Title: “NBC Sunday Night Football Cookbook”
Publisher: Time Inc.
Price: $27.95
Available at: Bookstores and online at nbcsports.seenon.com
Summary: Football and food — does it get any better? Not really. The book features 150 recipes for appetizers, main courses and desserts from America’s top chefs, NFL players and NBC broadcasters such as John Madden. The book links each recipe with a cuisine found in each NFL city. On a page for the Chicago Bears, chef Susan Goss of the West Town Tavern in the Windy City explains how to make a spicy sausage-and-pepper sandwich. And on a page dedicated to the New Orleans Saints, it’s all about Emeril Lagasse’s country gumbo.
What’s to like: That NFL players give recipes for their favorite dishes. Ravens tight end Todd Heap scores points with his maple-walnut French toast. It’s a scrumptious dessert, even if it’s a carbohydrate fest that uses vanilla ice cream, a half-stick of butter and six slices of thick bread. But hey, at least the berries that garnish the dish are good for you. Baltimore’s section also includes a fried chicken salad and soft-shell crab tempura by chef Nancy Longo of Pierpoint in Baltimore. Each recipe tells the reader how long it takes to prepare, and the instructions are easily to follow, even for a novice chef.
What’s not too like: That the book fails to list the nutritional content of each dish. I’m sure the chicken casserole recipe submitted by Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell is tasty. But considering it uses 32 ounces of creamed soups and a stick of unsalted butter, something tells me I’ll look like an offensive lineman when I’m finished eating. Still, I’d like to know how many calories and grams of fat are in each dish.
Bottom line: It’s a cookbook that proves there is more to football fare than hot dogs and hamburgers. From dishes that take 30 minutes to prepare — like Tiki Barber’s Korean-style short ribs — the dishes that can take about three hours — like Lagasse’s country gumbo — “NBC Sunday Night Football Cookbook” will last long after the game is over.
