Let's Cook!

'Let's Eat'
By Denise Burroughs


Format: Paperback
Published: AuthorHouse; May 2010
Pages: 60


Synopsis: Denise Burroughs combines her rich Italian heritage with years of southern tradition in Let’s Eat!, her debut cookbook.  Her love for cooking shines through in this comprehensive book, suitable for all levels of cooking experience.  Let’s Eat! provides readers with simple, inexpensive dishes.  Recipes range from “Potato Flake Chicken” to “Chocolate Italian Cookies.”


My Take: I love to cook and I love looking at new cookbooks so any opportunity I get to combine the two I will take it. I was excited to get the chance to review the cookbook of a chef I hadn't heard of before. 


This book is missing some very basic things for me that every cookbook needs to have though and I was very disappointed. I don't think I am being unreasonable when I say that a book should have a full list of ingredients at the top of the recipe, not some of them with more more ingredients sprinkled throughout the recipe as you go along. When I am making a recipe this trips me up because I write my grocery shopping list based on the top ingredient list and maybe I am missing something. I also think that every cookbook should have the prep or hands-on time, and total cooking time. This book had none of that so I had no idea what I was getting into when I started a recipe. As a busy person I often base which recipes I will try first on which ones are the least time consuming. I can't gauge that if there is no time table available. Another note, was there was no nutritional guide to go along with any of these recipes. This I can look past because not all cookbooks have this and you can decide based on the ingredient list. However, when a cookbook does have this I do think it's a huge plus. The first two items though, I basically can't live without in a cookbook.


So with those items in mind it was then time for me to flip through the cookbook to find a recipe I wanted to make. I am going to be honest, a lot of them weren't appealing to me. I am not a picky eater but I am a healthy one and this was full of 'Stuffed Hot Dog and Potato', 'Mayonnaise Cake' and the one that got the most laughs from the peanut gallery 'Boston Butt Roast'. So after a few flicks through the book I decided on the enticingly and creatively named 'Meatballs'. 


My boyfriend had an Italian grandma and he can make meatballs from scratch without a recipe and I've never been able to make meatballs so I thought it might be fun to try. The recipe seemed easy enough and I am one to improvise. He always fries his. Denise recommends that technique as well but says you can bake them so I decided to. Here's the result and recipe and we did enjoy it, although if a man's going to make meatballs like grandma used to make, I'm probably just going to keep letting him even though it was fun to try! 


Meatballs - (note my additions are in parenthesis)
Ingredients
2 lbs. lean ground beef
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of graded Ramono or Parmesan cheese (I used Parmesan and probably more than a 1/2 cup!)
2 garlic cloves (I used 4 - we like garlic!)
1 tsp. parsley (I used way more than this - when it's fresh, I just keep chopping)


Directions
Italian breadcrumbs or 5 slices white bread run under water and squeezed to remove excess. (This is one of those ingredients that slipped out. I used a couple of cups of Panko style breadcrumbs)


Combine ground beef, eggs, salt and pepper, and cheese. (I did this in a large bowl)


Add garlic, parsley, and breadcrumbs/bread and mix well. Roll to the size you like. (My boyfriend's suggestion to make them stick together was to throw them really hard between your hands - this seemed to really work.) In a hot pan of oil, fry them at 300 degrees. Some people like to bake them (that's be me. Which I did at 350 degrees for 30 minutes). But they taste so good when fried. Eat them like that or add them to your pasta sauce. hey will soak up the sauce and become very tender and yummy. (We put them on a delightful bed of organic pasta and marinara sauce, sprinkled with extra Parmesan cheese on top and Voila!)

(Thank you to Pump Up Your Book Tours for sending me this book)