I am so excited to introduce my readers to The Whole Family Cookbook, written by Michelle Stern. Michelle is the founder of What’s Cooking with Kids, a certified green mobile cooking school for kids. She has a passion for teaching children and adults how to cook nutritious and delicious meals. She not only focuses on teaching kids to cook, but also on teaching adults how to cook with kids. Unfortunately for me, her business is in San Francisco, quite a drive from Kentucky. So we’ll have to settle for the next best thing, her inspiring cookbook!
The subtitle of this book is Celebrate the Goodness of Locally Grown Foods. That alone grabbed my attention right away. I love that there is a cookbook dedicated to that mission. We have been trying to make some dietary changes at our house, including eating more locally grown foods. Michelle’s focus on using fresh, locally grown foods is not only practical but has inspired us all to eat a little healthier. Ben loves to cook with me, so he was also excited to try out some of the recipes.
This cookbook is chock full of recipes that are not only kid-friendly to eat, but also perfect for kids to help cook. In fact, at age 10, many of these recipes would be fairly easy for Ben to follow alone, with me just peaking in over his shoulder. For those of you with several children, you will love Michelle’s age-appropriate feature. With each step of each recipe, there is a color-coded key to let you know for what age that step is appropriate. For example, with eggs, your six-year old could crack the eggs, your three-year old could lightly beat them and pour them into the bowl, and your ten-year old could melt butter in the microwave.
For purposes of this review, the first recipe we tried was a Baked Apple Puff. Ben and I made this for our “breakfast for dinner” night and it was perfect. Not to sweet, and filling and delicious. It was the perfect recipe to do together as well, because Ben could do almost everything by himself, which really boosted his confidence in the kitchen. I wish I had a picture to share. We discovered our camera battery was dead after we made the recipe. Ben describes it as a “stuffed pancake, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.” That’s a pretty good description.
Baked Apple Puff
Ingredients
3 Eggs
3/4 cup Milk
3 Tbs. Granulated Sugar, divided
1/2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon, divided
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Flour
2 Small Crisp Apples, organic if possible (go for Fuji if you prefer a slightly sweet apple, or Granny Smith if you enjoy a tart flavor)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave or in a saucepan.
- In a medium-sized bowl, crack the eggs.
- Beat the eggs lightly and then add the melted butter.
- Measure milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, salt, and flour, and add them to the eggs.
- Mix all of the ingredients until the batter is well blended.
- If you have one, use an apple peeler/corer/slicer to peel, core, and slice your apples. If not, use a vegetable peeler to peel the apples.
- Cut out the cores and slice the apples thinly.
- Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a 10″ ovenproof skillet. Add the sliced apples and cook until they are golden brown, 5-10 minutes. (If you’d like, you can add a dash or two of ground cinnamon.)
- Put on oven mitts and take the skillet off the heat. Pour the batter over the apples.
- Measure 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and stir them together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the batter.
- Place the skillet into the oven and cook for 15-25 minutes until gently browned and puffed. (Do not open the oven during the first 15 minutes of the cooking process, or the puff will deflate!)
- Put on oven mitts, remove the skillet from the oven, and immediately place an oven mitt over the handle, so that you won’t accidentally burn your hand.
- Cut the puff into wedges and serve immediately.
Take a peak at this video, where Michelle talks about the cookbook.
Purchase The Whole Family Cookbook for your Kindle.
Disclaimer: I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are those of myself and/or my son.
