Laura SchenoneRecensioni

Food writer Schenone documents her quest to discover the Genoese roots of her great-grandmother’s ravioli recipe. After interviewing several aunts, uncles, and cousins, Schenone makes a couple of trips to Genoa to look for ravioli makers who still use traditional methods and ingredients.

The food history is great, but the memoir is awkward. Schenone seems reluctant to probe too deeply. It feels like she’s allowing readers into her living room, dining room, and kitchen after she’s tidied them up for guests, while keeping the doors to her living space firmly shut.½

I was disappointed in this food memoir about the author's quest to find authentic family recipes. After failing to find the recipes in family sources, she traveled to the Genoese region from whence the family immigrated. She continued her quest in both the states and Italy until she found what she felt was similar to the original recipe. She added other recipes from the region to her repertoire as well. She eventually became a proficient ravioli maker and able to pass her recipe to future generations. There was something missing in the story's telling.

I have an elderly friend who is absolutely crazy about helping animals. I'm told that even a few years ago she frequently had multiple animals (many of them wild) living in her home and would frequently wander into the hills to feed coyotes and feral cats. I like animals too, but never to the degree she does - it's simply something I never understood. But after reading this book, I think I understand it a little better.

I was surprised at how much this book sucked me in. While the main focus is on greyhounds in Ireland, it wanders pretty much all over the place. From circus tigers and bears living in a backyard to pet spider monkeys to horses and donkeys and other farm animals; from old ladies rescuing strays off the street to Irish gypsies to dog racers - it's got a wide range. Some of the stories are heartbreaking, and others highly uplifting. And it's important to note that the author isn't a crazy animal lover and activist; she's a journalist writing about the industry and animal welfare in general and she even gives a chance for the dog breeders to have their say.

I have to say I enjoyed the book more than I anticipated. It's a very thought-provoking book. (I rec'd an advance copy from the publisher.)

A history of american women told through food, recipes, and remembrances. Read

DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do not read this book on an empty stomach. Schenone writes of her journey for her grt grandmother's lost ravioli recipe.Her journey reunites her with long lost family members and new cousins and firends in America and Italy.It also tests the patience of her family.Along the way she discovers her ancestral connection to Genoa,Italy,the town where her grt grandparents emmigrated from.This is a wonderful,enjoyable book!
Her life is enriched by the experience and brings new rewards to her everyday life and her family.The back of this book has receipes she acquired in her journey.
Love it!

The best part of this book, for me, were the recipes in the back.

Wonderful book about finding oneself in family heritage...thoughtful, interesting and with a NJ setting. What could be better!

I generally like this type of book but just couldn't get into this one.

I found her quest captivating. Although part of my family is from Piemonte and my grandmother's ravioli were delicious, I remember my step-grandmother's ravioli with special fondness. She was from Liguria. I wish I had her recipe for ravioli.

I think I'm a lemon, olive oil, and rosemary person, not a tomato sauce person.

I love this book! I grew up in an Italian-American family from our fine New York City and I cannot tell you just how many cultural intersections in this book I relate to! Well, maybe I can. Maybe I just did. The importance of family, the difference between working class upbringing and "higher aspirations", the power of food to unite many while bringing out their personalized histories. What a gem of a book! Many thanks Miz Schenone for bringing it all together with recipes!

Don’t let the size and depth of the “A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances” overwhelm you and keep you from reading this wonderfully written book. This book is an amazing history of how with women at the center of the home families and communities survived and flourished, carried from the early days of the wooly mammoth, through the days of westward movement past early Betty Crocker and dinner in a box, to todays return to green living, to fresh and real food in the preparation of meals. This book makes each era come alive. Not only does this book explain the hardships and challenges of food gathering and preparation as part of our history, but it also gives wonderful glimpses of women's lives during those times. It shows what amazing endurance and commitment that women had (and continue to have) as they prepared the food necessary to sustain and nurture their families and communities throughout the years.

There are recipes, stories of families and their struggles, and glimpses of history presented in a way that combines fact and storytelling and will expand your interest in those who have come before us. A wonderful book that can be read cover to cover or used as a resource and savored chapter by chapter. I loved this book and strongly recommend it.

Last book for 2010 and a very nice travel through the role of women in cooking. Some good recipes amidst history. What could be nicer?½

In searching for the authentic ravioli recipe from Genoa, the author shares her family immigration story and the family dynamics that create her background. She travels multiple times to Italy, learning from elders the authentic way to create regional dishes. The end of the book contains recipes and product sources because after reading so much about it...you definitely want to try to make homemade ravioli! Well written and engaging.

Why, oh why didn’t she arrange the book chronologically? I feel like we were just revisiting the same eras again and again. Just as we would move into the 1950s, a reference to the civil war would pop up again. Why?