When Clare Osdene Schapiro invites you into her kitchen – as she does in her Richmond Times-Dispatch column, “Clare’s Kitchen” – you will join an enthusiastic, intrepid home cook who finds great satisfaction in whipping up delicious dishes to share with her beloved friends and family.Clare’s mix of sage advice – grow your own herbs if at all possible – and salty admonitions – don’t take the fun out of cooking by striving for perfection – enliven the stories she tells about her cooking adventures.You will find 75 recipes from Clare’s kitchen in this volume. They include treasures from her English mother, her Czech father and dozens of her original takes on old standards.And, as she will regularly remind you, love is the most essential ingredient of all.