat with her. [00:58:34] Speaker E: Yes. [00:58:34] Speaker A: Oh, actually, I just had an idea. Why don't I put together a queen of steeplechase park tour of Sierra Cuza and maybe doing some of the recipes from the book? Or maybe up in Bologna and doing an LGBTQ tour or both? [00:58:49] Speaker C: Perfecto. [00:58:50] Speaker A: Cosa pensi. [00:58:51] Speaker C: Perfecto. [00:58:52] Speaker A: Arrivederci. For more information about today's show, visit. [00:58:56] Speaker B: Us on our website, peaceloveandsoup.com. [00:58:59] Speaker A: Please like us on Facebook and follow. [00:59:01] Speaker C: Us on Instagram at peaceloveandsoup.