Concept: Serve a complete meal, main dish plus 2 other dishes (side dish, dessert, salad, appetizer) for $10 or less. Each recipe has a price guide (1-5). If you choose a pricier main dish than do two cheaper sides. If the main dish is low cost then you can splurge on dessert, etc.
Author: Melissa d'Arabian won the show The Next Food Network Star and subsequently got her show "Ten Dollar Dinners." (Cool side story - in the final round of The Next Food Network Star the contestants had to create a dinner party for special celebrity guests. They had an unlimited budget and the best ingredients that money could buy and she won with her Potato-Bacon Torte, which costs about $0.50 per serving.)
I really like Melissa d'Arabian because she is down to earth. She has four kids of her own and works to find ways to feed her family that don't cost a lot. She also mentioned how every other Saturday in her home one parent gets to sleep in and the other makes breakfast with the kids. I like that she is a family oriented cook. She also doesn't use too many weird/hard to find/hard to use ingredients.
Food type: Mostly American. Her husband was born in France and so several recipes have a European flair to them.
Monologue score (1-10) (how entertaining, not the recipes): About a 7
Difficulty level: Easy to moderately easy
Approximate percentage of recipes I would be willing to try: Only about 15%. I was bummed that there weren't more recipes that I thought I would like. For me, the real value in this book are the tips about saving money when shopping and cooking: how to shop the sales, ingredient substitutions, inexpensive ways to boost flavor, and other handy tips and tricks.
Sample recipes I'm interested in trying:
Author: Melissa d'Arabian won the show The Next Food Network Star and subsequently got her show "Ten Dollar Dinners." (Cool side story - in the final round of The Next Food Network Star the contestants had to create a dinner party for special celebrity guests. They had an unlimited budget and the best ingredients that money could buy and she won with her Potato-Bacon Torte, which costs about $0.50 per serving.)
I really like Melissa d'Arabian because she is down to earth. She has four kids of her own and works to find ways to feed her family that don't cost a lot. She also mentioned how every other Saturday in her home one parent gets to sleep in and the other makes breakfast with the kids. I like that she is a family oriented cook. She also doesn't use too many weird/hard to find/hard to use ingredients.
Food type: Mostly American. Her husband was born in France and so several recipes have a European flair to them.
Monologue score (1-10) (how entertaining, not the recipes): About a 7
Difficulty level: Easy to moderately easy
Approximate percentage of recipes I would be willing to try: Only about 15%. I was bummed that there weren't more recipes that I thought I would like. For me, the real value in this book are the tips about saving money when shopping and cooking: how to shop the sales, ingredient substitutions, inexpensive ways to boost flavor, and other handy tips and tricks.
Sample recipes I'm interested in trying:
- Clam chowder with crispy bacon
- Salmon cakes
- Shrimp Pad Thai
- Crispy Chicken a l'Orange
- Chicken meatballs
- Moroccan Meat Loaf
- Black Bean Nacho Burgers
- Buffalo Style Potato Wedges
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