In 1956, the families of two sisters, the Bartolini Girls, bought a two-flat on Detroit's east side. When our aunt's mother-in-law visited, there were twelve of us in residence. Lucky for us, the three women were incredible cooks. After Mom passed away - Nonna had preceded her - it became apparent that many of our treasured family recipes would be lost if steps weren't taken to record them all. With the help of the remaining Bartolini sister, my Zia Lea, I created a blog that would serve as repository for our recipes, some of which hadn't been prepared in decades. It didn't take long before we realized that discussion of the recipes often evoked memories of our life in the two-flat. We began to incorporate those recollections in the blog, as well. As the blog grew in both size and popularity, Zia suggested that I convert the blog to book form. I resisted because I realized that we had many more recipes to share. Now that we are nearing the end of the Bartolini family recipe file, I thought the time was right to create the book for Zia. "Recipes from the Bartolini Kitchens" is a compilation of the recipes that were primarily prepared by Mom, Zia Lea, and Nonna. It also includes the best of our memories of life under that one roof. You'll come for the recipes. You'll stay for the stories.