{"id":65,"date":"2014-07-16T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2014\/07\/you-should-totally-buy-lucas-book-giveaway.html"},"modified":"2014-12-26T18:08:17","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T23:08:17","slug":"you-should-totally-buy-lucas-book-giveaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2014\/07\/you-should-totally-buy-lucas-book-giveaway.html","title":{"rendered":"You Should Totally Buy Luca’s Book (Giveaway!!!!)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last year, I undertook an epic journey through Hell and Buffalo, Texas <\/a>to see my college roommate. <\/a>The beginning of this year, I flew to Virginia to see her again and celebrate her birthday. (One of the plane\u2019s engines died over Little Rock. Why can\u2019t it ever be an uneventful journey to see her?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Look how cute we are!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

She\u2019s a huge MasterChef <\/a>fan, and an even bigger fan of Season 4\u2019s winner Luca Manfe, so she was beyond excited when her husband arranged to have Luca make dinner for her and a few friends. (He can make dinner for you too. Here\u2019s his website<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I could write numerous blog posts about that dinner. The food was amazing. The setting was gorgeous. Luca was funny and charming. His beautiful wife, Cate, was incredibly kind, and at one point left me in awe with her delicate, respectful, quiet, and yet firm defense of her Christian faith. (Seriously, she blew me away. I want to be her when I grow up.)<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the point of this post.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, Luca released his new cookbook My Italian Kitchen<\/a>. <\/i>I sent him a Facebook message (yeah, we\u2019re \u201cfriends\u201d now. I\u2019m cool like that.) and asked how I could get an autographed copy to donate to a local JRA fundraiser. I wanted to buy it, I just wanted him to sign it. He told me \u201cDon\u2019t be ridiculous. Let me send you one.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he did!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I carefully glanced through it, and quickly decided that I needed one for myself. I got mine last week, and I\u2019m in love. I\u2019ll admit up front that I\u2019m not an Italian cook. My idea of Italian cooking is opening a jar of Prego. (Sorry, Luca!) I just wasn\u2019t raised that way. I can make all kind of Mexican food like a pro, but there weren\u2019t that many Italian cooks in small town South Texas.<\/p>\n

I love this book. (Did I say that already?) It makes me able to pretend to know how to cook like this, and be able to convince other people that I can too. The genius of this book is in the writing (and in the recipes!) There are thousands of cook books out there, but this one is written as if Luca were standing in your kitchen and explaining it to you himself. It\u2019s friendly and easy-going, and takes most of the fear out of cooking Italian for me.<\/p>\n

So far, I\u2019ve made his basic pasta recipe (easy peasy!) and his steak with vanilla sauce (oh my holy goodness!) I don\u2019t know how many hours I\u2019ve spent drooling over the food porn that is My Italian Kitchen<\/a>, <\/i>but it\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

I decided that I couldn\u2019t keep this to myself, so I\u2019m giving a copy away. Usually when I give away books, the publisher or the author gives me a promotional copy. Not this time. I didn\u2019t even ask. (He\u2019d already given me one for the fundraiser anyway.) I like it so much that I\u2019m buying the giveaway copy myself! (See? That\u2019s love right there.)<\/p>\n

If you want to win one, leave me a comment and tell me why you love Luca (or better yet, why you\u2019re a Cate Manfe fan!), your favorite Italian dish, or what scares you about cooking Italian. You have from now until Friday at Midnight to enter. I\u2019ll pick a random winner on Saturday!<\/p>\n

Hooray!!!!! It\u2019s a cook book giveaway!!!<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t win, you should absolutely buy this book! It\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n

Also, go visit my friend Scottie\u2019s DIY website<\/a> and see how she\u2019s so much more than a pretty face. She\u2019s a genius!!!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, I undertook an epic journey through Hell and Buffalo, Texas to see my college roommate. The beginning of this year, I flew to Virginia to see her again and celebrate her birthday. (One of the plane\u2019s engines died over Little Rock. Why can\u2019t it ever be an uneventful journey to see her?) Look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Should Totally Buy Luca's Book (Giveaway!!!!)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last year, I undertook an epic journey through Hell and Buffalo, Texas to see my college roommate. 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