Recipe Day

I definitely subscribe to theory that the more involved children are in the growing, buying, and preparing of food, the more likely they are to try and enjoy something new.

So I was thrilled when a few months ago, Olivia pulled out all of the Real Food magazines that had been squirreled away in our cupboard and suggested that each of us choose a dish to make for the week. The kids went through the magazines page by page and tagged things that they wanted to try. I can't remember now what they all chose, although I'll bet Olivia does.

What I do remember is that they were very invested in the process and willing to try the product, even if it was something they wouldn't usually be inclined to try. Last weekend, we did the same thing again, this time using some of our favorite cookbooks, including Biba Caggiano's Trattoria Cooking, The Silver Spoon, the Vegetarian Times's Vegetarian Entertaining (especially good for Chloe because it has pictures), Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, and the cookbook that we made for our preschool, Welcome to Our Table: Seasonal Recipes from Acorn Hill (scroll down on the linked page to a link to the inside of the cookbook).

Not all of the recipes were successes, but we had fun cooking, and the children were very enthusiastic about trying the results. This process has one additional benefit. If you find yourself in a food rut, cooking the same dishes over and over, there is no better way to shake things up than to leave the choice of dinner to a child.

Second Helpings (from the archives): Roasted Shallot and Buttercup Squash Soup and Suppli