Meet my grandmother, Frances (top right), and great aunts Josie (center) and Emily (top left), on their way to a Mardi Gras ball, all adorned in their prized Eva Gabor wigs! (Great Uncle Vincent was basically their late in life chauffeur.

These Italian ladies’ food was legend (below, my grandmother’s recipe for stuffed artichokes) and so was their gossip, completely uncensored for my eager young ears. I grew up in their kitchens, hearing their excited chatter about the escapades of the glamorous, scandalous Gabor sisters—their fashions, jewels, romances and (many, many) husbands. Sadly, my ancestresses died not knowing that they were shaping me as a writer. ... Read more.