Confidence in the Kitchen: Sharing Cooking Experiences with Your Preschool Child

For these volumes, I modified my rating categories.  These books are not escapism for the adult, but rather interest-building for the child.  Overall schema here is a 1-10 score.  (1 too “cutesy:” seems to insult intelligence of adult and child - 10 imaginative and forward-thinking towards building actual cooking skills).

Overall ratings:  Culinary Interest-Building:  6   Recipe Quality: 7

Katzen, Mollie. Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes.  Berkley: Tricycle Press, 1994.  ISBN: 1883672066

Katzen, Mollie. Salad People and More Real Recipes. Berkley: Tricycle Press, 2005.  ISBN: 1582461414

There is more substance herein than you’ll find in most kids’ cookbooks.  The presentation is geared to three and four year olds and up.  As you would expect from the author of The Moosewood Cookbook, the recipes in each volume are vegetarian.  Her aim is not to provide you with directions for making an entire meal, but rather to start cooking when such pressures are not looming over you- snack time.  She makes the point that the child may not even be all that interested in eating what they’ve prepared.  There is a greater likelihood that they’ll try something they’ve participated in making over something presented to them.

Both books follow the same layout, four pages per recipe.  Two give details, background, and a traditional recipe treatment (aimed at the adult), and the two pages which follow are a pictorial recipe to be followed by the young cook.  In both books, each recipe contains all the safety and measuring tips to keep you sane and your young cook out of harm’s way.  The forward gives a broad philosophical overview and operational details which are repeated again and again in the recipes.

The drawings, done by Katzen, communicate the necessary information in a straightforward and whimsical way.  Either volume would be a good way to start doing some kitchen work with your preschooler.

Specifically, Pretend Soup offers two immediately mouth-watering recipes for Green Spaghetti (pesto), and popovers.

Salad People presents several recipes which are bordering more towards lunch than just a snack: Pesto-Macaroni Soup, Broccoli-Cheese Quiche, and Cream of Tomato Soup and Crispy Crackers.