There are recipes for appetizers, main dishes, salads, soups, side dishes and salsas. No desserts, but you won’t miss them with the quality and variety of recipes presented. Because I live in a very small town, one of the most important things I look for in a new cookbook is availability of ingredients. These recipes contain easy to find ingredients that I would be able to pick up locally. The instructions for the recipes are clear and concise. Recipes for Portuguese Meatballs with Spicy Sauce, Crab Cakes with Dipping Sauce, Tenderloin Steaks with Brandy Cream Sauce, Cioppino, and Orange and Olive Salsa are just a few of the recipes that are on my list to try first.
The quality and look of the book is outstanding. The photography is beautiful and with the book printed on coated paper, it has a classy look and feel. It would make a thoughtful gift or a useful addition to the family cookbook collection.
From the Author:
How Dinner Time
Can Bring Families Together
Chef Reveals Why Sunday Dinners
Are So Important
It all starts at mealtime.
That’s what the statistics show, and at least one chef can attest to it. According to
a study released last week by The National Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse at Columbia University, the family dinner is linked to everything from
better grades to teen use of alcohol. The study, called “The Importance of Family
Dinners,” said that teens who report typically receiving grades of C’s or below in
school are likelier to smoke, drink and use drugs compared to teens who typically
receive all A’s or A’s and B’s in school. Compared to teens who have five to
seven family dinners per week, those who have fewer than three family dinners
per week are one and a half times likelier to report getting mostly C’s or lower
grades in school.
Joe Fitzpatrick knows the value of family dinners, because it has become a
tradition in his household every weekend. Fitzpatrick, author of the gourmet
cookbook Strictly Sundays from Book Publisher’s Network
(http://www.strictlysundays.com/), believes his Sunday dinners are what help keep his
family close. It was part of how he was raised.
“Ever since I was a little boy I enjoyed helping my mother cook in the kitchen,” he
said. “She made it fun and I learned a lot. Of course that was in the 1960’s when
the only cook on television was Julia Child. There were no fancy spices or
sauces used in our house and all the meals were pretty basic, but that didn’t
matter. I remember the time we spent together, and it helped shape my attitudes
when I had children of my own.”
Fitzpatrick’s focus on mealtime evolved out of the experience most people are
having today – working hard with a tight budget, and not having much time for
family.
“I owned a business in the 1980’s and spent little time at home,” he said. “My
wife and I would make it a point to go out to dinner every Saturday night to spend
some time with each other. When the business went away so did the money.
But I still liked good food. I subscribed to Bon Appetite magazine and started to
make unique intimate dinners for the two of us on Saturday nights.”When the kids got
wind of the Saturday night dinners, they felt like they were missing out on something good.
They were right.
“Then our children got older, saw what we were having for our Saturday night
gourmet dinner and asked why they didn’t get special meals too,” Fitzpatrick
added. “So I started to explore and create both new and traditional dinners for
them on Sunday nights. When the kids had jobs, I made a rule that Sunday was
for faith & family, no exceptions. They almost never missed one of my Sunday
dinners. And as they have grown and established their own lives, they still come
home once a week to help in the kitchen and help me create these fabulous
meals. It used to be about the food. Now, it’s more about being together.”
Joe Fitzpatrick is a family man who loves to cook. Though he has never owned a
restaurant or worked as a chef, he combined the lessons his mother taught him
with his love for the culinary arts to produce a cookbook of comfort foods that
look and taste like gourmet dishes. Author of the cookbook Strictly Sundays
(www.strictlysundays.com), Fitzpatrick realizes that gourmet meals can be
served any day of the week. His family simply prefers Sundays.
Joe's food ROCKS!!! Snug Harbor loves him
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