My Dad was a solo parent who was also one of the most amazing cooks I knew. Unfortunately, when he passed away a number of recipes went with him, but one that managed to survive was for his meatballs.
I have been thinking about my Dad a lot lately, and it inspired me to test the meatball recipe on page 108 – but I must confess it’s because I really want to share his recipe. It’s not like most recipes, because rather than being in a tomato based sauce it’s actually in a beef gravy type of sauce and the meatballs themselves are flavoured with caraway seeds.
I know this sounds weird but you will just have to trust me on this one. Everyone I have ever made this for has adored it and often I get requests to whip a batch up for them.
But on to the Edmonds recipe. The recipe is not quite a traditional Italian recipe either because the main flavourings in 
the balls are curry powder and tomato sauce. The sauce is a 
very concentrated tomato flavoured one.
This recipe is super easy, so it’s great for times when you have little time to prepare something for dinner. All up it takes around 20 minutes. The only thing I would say is that the meatballs are just a wee bit on the sweet side. Other than that they are good 🙂
Another recipe I tested earlier this week was marmalade on page 235. Let me say to begin with that I am not the biggest marmalade fan. I don’t mind ginger marmalade, but I haven’t really found any other kind I enjoy. This recipe is made using grapefruit and lemons. 
The recipe itself is simple. You do have to soak the minced fruit overnight before cooking so you need to think a wee bit ahead when you make it. Also, even though it says to cook the fruit for 45 minutes or until its soft and pulpy, I found it took around an hour and a half to get it to a suitable level of softness.
The resulting marmalade is okay but I wouldn’t say it’s anything spectacular. The main reason in my opinion is because it is quite bitter due to the pith of the fruit being in the mixture.
I did end up making a different batch. I used the same recipe but when I prepared the fruit I removed the pith and it did result it a far nicer marmalade. I am not a connoisseur of marmalade so this is very much my opinion!
I would say that with this particular recipe though you could easily add oranges or even mandarins to mix it up a little as the recipe does appear to be quite forgiving.
Until next time. Happy cooking!