I'm Besa ! Unlike any other title, I'd like to say I'm a very complicated recipe. I'm a whole lot of mom. A tad bit of an entrepreneur. A pinch of cook. A dash of writer. Many other zings in between. Sometimes, I don't even know what I am. God's Albanian concoction. I love cooking. I find it therapeutic. I was raised by my Mami's, golden hands and her unmatched cookery intellect. Like a kitchen goddess, she had the ability to create something out of nothing and still make it taste divine. Even when we lived in food rations, the heavenly aromas in our kitchen were the paste that kept our family together. I'm currently hurdling in my early forties, trying to re-create the very dishes that once brought me home. Though may never come close to Mami's palate, this book is an attempt to share my rich Albanian cuisine with a little bit of an American twist. At times, our recipes can be complicated with a variety of versions available, and with our busy schedules, time consuming. Hence, I have made an effort to show my self-taught, taste buds, simplified techniques I have learned through trial and error. I live in Orlando, home of every international restaurant other than Albanian. Who knows, I may soon open one as I have been told many times I should. I have several other Balkan cookbooks in the works as I hope to soon paste them together, so, I may enrich your love for the Eastern European cuisine.