My name is Marcia Mack and I have written and illustrated a beautiful cookbook featuring recipes that have been in my family for generations. I painted original watercolor pictures to go along with each recipe. These drawings are of my family, pets, kitchens, and more. My grandparents immigrated to this country from Russia around the 1900s and they had many children to feed with limited resources. Although they did not have a lot of money, we never went hungry - thanks to the mighty potato! This book is a tribute to the ingenuity and the untiring efforts of my poor, but resourceful, relatives. They managed to make eating the same meals every day an enticing experience. My unique cookbook, "One Potato, Two Potatoes, Three Potatoes, More..." meets a need in the current economic climate where families are trying to stretch a dollar. Potatoes are an inexpensive ingredient that provide endless opportunities for delicious recipes.
About the Author: When my three brothers Mandell, Ronnie, and Norbie, and I were young, we lived in a small apartment in Chicago in a neighborhood called Logan Square. We lived with our mother and father. We had a tiny wooden back porch. Tuesdays were my dad's only day off work, so he took us away, one at a time, to either a movie or downtown Chicago. The little ones did not get to go as they were much younger than Mandell and me. And Tuesdays were also the special day that our dad cooked a special lunch for us - all the potato pancakes that you could eat! When nighttime came, mother, dad, and the four of us went on the back porch and sat on our wooden swing. Mother and dad told us stories about our family, like our grandmothers and grandfathers who (along with my parents) came from Russia, far from across the sea; or, how they came to America and tried to make a new and better life in a new land. They referred to the new land as the "land of opportunity." Mother told us how she met dad in second grade and how she brought him home to meet her mom and dad, and all her brothers and sisters (eight kids including her). We would swing for hours on our porch, and we would sing old songs that they taught us. On snowy days, dad put us on a sled and pulled us up and down the streets. Also, we had snowball fights and built igloos. Now that I wrote this family cookbook, it helped me to incorporate a memory of my immigrant ancestors that I cherished my whole life. I enjoyed including my children, grandchildren, husbands, wives, sister-in-laws, nieces, and friends. I hope you will enjoy my cookbook. I am happy to share some fond memories with you. With that said...this cookbook is completed."