wester's Profile

From: Soesterberg, Utr Netherlands

Joined: September 24th, 2009

About me: I love cooking, I love eating, I love discovering new recipes. I have so many cookbooks I sometimes lose track of which recipe is where - though this site helps a bit. I have gone low-carb in 2010, so that's different recipes to explore again. This also means I may not agree with my own reviews anymore if they were written in 2009 or before. ------------------ I have a lovely husband and ten-year old twins who also love eating. ----------------- You can also find me on LibraryThing, BookMooch and EatYourBooks, using the same handle.

Favorite cookbook: The Complete Meze Table by Rosamond Man

Favorite recipe: Melissa Clark's Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp

Daond Pasha (Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Tomatoes) from The Complete Meze Table

The meatballs were very tasty, but I did not really like putting all the pine nuts together - it made for fussy cooking and I think I would prefer finding a pine nut here and there instead of finding them... read more >

recipe reviews (741)
book reviews (74)
useful review votes (327)

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wester's Reviews

Cookbook Reviews

Pretend Soup: And Other Real Recipes

By Mollie Katzen, Ann Henderson
Ten Speed Press - 1994

What makes this book so wonderful is not the recipes themselves, which are good but not that surprising. It is the way it helps you to let your child cook, starting as young an age as three years.

All recipes have four pages. Two adult pages, which tell you as an adult what your task is in this recipe (everything involving sharp knives or heat), the tools you need, handy hints on how to let a really young kid break an egg or pour milk without getting it all over the kitchen, etc... And two kids pages, which tell your kids, in pictograms, what they should do to make the recipe. These pictograms do make it much easier for kids to follow the recipe.

Cooking from this book is fun, and it really can change your frame of mind about what children can do in the kitchen.