Kitchen for Kids: 100 Yummy No-knives Scratch Recipes

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Low, the mother of two children and the food editor at Canadian House &
Home magazine, says she created this cookbook because she could not find
one that “would reflect a chef’s world as dreamed up by a child.”
Kitchen for Kids certainly presents food as it is seen through
children’s eyes—only one of the book’s six sections deals with
main course items, and its 15 recipes are located in “Breakfast, Lunch
and Dinner.” The remaining kid-focused recipes are distributed among
“Breads and Crackers” (10); “Cookies” (16); “Cakes” (18);
“Pies, Pastries and Squares” (15); and “Candies, Confections and
Cool Treats” (13). All of the recipes have been field-tested in their
preparation and kid-appeal by junior chefs, ages 4 to 11, and no recipe
requires sharp knives, small electrical appliances, or stovetop cooking
(the Dumpling Raviolis are cooked “in a pot of simmering water on the
stove,” but an adult is to be asked for assistance).

An opening section, “Organizing the Kitchen for Kids,” provides
useful information to adults, who, depending on the children’s ages
and capabilities, are expected to oversee the recipes’ preparation.
Mouth-watering full-page colour photographs illustrate the final
products. Each recipe is presented in a two-column format, with one
column listing supplies required and necessary ingredients (quantities
appear in both imperial and metric units) and the other providing clear
step-by-step instructions. The recipes are designed to yield kid-sized
portions. The book concludes with a glossary of cooking terms and
ingredients, and an index. Highly recommended.