[.ca] Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids (ISBN 1891105159)

Building Family Fun in the Kitchen . . . and Self-Reliant Teens!:
I love this book! As I carried it out of the library, I was smiling so much that people asked me what I was reading. In Cooking Rocks, Rachel Ray brings her up-beat enthusiasm to helping you recreate the happy family cooking environment that she grew up in. If that can produce capable, happy youngsters like Rachel Ray, I'm all for it. Think of this as a book for kids who read pretty well . . . and adults who will follow directions about how to be helpful and supportive. Rachel Ray is a great role model in this regard. She believes that "you are never too young to be in the kitchen." You can watch when you are too young to understand what's going on. You can pretend to help when your skills don't exist yet, and by four you'll be able to do real tasks that help. For Rachel Ray, a happy place for a child to be is in the kitchen! Three benefits arise from Rachel's approach: You get help in the kitchen; your kids will learn to like more foods if they prepare the foods themselves; and you'll raise children who can make their own meals after they leave home. But you've got to do your part: 1. Keep your cool! "Never grab a kid's arm or speak harshly to a kid cook unless he or she is in real danger of burn or injury. Let them make mistakes . . . Food should be fun." 2. You aren't in charge . . . except in encouraging fun and safety. Instead, you are a GH (Grown-up Helper) who assists with recipes that are beyond a child's skills, especially for those under 11. 3. You need to get your child to look at the book. Watching Rachel cook with kids on television could do the trick! 4. You should take your youngster to the store to pick out the ingredients for recipes you both want to try. The book's appeal is helped by lots of cartoons (which are quickly funny in most places), occasional jokes (such as about how old Rachel is), and friendly photographs of youngsters in the kitchen doing their thing. Rachel doesn't skip steps. She alerts her young readers about cutting carefully ("Keep your fingers curled under when you hold what you are chopping so you don't nick them as you work. Cut down and away from your body, tilting the blade slightly away from your body as you chop. Don't 'saw.' Give round things such as tomatoes or carrots 'feet' by making a small thin slice on one side . . . ."), watching out for spreading germs (such as by not washing hands and work surfaces before and after handling poultry and raw meats . . . and including advice on employing a nail brush and antibacterial soap), cleaning pots and dishes as you cook, and how to employ various kitchen utensils and containers. Recipes are segregated by the age of the child: 4-6; 7-11; 12-16; and sections on beverages, snacks and subs for all ages. The directions are age appropriate. You probably won't be making any of the 4-6 year-old dishes family mainstays as entrees, but they will certainly appeal to the younger set. Consider the first recipe: Hot dog pizzas and minute pickles (heated bagels with ketchup, cheese, and hot dog slices garnished with cucumbers covered with sugar and spices). The child does the assembling and cuts the hot dogs with kitchen shears. The GH works the broiler and slices the cucumbers. Other 4-6 recipes include Italian alphabet soup with bread dippers, chicken tenders turned into coated chicken toes, salsa dip and veggies, apples and peanut butter/caramel dip, pasta with broccoli spears, fruit benedicts, scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese, eggs in a basket, panini, and turkey "sushi." In most of these dishes, she includes one "adult" ingredient to dress the dish up and encourage youngsters to expand their taste range. The 7-11 recipes are items that most families will find can be turned into staples. The ingredient lists are adult length, and the spices are a middle ground between what kids and adults normally like. Here are a few examples: Chicken ravioli stew; worms and eyeballs (pasta and veggies in a bowl); various ethnic-flavored rice bowl dishes; cheese fries; quesadilla pizzas, green noodles and ham; smashed potatoes and cream cheese; cookie and ice cream handwiches; cookie and ice cream bites; cookie, cake and fruit dips; and five-minute fudge. The beverage section has many standards like smoothies. The subs section looks like a lot of fun . . . and very tasty (including such adult favorites as chicken and eggplant parm). While the 12-16 year-old section emphasizes the skill level of that age, the recipes are quite adult. These include spinach and mushroom lasagna roll-ups, baked pasta, Italian flag sundaes, fish-in-a-sack, pasta and pesto salad, shrimp and chicken lettuce wraps, caprese and fruit stacks, cayenne fries, T-bone steaks with chipotle-chili rub and cilantro-lime butter, meatball patty melts, Italian stroups (thick soups), and chicken Cordon Bleu burgers. The directions are more detailed than usual, which makes these recipes helpful for those who don't have much experience in the kitchen (which includes many young parents). The book is on a spiral binder while having a hard cover. This design makes the book easy to put away while making it even easier to keep open to the page you are working on. A great value!