I met
Michelle Stern at
BlogHer Food last October and we hit it off. I especially enjoyed chatting school lunch reform. She was on the White House lawn to be part of the launch of
Chefs Move to Schools. Michelle worked to get salad bars in her districts’ schools, she volunteers in the cafeteria, and has blogged about her experiences on her blog
What’s Cooking With Kids. She’s a mom, a chef, and owns her own certified green cooking school for kids. And I thought I was busy!
Michelle asked me to review her new cookbook:
The Whole Family Cookbook and I happily volunteered. My son is little, but he is majorly enthusiastic about kitchen activities. It started when he wanted to just watch what I was doing on the stove and now he wants to stir, pour, and taste.
When I was trying to decide which recipe to make for my family. The cookbook is designed by used with your kids and each recipe includes step-by-step instructions on where to include kids of various ages. I have to be honest and say that this time I really didn’t include my son in preparing this recipe. He has helped me make cupcakes before, but this time he briefly investigated what I was doing and then ran off to play with my husband on the couch. What can you do?
It starts with our favorite foods
I used daiya in place of cheese
Crumbled up the cooked bacon
Added the apple
After I baked it — looks cool, doesn’t it?
Ready to serve
A piece for my son
It went fast!
A-B-C Frittata from The Whole Family Cookbook by Michelle Stern
10 eggs
1 cup Cheddar cheese, grated (I used shredded daiya, a dairy-free “cheese”)
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 apples, Fuji or Gala (I used only one apple, but use two)
1 tablespoon butter (I used olive oil)
Prehead over to 450 degrees. Crack 8 eggs into a bowl. Separate two remaining eggs and add whites to the bowl. Beat eggs. Add half of the cheese and the salt and pepper to the egg mixture. Cook bacon then let it cool. Peel and core an apple. Slice thin. Melt butter in skillet. Add egg mixture, crumble bacon over egg mixture. Add apple slices in a circular pattern. Add the rest of the cheese on top. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from pan.
(I modified the recipe. First, daiya is great, but not when it’s over-used. I used less and only baked it in. I didn’t want any on top. Second, I used only one apple because I was feeling lazy. Use two apples. Third, I don’t have an oven-proof skillet so I used a casserole dish. Lastly, I skipped the butter and went with olive oil due to our dairy issues.)
It was a huge hit with my husband and my son. But we did have enough left over to send some in our lunches!
***Giveaway***
I have an extra copy of The Whole Family Cookbook. If you would like to win the copy, comment below about your escapades in the kitchen with little ones!
i'm pregnant and very much looking forward to escapades in the kitchen with my little one!
Very Cool! That is like a quiche without the crust. And the crust happens to be the most annoying part of making a quiche!!
I have been looking for a way to make eggs for dinner. My oldest won't eat scrambled eggs but my youngest loves them.
My favorite part about cooking with my son is that he wants to try everything. He will taste the flour and the vanilla and the sugar and even yeast (lest you think that I don't invite him in for savory stuff). I love seeing the look on his face when he gets that not every ingredient tastes like the finished product. I think it is an important lesson for him.
Very cool!
Have you ever tried using Ghee? Ghee is just clarified butter, or butter with all the milk solids removed and only the oil remaining. My understanding is that it is completely lactose free. I only mention it because you said you fried the eggs in olive oil. I don't care for the combination of eggs and olive oil. You might really like evoo and eggs, but know that Ghee is an option for you.
This cookbook looks really wonderful. I would also really love to be able to find the Daiya cheese around me, because I'm also lactoseintolerant.
We make yummy frittatas all the time! I haven't tried apples before, so I'm looking forward to trying this recipe. I have three "helpers" in my kitchen.. My 9 year old oversees progress and only gets involved if it's one of his favorites. My 5 year old is extremely helpful and involved in each step. And my 3 year old is always there at the end to taste test everything!! 🙂
My daughter wanted to make banana bread. She learned very quickly what happens when you add flour to a Kitchen Aide mixer while it is on. I have pictures of a flour covered child, counter, wall, and floor. I am still cleaning flour dust a week later!
That looks delicious! I have a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old and they both love to be involved in the kitchen every night, whether it's stirring, adding ingredients, or even just setting the table.
My son at barely two made a pie for thanksgiving entirely except for the putting in the oven and taking out of the oven steps! This was with a friend, because I wasn't that brave! Big mixer and all.
Ohhh, that looks good! The cheese, bacon and apple combo sounds tasty! My almost 10 year old loves to help me in the kitchen…every night he helps peel and chop veggies, stir whatever I'm cooking and also help set and clear the table.
That looks so good-I'd love a chance to win a copy. My kiddo is 6 and loves to play in the kitchen with mom so anything that helps me include her is awesome!
The absolute best tool to help my 2 year old help me in the kitchen is our Learning Tower. It was her birthday gift from Gramma & Papa. She loves to climb up, help pour in ingredients, press buttons on the food processor, mix, and more. That Tower has paid for itself at least 100 times in the year we have had it. So, so, so, so worth it!
I like making frittatas — such an easy dinner some nights. 🙂 My two year old has started helping more in the kitchen and likes to be in charge of stirring, sorting, and anything having to do with peas. Sometimes I just add peas to what I'm making because it makes her so happy. 🙂
My son Toby and I loooooove to cook together. We recently mastered beef wellington- he chopped all the shrooms for the mushroom crust beneath the puff pastry. He was so pleased with himself. 🙂 We do frittatas and quiche often, for our family dinners. We love that. He is a big eggy kid. 🙂
We would very much enjoy a book like this together- thanks for doing giveaways that bring parents and kids closer through healthy foods.
I cook with my four year old granddaughter almost every weekend and she is becoming quite confident in the kitchen. She washes all the veggies and cuts up the softer ones with her plastic lettuce knife. She pours and stirs and operates the buttons on all the appliances. We have a lot of fun together!
i have ocd so my cooking with the kids is limited…but I have come up with a great way to let them bake…..if you put everything in a ziploc bag and have them just swish around the bag to mix…cut a corner and squezze into baking pan….it is great!!!!!
The one thing that I've found is that my daughter is far more receptive to new foods if she helps me when I'm cooking dinner. So, since she was 3, she has always helped me out in the kitchen, washing veggies when she was younger and then eventually graduating to helping cook things on the stove. I love it, it's a guarantee of at least half an hour that we get to spend together, and she is a far better eater because of it.
My little ones are all grown up now, but I'll never forget the great decorated sugar cookie debacle. One year I decided to forego the annual cutout cookie and frosting ritual. Both sons were aghast! They decided to make and decorate the cookies themselves. I got everything ready for them and turned them loose. Well, several hours later the kitchen looked like a scene from a disaster movie. I learned my lesson—-just make the dang cookies, it'll be a lot easier!!!
My 7 year old daughter loves cooking. So much so, that she'll get up in the middle of the night and try to make things herself, usually pancakes. (Thankfully she's afraid of fire, and we have a gas stove, so she only goes so far as to mix things up, not cook them- yet!) My favorite was when she made cupcakes, from scratch, from her kid's cookbook. Then she poured them into the baking cups, and put them into the fridge until an adult got up to help her with the cooking part, and went back to bed. When we got up, we baked them after sitting in the fridge for several hours. They turned out like rock hard lumps of sweet stuff. Blech! She has learned that baking powder doesn't work after sitting wet in the fridge overnight now.
We try to cook with her as often as we can, so hopefully she'll be less inclined to try to cook on her own after we fall asleep for the night.
My little boy(3) and young lady (9) love to help in the kitchen. We even ended up getting them aprons to wear when they help. We do lots of "fun" meals on the weekends and make our own pizzas, brownies, omelettes,soups, tacos, things like that. It's all stuff the kids can get to do hands on help, with of course 2 hungry parents helping. We've had some horrific dissasters. Just ask my husband about the first time me and the kids decided to try to make BBQ Turkey Burgers, or should i say super extra crispy, char broiled, dry nasty hockey pucks. Or my son who managed to get strawberry syrup on our homemade pizza (yick) or the kids chasing each other through the house with chocolate coverd beaters. It's fun. I love fun with the kids in the kitchen and this cook book looks great!
I love having my 8 and 10 year old girls help me in the kitchen. My 8 year old especially enjoys it and likes to play "cooking show" while we work at baking treats or making dinner. My girls can crack eggs (albeit into a separate bowl in case of any shells!), clean vegetables, cut up ingredients, and or course, love to taste as we go. It certainly is much more messy to have them help, but very worth the smiles on their faces and the time we get to spend together.
I love reading the stories other people are leaving in the comments. We don't have many escapades in the kitchen. My 7 and 3 year old daughters like to help with baking and I try to relax and let them. Sometimes I find myself getting a little too uptight about the finished product, especially if we are making something for a special occasion. The best times though, are when the stakes aren't too high and they can just dig in and figure things out their own way.
I would love this book because I cook with my four children all the time. Things I've learned:
Keep aprons in a variety of sizes and unisex patterns such as red check.
When you have more children than beaters it's time to start dipping spoons into the batter.
Sometimes everyone can help if you divide tasks into wet and dry ingredients, cracking eggs, etc.
Finally, if a child drops a plastic measuring cup into a Bosch mixer it WILL crunch the entire thing into a million shards!
I love getting my son involved in most parts of cooking. He's helped me with everything from baking cupcakes and cookies to preparing Christmas dinner. He loves to help chop the vegetables and to help mix all the ingredients together.
My little one's are very little (1.5yo and 2.5yo) but they LOVE helping in the kitchen…their favorite is brownies, because the lick the batter (probably a no-no with raw eggs, but they love it)!
I love to let my kiddos help me cook. They love to fetch things from the pantry or fridge. Stirring is always a hit, but be certain that whatever is in the bowl will end up on the counter & more!
I also have a family child care home, and I try to incorporate food preparation into some of learning activities. This cookbook looks like a great resource that I would love to try out!
I'm a bit like the anal retentive chef (remember Phil Hartman's skit on SNL?), so I'm kind of tense when I have my two little girls help me. God help me, I had them helping me make homemade pizza. Flour and cheese EVERYWHERE, but they had a blast and that's what I had to keep reminding myself. They were so thrilled to eat the pizzas they made all by themselves.
I have no babies of my own, but am an avid babysitter to kids with all sorts of special foods needs. I've learned to play with substitutes so they can still have foods other kids eat! This book would be a great addition to my stash!
I love to cook with my daughter, she loves trying new foods and helping prepare them. Her favorite is making homemade pizzas and kneading the dough to create shapes for her pizza.
Oh Mrs Q! Next time use goat cheese! For sure! Goat cheese works SO WELL with fruit and salty meats. I recently had it on a restaurant salad with pears and prosciutto and it was AMAZING. I bet goat cheese on a frittata with apples (or pears!) and bacon would kick so much ass!
My Pipsqueak loves to make sweets with me in the kitchen. She's just beyond the adding ingredients stage and is almost to the point of making her first cake alone. (age 10)
I'm going to show her how to make a scrambled egg this summer and see what else she's interested in making.
She loves Indian food so maybe Chicken Tikka will be next.
The little one at our house loves to watch things mixed together, so she is the go-to girl when we need something stirred. I'm excited to use cooking examples when she begins learning fractions. This cook book looks sensational!
I recently read my kids some Passover stories. We are not Jewish, but I want my kids to have knowledge of and respect for all religious traditions.
So this week we tried our hand at Matzoh ball soup. It was just okay flavor-wise, but we had so much fun making the Matzoh balls!
My kids want to help a lot more than I let them – and I feel guilty about that. It's hard to summon the patience and energy to let them help when I am making dinner. I need to do better!!!
Jen
jhar105256@aol.com
My 5 year old son and I cook together almost daily. He loves to get his stool and see what I'm doing, then help me mix ingredients, flip pancakes, or shred cheese.
I've always said that he WON'T be one of those bachelors who doesn't know how to take care of himself.
that looks delicious! No kids of my own yet, but my niece has been cooking with me since she was old enough to hold a spoon and stir. She loves to try new foods and recipes. She tells everyone she likes eating over here with us because the food is just more exciting here. I love that time with her too.
My kids love to help decorate cakes, cook, measure, etc. But, they usually do wander off in the middle of things. I am trying to teach the 9 year old how to work our coffee maker though…for purely selfish reasons!
My 3 year old loves to help me mix and stir when cooking…and then she gets her own bowl and spoon and pretends to make what I'm making. I can't wait until she can help me when I make homemade baby food for her little brother (due this June!).
my 8 yr old son likes to help me out in the kitchen. He has a chef's hat & apron that he got as a present and he loves it b/c it has 'cars' on it. He even helped me bread scallops so that we could saute them. I am glad because I want him to learn his way around the kitchen.
My 4yo loves to bake. She's gotten to the point where age can help measure the ingredients & she's always in charge of add ingredients & controlling the mixer.
When she was diagnosed with celiac at 14m, I was so worried we'd never bake together. No worries now. 🙂
My son is only 9 months old, so we don't do much cooking together yet, but I've made all his food so far and he's an avid watcher, so I'm sure it's just a matter of time…
My kids love cooking eggs, sandwiches and smoothies. This sounds great!
i'd love the book! i've tried cooking with my kids many times…have to be honest & say I almost always regret it because of the mess they make! But now they're getting older it's getting better. My son esp loves cooking…would love to have him in the kitchen more when we have time 🙂
My favourite part of cooking with my kids is always the "what to make" part. When I have a dinner in mind, I usually just make it myself. But when there's nothing much in the 'fridge, or bit of leftover this & ends of that, is where it gets fun. Last time I was surveying the 'fridge, already late on a weeknight with nothing planned, my question of "what should we eat?" ended up with our having spaghetti squash soft tacos! The little one peeled the tortillas apart, the bigger one spooned in the reheated leftover spaghetti squash & sauce, I grated the paremesan & rolled it all up, and dinner was served! Kind of messy, kind of yummy, and all sorts of fun 🙂
I love to have my niece help with making salads.
I'm going to have to try that frittata.
I don't have kids, but I used to babysit quite often. I'd get them to help as much as I could and they really liked helping!
I don't have kids yet but I nanny a 4 year old and am always looking for new activities, and I really want to see if he would like baking with me! Especially becacuse he's getting tired of perogies and nuggets for lunch! He bakes cookies with his mom so I think he would with me. I spend 9 hrs a day with him so I think he would really like it. So I would DEFINITELY love this cookbook!!
I'd love to win. My sons are really interested in cooking and we'd love a healthy cookbook for inspiration.
I teach kids cooking classes and would love to have a reference book like this for the kids!
Id love to win this book! My kids love to help out in the kitchen. Or on their own… I now have to hide my spices because my daughter loved sneaking them to her play kitchen. She would end up with some pepper or cumin, making her own recipe. Usually her sneezing is how I catch on and come to see the mess, I mean RECIPE, she has made. 🙂
we love to bake muffins – but lately, they aren't getting eaten. Hmmm. Maybe we need new recipes.