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Title: Stirring It Up! Author: Don Curto Publisher: Thumbs Up Publishing Form: Paperback Illustrated: Photographs, clip art Number of Pages: 237 ISBN: 0-9724913-0-9 Price: $14.95 + $4.45 (Shipping) = $19.40 Click Order Form to Order

Review:

“Over the years, I have revised my definition of a successful Marine: if you did all the jobs it asked of you without trying to avoid them and you are breathing today, you are successful.”

—Don Curto
from the chapter titled “It was a pretty slow millenium, but a damn fast century” 

Don Curto has been successful in a lot of things. He’s been a Marine, a newspaper editor, a chef, a college professor, a TV cooking show host, a restaurant owner, a magazine columnist and a political activist. And, finally, he’s compiled his more than eighty years of life experience into a witty first book.

Stirring It Up! is a collection of Curto’s favorite selections from his thirteen years as the “Food and Other Important Things” columnist for Marquette Monthly magazine.

Curto touches on it all. In addition to his pieces about food, food preparation and what makes a good restaurant, he talks about growing up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, his family, his time in the military, his travels around the world (including his steamy love affairs with Italy) and a host of other incidents that could only happen to him.

The book also contains guest columns written by Curto’s wife, Patricia J. Tikkanen, who is originally from Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula.

A variety of recipes are scattered throughout the book as well. Curto illustrates the proper techniques for creating such delicacies as chicken with tarragon, lemon balm steamed fish, pesto and venison chili with apples. There are even recipes for Curto’s and Tikkanen’s childhood favorites like tomato sandwiches and toasted Cheerios.

One-of-a-kind chapters include “A is for Asparagus,” “Summerthyme,” “About smuggling, a Cardinal and the Vatican,” and “On being an American citizen.”  Filled with personal anecdotes, photos and recipes for all seasons, Stirring It Up! has something for everyone.

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