'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 December 2024

Review: Bluey and Bingo's Christmas Cookbook

Bluey and Bingo’s Christmas Cookbook: Yummy Recipes, for Real Life, is a delightful offering for children interested in testing their cooking skills and increasing their interest in food.

Beautifully designed for little hands, the book has wipeable, bright coloured pages and images, sectioned into easy-to-follow instructions and recipes. 

This is initiative enough to send mothers and children off to kitchen cupboards to check for ingredients.

Tips on the importance of preparation before starting, set the scene.

Friday, 1 March 2024

Review: The Independent Pea

Pea is determined to leave the pod and become independent; to create its own success story.

The Pod tries to convince it that only through combining their individual skills, can they all reach their optimum creativity.

As a team, they can achieve something artistic, eye-catching and worthwhile. 

They can become as creative as Peacasso.

Pea is determined to prove the Pod wrong.

It voices its hopes and dreams and sets out alone, to be called back, and shown examples of what can be achieved with teamwork.

Monday, 18 September 2023

Review: Letters for Lunch: How to Eat the Alphabet

The award-winning Maree Coote, with her acclaimed brilliance in the use of words and the alphabet, has come up with another stunning publication.

 Using vegetables, fruit, and nutritious food in the guise of letters, she has created work of amazing beauty.

From the exquisite and clever typography to the creative and individual personifying of each letter, the text takes the prize! 

In rhyming verse, Coote serves the letter well.

Letters for Lunch: How to Eat the Alphabet

The title is an achievement in itself. 

We go into the end pages. Stunning colour is alluring. 

Thursday, 31 August 2023

Review: Lunchbox Boss

This book is impossible! I may have to stop being a reviewer because it’s way too hard when it comes to books like Lunchbox Boss

Every time I sit down to take a good, long look inside its pages, I get so distracted and hungry that all I can do is stare longingly into the open fridge.

You see, internet sensation George Georgievski is a wizard. Alongside his onomatopoeic name, warm, chatty writing style and massive number of Insta followers, are a bevy of lunchbox photographs that make me want to climb onto high rooftops and sing his praises. 

Friday, 23 December 2022

Review: The Muddy Chef

I’ve lost count of the number of hours I spent in the garden as a child, making lemon scented perfume, bitter ‘sourgrass’ shots and rose petal jam. My own children too, have been encouraged to  build, scoop, scrape, bury and bake in the garden.

Mindful, absorbing play. No meditation app required!

This wonderful picture book The Muddy Chef, is a testament to child’s play, gumboots and the invention of the washing machine. 

Sunday, 19 June 2022

Review: Bluey and Bingo's Fancy Restaurant Cookbook

Bluey fans will be excited to see the release of Bluey and Bingo's Fancy Restaurant Cookbook

It starts with a page of tips (safety, hygiene, allergies, etc) which is a good reminder to cooks young and old of things to be careful of. And for young cooks, the safety reminder includes making sure they have a grown up helper.

Then there are a selection of recipes with a connection to Bluey and Bingo. There are little narrative pieces spread throughout, which feature Bluey, Bingo and their family and friends.

Each recipe comes with a 'trifficulty' rating, a list of the ingredients needed, extra things that might help (generally optional and sometimes humourous), plus step by step instructions about what to do to make the recipe.

Monday, 15 November 2021

Winner: Non Fiction Prize Combo

Our lucky winner is...

Katharine York, VIC

Congratulations!

You have won this brilliant prize book combo pack featuring the fabulous Non-fiction titles: Alice’s Food A-Z, Britannica’s First Big Book of Why, Listified!

Enjoy!

Thank you to ALL who entered. We enjoyed some very interesting food experiences! 

Saturday, 6 November 2021

Giveaway: Creative Non Fiction Prize Combo! Alice’s Food A-Z, Britannica’s First Big Book of Why, Listified!


Thanks to the extraordinary people of Walker Books Australia, we have the most brilliant collection of non fiction titles guaranteed to captivate. From cookery and curious quirky facts to the really big questions like, why do elephants have long trunks?

Titles include:

  • Alice's Food A-Z By Alice Zaslavsky Illustrated by Kat Chadwick All the things you ever wanted to know about food, also some things you probably didn’t! An edible adventure by Alice Zaslavsky – former MasterChef contestant and the host of TV quiz show Kitchen Whiz. Packed to the brim with funny food facts, clever cooking tips and kid-friendly recipes.
  • Listified! By Andrew Pettie Illustrated by AndrĂ©s Lozano Listified! takes the best and most amazing parts of the universe – erupting volcanoes, medieval machines, jumping spiders, exploding stars and everything in between – and organises them into quirky lists for curious kids to enjoy.
  • Britannica First Big Book of Why By Stephanie Drimmer, Sally Symes Illustrated by Kate Slater A stunningly illustrated question and answer book from Britannica, with answers to more than 130 questions that kids really want to know, like why clouds are different shapes.

For the chance to win this exciting creative combo pack in 25 words or less tell us what's your favourite food to cook for your family?

Friday, 12 March 2021

Review: The Healthy Skin Kitchen

An increasing number of children suffer severely every year from Eczema and other skin conditions, without relief in sight. Australian nutritionist, Karen Fischer with her award-winning book The Eczema Diet, helped countless adults and children end their agony of itching and scratching.

Sufferers of acne, allergies, eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, and many other skin complaints are able to find relief based on continued study of nutrition and nutritional biochemistry, documented in her new book, The Healthy Skin Kitchen.

Sunday, 10 January 2021

Review: Be More Vegan: The Young Person's Guide to A Plant-based Lifestyle

Veganism has reached almost epic proportions in 2020 according to many sources and it appears that almost one-sixth of those turning to this lifestyle are teenagers.

The term flexitarianism has been coined to describe those who have become more ‘part-time’ vegans and for many young people who are driving this trend a healthier lifestyle and concern for the environment are motivating factors. 

All this makes the publication of this new book by well-known health coach and vegan food-blogger, Niki Webster, extremely timely. 

Sunday, 11 October 2020

Review: Egg and Spoon: An Illustrated Cookbook

What I loved about this book was the discarding of hard and fast rules. Cooking is likened to a wonderful journey of discovery; finding what works for you. What an amazing lesson for children to learn!   

Egg and Spoon is a cookbook with recipes for children as well as adults. There is a special Keeping Safe in the Kitchen page that gives tips on things that are common sense but aren’t commonly remembered.

It opens with the familiar listing of preparation before beginning and all the tools needed to create the following food.

Thursday, 9 July 2020

Review: Puffin Little Cook: Snacks

Get your kids in the kitchen with Puffin Little Cook: Snacks.

This is a brilliant little book filled with fun and easy recipes the kids can try. And with breakfast snacks, lunch snacks, dinner snacks and sweet snacks, there’s something for everyone.

The recipes really are simple ones: Anzac biscuits, dippy eggs, vegetable pikelets and more. 

There are also recipes that require no actual cooking (like energy balls), so kids really can make them from start to finish.

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

Review: Lunch At 10 Pomegranate Street

A delicious collection of recipes, beautifully illustrated and collated in a way which honours ingredients, sharing and love of food.

In the different apartments at 10 Pomegranate Street, 15 dishes are in the making. From Mister Ping’s Little Trees to Matilda’s Strawberry Crumble, each recipe shows a little of the heart, soul and culture of the occupants. Each page spread features a new recipe; illustrated ingredients and a succinct cooking method.

What will be of all these delicious dishes? A wholesome feast and a message of community, culture and food prevails.

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

Review: One Handed Cooks: Boosting Your Basics

Boosting Your Basics is making the most of every family mealtime – from baby to school age

Cooking for our young ones can often be an anxious and frustrating experience, especially when preparing food for fussy eaters. 

I’m always on the lookout for basic recipes that are nutritious, easy to prepare, and have as few ingredients as possible so my pantry doesn’t overflow with items of infrequent use. The recipes have to be family-friendly as these most certainly are – all 100+ of them!

Sunday, 28 April 2019

Review: Well Read Cookies

When a creative person like Lauren Chater combines their passion of baking and literature they create the most delightful composition, initially a blog and now a book, Well Read Cookies.

The 60 biscuits found inside this book are inspired by literature that touched Chater in some way, they made her giggle, cry and sigh with pleasure.

Each biscuit in Well Read Cookies is a mini book review with some instructions of how the biscuit was made along with decorating tips and a colour photo of the finished product.

Monday, 22 April 2019

Review: Smart Snacks

Good food and healthy choices are what we all want for our families. In a time poor era, this is seldom easy. Here are over 100 delicious recipes for preparing quick nutritious snacks to accommodate school time needs for kids and teenagers, especially during exam and late night study time. It is brain and mood-boosting food which fuels the body and curbs hunger.

The book has been co-written by two professionals. Flip Shelton is an Australian writer, presenter and broadcaster, whose popular cookbooks promote fast, easy, healthy and nutritious eating habits. Michael Carr-Gregg is a highly-respected adolescent and child psychologist and author. 

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

Review: Real Food Kids Will Love

Annabel Karmel has written 44 cookbooks. Here is her latest with recipes never seen before, to stimulate palate of toddlers and onward. There are 100 recipes designed to appeal to the very young that will be enjoyed by all the family. 

Even sceptical mums agree that good eating habits begin with a child’s first solids and go on from there. These recipes have no additives, preservatives or flavour enhancers. 

All are easy to prepare, nourishing, wholesome, and freezer-friendly for time-saving and convenience in today’s time-poor living.

There is great choice for meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans, or flexitarians, with 15 minute meals, and an extensive selection of lunchbox ideas for all ages that will maintain any child’s energy levels throughout each day.

Sunday, 8 July 2018

Review: A Househusband's Guide: Our Meal, Their Meal - The Little Ones and Grown-Ups Cookbook

Many people may gasp at the thought of giving a toddler and children some of the recipes contained here. Eating flavoursome food is a learned thing and one that needs to be started early with children for their palate to become accustomed to different tastes. 

Being a passionate cook and having a toddler in the family, I started early using all kinds of ingredients to enhance the flavour of the food I cooked for our little one, and by adding all kinds of herbs and spices.

This is Aaron Harvie’s second book, which is created to serve both adults and children without having to cook separate meals. He begins with fantastic tips about knife skills and the different ways of cutting vegetables to make them appealing to children, and why this matters.

Friday, 6 April 2018

Review: Smart Baby Cookbook

As parents and carers, we are always looking for ideas and recipes on how to prepare nutritious and healthy foods for our little ones.  In this welcomed new publication, Lauren Cheney has all that you’ve been searching for sewn up.

New phrases such as ‘protective and preventative nutrition’, ‘optimal nutritional balance’, and the words SMART foods are used, although some may have never come across them, and what the word SMART stands for. You’ll discover why a Mediterranean diet is always promoted and which foods can ‘optimise immunity and brain development’.

This book supplies advice and suggestions under eight headings, on what to cook, how to cook, store, freeze and reheat each recipe, the length of time it can be stored, and which containers are best to use for storage and freezing.  Utensils that aid food preparation are suggested with the safest plates, spoons and cups to use for your child and why. Listed to make shopping easier, are items for your freezer, fridge and pantry. Directions on how to cook by steaming, boiling, blending and reheating are also included. Each recipe has information keys on cooking, preparation time and if suitable for freezing.

Friday, 23 March 2018

Review: Make and Play: Easter

Decorating, singing, crafts and cooking activities are not just activities for Christmas. Joey Chou's activity book Make and Play: Easter is full of fun that will help bring delight to little ones as Easter approaches.

There are 25 colourful press-out play figures that are very easy to slot together. Chou suggests that readers use the play pieces to decorate their house, creating an Easter scene.