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

DK Publishing’s children’s cookbooks are always spilling over with inviting visuals. The index features pictures of each dish detailed in the book making it perfect for those protégés to peruse and find something they are interested in making. The recipes fall into four categories: Super Fast Snacks, Speedy Meals, Delightful Desserts, and Treats and Sweets.

The instructions are geared towards older cooks, but with the help of an interested parent could easily be tweaked for a preschooler. There is only one cutesy recipe for Fishcake Flounders, tuna and potato fishcakes modeled to look like they’re swimming in the sea. There’s a resistance to fish at my house, I’d give these a try to see if the cute factor could overcome the opposition.

Super Fast Snacks could also serve as lunch fodder. Take Pita Pockets, Triple Decker Dagwoods or Hot Dogs with Salsa for instance. Speedy Meals features multicultural recipes including Tabbouleh, Thai Kebabs with Satay Sauce, Salade Niçoise and Falafel. Delightful Desserts runs the gamut from a simple fruit salad to Clafouti and Fruity Crème Brûlées. Treats and Sweets could also serve as dessert any day. The Ultimate Chocolate Cake and Fruit-and-Nut Balls look especially good to me.

This visual feast is definitely worth looking at, starting those little mouths to watering and their minds to wandering about culinary exploration.

Wilkes, Angela. Children’s Quick & Easy Cookbook. New York: DK Publishing, 1997.

ISBN: 0-7894-2026-0

Overall rating schema here is on a scale of 1-10.  (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: 8   Recipe Quality: 8