The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle

“In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.”

A caterpillar emerges from the egg and goes in search of food. My boys have fun counting all the things the caterpillar eats.

Read aloud: 0 to 4

Eating the Alphabet, by Lois Ehlert

“Aa – artichoke, apricot, avocado, apple, asparagus”

The book takes the reader on an alphabetical journey through fruits and vegetables with colorful abstract illustrations.

Read aloud: 0 to 3

Gregory the Terrible Eater, by Mitchell Sharmat

“But Gregory was not an average goat. Gregory was a terrible eater.”

A Reading Rainbow book. Gregory’s parents try to figure out why their young goat does not want to eat the family’s regular foods. Funny little story, and my boys always laugh at the things the goats like to eat (tin cans, old shoes, pieces of rug, etc).

Read aloud: 2 to 5

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett

“After a brief shower of orange juice, low clouds of sunny-side up eggs moved in followed by pieces of toast. Butter and jelly sprinkled down for the toast. And most of the time it rained milk afterwards.”

It’s hard to top this classic. The boys enjoy all the food weather, complete with flying hamburgers. A movie based on this book is scheduled for release in 2010. I don’t know how to feel about that, especially since this is a relatively short children’s book. The movie plot will have be expanded quite a lot.

Read aloud: 3 to 6

Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle

“Kee-ke-ri-kee” crowed the rooster. Jack woke up, looked out the window and thought, “I’d like to have a big pancake for breakfast.”

An entertaining way to teach where food comes from. Jack’s mother sends her son off on errands to have the flour ground, gathering eggs, milking the cow, churning the butter, and building the fire, all before he can even start cooking the pancake.

Read aloud: 2 to 6

Curious George Makes Pancakes, by Margret & H.A. Rey

“The line for pancakes was enormous. But with four hands, George made quite a chef—and no one’s plate was empty for long.”

Of all the books about food we have, this one gets the most attention from our boys. We’ve been reading this book at least once a week for the last three years, and the boys still laugh at the thought of George as a “sticky monkey.” In fact, that has become a catch phrase in our home.

Read aloud: 2 to 6

The following books all come from author Gail Gibbons, who has written many nonfiction books for children. These are three of our favorites.

The Vegetables We Eat, by Gail Gibbons

“Look at all the vegetables! Vegetables are the parts of plants that are grown to be eaten. Most are annuals. Some are perennials.”

With bright watercolor illustrations, the book introduces the reader to eight different types of vegetables: leaf, bulb, flower bud, root, tuber, stem, fruit, and seed. Also has a section on growing your own garden.

Read aloud: 2 to 6

The Milk Makers, by Gail Gibbons

“There are five common breeds of dairy cows. The Holstein-Friesian is the most popular because it can produce more milk than other breeds.”

A Reading Rainbow book. Gibbons introduces children to the world of dairy farms, and includes drawings of milking machines. Another excellent, fact-filled book showing where food comes from. Simple illustrations.

Read aloud: 2 to 6

The Honey Makers, by Gail Gibbons

“It is springtime. Two beekeepers have placed a beehive on a hill.”

Beautiful watercolor, pen, and colored pencil illustrations. Includes details about the colonies and the social structure, life cycle, how the bees make the comb and honey, and how humans harvest and use honey. Interesting beekeepers yearbook at the end, diary of hive observations and what beekeepers do to care for the colony.

Read aloud: 3 to 6

Thanks for reading Andrea’s Recipes through a feed! Copyright © 2005-2009 Andrea’s Recipes.

Spatulatta.com is a James Beard award-winning website with video cooking lessons for kids. The hosts are Isabella and Olivia Gerasole, sisters ages 11 and 9, and they do all the video demonstrations. If you have not seen the website, you must go and visit it because the videos are lively and fun. The girls, who are naturals in front of a camera, prepare foods while their mom and other guests help out with things like cutting, assembling the food processor, and working with the stove or oven. Spatulatta has webcasts demonstrating recipes and basic skills, such as separating eggs and chopping an onion.

The full-color cookbook, which was released this month, begins with a basic skills overview for such tasks as chopping, shredding and grating cheese, measuring, and food safety, and also includes information on essential cooking tools and measurements. Recipes are divided into six chapters: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, Vegetarian, and Snacks. Each section presents a variety of dishes including main dishes, sides, breads, and snacks. So far we’ve made the Green Beans with Garlic and End-of-Summer Salad and enjoyed them both. Each recipe starts with a list of ingredients and required equipment, then has step-by-step instructions accompanied by photos and a quote from either Isabella or Olivia stating what they like about the recipe or something they learned when making the dish. Recipes are simple and designed to make cooking healthy foods easy and enjoyable for kids.

Published by Scholastic Inc., the cookbook is a good follow-on for the website and several of the recipes are also demonstrated online, such as the Tuscan Bean Dip, Cheese Boereg, and Harvest Soup. The target age range for this children’s cookbook is ages 9 to 12, and as a teacher I would say that is appropriate. The recipes and overall design are presented in an engaging manner, and children who are interested in cooking will likely enjoy using the book. Younger children will need more assistance from an adult, but even so my preschool-aged boys love looking at the book and trying to read the words they recognize. They also help me measure and weigh ingredients and arrange food for presentation. If you are looking for a cookbook that you can use with your children, The Spatulatta Cookbook is an excellent choice.

My only quibble with the book is the plethora of salads in the Vegetarian section, which accounts for five out of the seven recipes. It would be nice to see a more balanced selection of dishes in a section devoted to vegetarian foods, but quite a few of the recipes in the other sections are vegetarian or can be easily adapted, so vegetarian/vegan families will find plenty of foods appropriate for them.

Michael came home from work on Monday and sniffed as soon as he got in the door. “Smells like seafood!” he said, and he was right. This is another one of those dishes that I found in a magazine or online and made it the next day because 1) it sounded good, and 2) I had most of the ingredients on hand. I had some crab that I found on sale, and almost everything else are pantry or frig staples for us. The only thing I needed was the chives. I used to keep a pot of chives in my kitchen garden, but I haven’t started a pot in our new house yet, so I had to pick up some at the grocery store. The price reminded me to start some seeds soon!

The recipe is designed for party appetizers, but I made it for dinner because the little bites are just the right size for the kids, and they were very easy to make. If you have older kids, they could certainly help make this. You just toss all the ingredients together, roll the crab mixture in panko, and bake. The sauce can be whipped up in just five minutes, and you even can prepare it up to two days ahead and keep it in the frig. It worked very nicely for an easy and tasty meal with a side salad.

Equipment

small bowl
large mixing bowl
rimmed plate or pie tin (for rolling in panko)
baking sheet, coated with cooking spray

Ingredients

ROASTED PEPPER-CHIVE AIOLI
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped drained canned roasted red peppers
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic

CRAB CAKES
12 ounces shelled cooked crab, sorted and bits of shell removed
1/4 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 large egg
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
1-1/4 cups panko, divided

Fresh chives, rinsed and cut into 1-inch lengths

Preparation

1. AIOLI – In the small bowl, mix all of the aioli ingredients. Cover and store in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat the oven to 475° F.

3. CRAB CAKES – In the large bowl, combine the celery, minced chives, mayonnaise, egg, mustard, and hot sauce. Stir it all with a fork, then add the crab and 1/4 cup of the panko (save the rest of the panko for coating). Stir gently.

4. Put remaining 1 cup panko in the rimmed plate or pie tin. Use your hand to make 24 crab cakes, each about 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. Roll each cake in panko and place on the prepared baking sheet.

5. Bake until golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes. Transfer the hot crab cakes to a platter and top with the aioli. Garnish with fresh chives and serve hot.

******************************************************************

Source: adapted from MyRecipes.com (Sunset magazine, 2002)

The holiday baking has begun. It kicked off last week with the Chocolate-Dipped Hazelnut Shortbread, baked gingerbread men earlier this week, and now we have the Magic Bars. These are on Michael’s list of desired Christmas cookies every year, and they are gooey and good and insanely easy. They are also a great cookie for making with little kids. My two oldest boys, ages 4 and 2, had a great time helping pat down the graham cracker crust and pouring on the coconut, marshmallows, nuts, and chips.

The recipe is very versatile, and you can choose any kind of chopped nuts and chocolate or other flavored chips. This batch has sliced almonds, milk chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. Check out the Variations list below for some interesting combinations.

Many versions of this recipe call for 1-1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs, but I use 2 cups to make the bottom layer a bit more substantial (and a bit less greasy).

Equipment

9 x 13-inch pan
medium microwave safe bowl

Ingredients

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups graham cracker crumbs or vanilla wafer crumbs
2 cups flaked coconut
1-1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup chopped nuts, chef’s choice
2 cups of any combination of chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, or toffee chips
1 can (14 ounces) fat-free sweetened condensed milk

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Melt butter in the microwave safe bowl . Add the graham cracker crumbs, stirring until they are thoroughly combined. Wet your fingers a little bit. Pour the mixture into the 9 x 13 pan and press down with your wet fingers, forming a bottom layer.

3. Sprinkle coconut, marshmallows, nuts, and candy chips, in that order, over top.

4. Drizzle over all the condensed milk (open can with opener and scoop out the contents as milk is very thick.)

5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until well browned. Cool in pan on a rack. Using a wet knife, cut into small bars. Recipe makes about four dozen cookies.

Variations

Yummy combinations:

• macadamia nuts with white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips
• almonds with semi-sweet chocolate chips and toffee chips
• walnuts with semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter chips
• pecans with milk chocolate chips and butterscotch chips

***********************************************************

Source: adapted from Ann Meyers’ recipe

The whole cooking with kids theme has become really big, which I think is spot on. My husband and I both believe that cooking is an essential life skill, and we are teaching our children from an early age. Children learn about reading, math, science, and health and safety simply by cooking with you.

My little boys love to be in the kitchen with me, but I’m a little concerned about sharp knives and a hot stove with a preschooler and a toddler, so I put a big plastic box in the kitchen and filled it with an assortment of cheap plastic bowls, measuring cups and spoons, wooden spoons, and old potholders and oven mits. My boys drag them all out onto the kitchen table and mix and cook while I’m whipping up dinner. My preschooler loves to put a little water in the bowls and pour it back and forth, stirring while he goes. Then he puts it all in their oven—the open space under the table—and bakes it. Although we do have to work on the whole thing about what cookware is appropriate for various uses (plastic in the oven is not such a good idea), I’m thrilled that he’s showing an interest. And as they get older, we’ll try age-appropriate things with them and expose them more and more to the world of food and cooking.

When we first saw one of the shorts Cooking for Kids with Luis on Noggin, we were enthralled. Watching this young boy who seemed so at ease in the kitchen and in front of the camera was fascinating. He demonstrates how to make Guatemalan Cheesecake, Empanadas, Fruit Kebabs, and Tortilla Frenzy, all the while talking about how food is fun, tasty, and healthy. He emphasizes kitchen safety and an adult helps him with things like turning on the oven. And lately the network has done an excellent job of providing information about education goals for each program on the website as well as before each program airs. So you can check out the education goals for Luis’ program on the website. The list includes goals from Physical Science; Technology; Mathematics; Social Sciences; and Health, Physical Education, and Safety.

If you have young children and have not seen Luis on Noggin, check out the website to read more about the program and print some of Luis’ recipes to try with your children.

Equipment

pot for heating juice
8″x8″ glass pan
large mixing bowl

Ingredients

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold fruit juice
1-1/2 cups fruit juice, heated to boiling
1 tablespoon sugar or honey (optional)

Preparation

1. Sprinkle gelatin over cold juice in large bowl; let stand 1 minute.

2. Add hot juice and stir vigorously until completed dissolved, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in honey or sugar, if desired.

4. Pour into pan and refrigerate for at least one hour, until firm.

5. Cut gelatin mixture into small squares. Store in tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

Notes

This recipe is modified from the original, and only makes half what the original recipe suggests, but I find that is enough for my boys for several days.

I have strong memories of eating this stuff as a kid. It’s the perfect toddler snack—wiggly, jiggly, tasty, and fun to eat. The plain gelatin packs a little protein punch and you can user the sugar-free version of flavored gelatins if you want to cut out the sugar. You can also try the Fruit Juice Finger Gelatin.

Equipment

pot for boiling water
mixing bowl with measurements on the side
8″x8″ glass pan

Ingredients

2 pgk (3 oz each) flavored gelatin
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water

Preparation

1. Boil enough water to give 2 cups.

2. Pour hot water into mixing bowl until you have exactly 2 cups.

3. Add one package flavored gelatin and stir vigorously until dissolved. Repeat with the remaining flavored and unflavored gelatin, one package at a time.

4. Pour into pan and refrigerate for at least one hour, until firm.

5. Cut gelatin mixture into small squares. Store in tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

Variations

Use mini cookie cutters to make fun shapes instead of cutting squares.