Ever separate an egg with a funnel? Ever make a grilled cheese and broccoli sandwich? Ever follow your kids into the kitchen and help them with recipes they have chosen to prepare? Mollie Katzen makes all this and more ever so painless. She wrote Pretend Soup for preschool cooks after working with young kids in a preschool setting. Honest Pretzels is the next step. These are more advanced recipes demanding more advanced techniques for children ages 8 and up. It's a kid's cookbook for a more sophisticated palate--those ready for Not-from-a-Box Macaroni and Cheese or Spunky Chili. All the recipes in the book are vegetarian.
Typically, each recipe is introduced with a list of ingredients, the amount of time it's going to take, a list of tools, and a note about where a child might want to ask an adult for help. The actual directions are broken out into separate "cards," many of them illustrated. At no time and in no place is the language patronizing.
Skills your child will develop include making and handling yeasted dough; making filled, shaped, healthy pastries; slicing, mincing, and grating; seasoning with herbs and spices; sautéing, pureeing, measuring, layering, assembling; dividing, estimating, timing, deciding; separating eggs, beating egg whites, folding a puffy batter; making simple, standard sauces; and basic kitchen safety and common sense.
That's quite a list. How did you measure up when you were 8--let alone now? Here's a good chance to give your child a leg up in the kitchen, while staying out of the way. --Schuyler Ingle
