Saturday, June 7, 2014

my book Kids Kitchen


When I got two of my books back from the publishers,  I decided to publish them online.  The one I have published in Kindle is Kids Kitchen, and was a work of love for my grandchildren.

I thought I had done with writing cookbooks, but they badgered me into it, saying I hadn't written anything for them. It seems so long ago!  I have one grandson and three granddaughters through my two children, and they tried out the recipes and gave me suggestions on what to include and what not to include. their ages ranged from 8-11.

What was thrilling for me, was my granddaughter Aditi who was nine at the time drawing 350 illustrations for the book, even picturising the instructions!  As luck would have it the publishers chose only 15, but it was a wonderful feeling for all of us. I still have a file of all her original drawings.

We had a fun time sampling the food cooked according to the recipes in the book, and my grandson Aditya who was outnumbered by his girl cousins took churlish delight in  sampling the food and offering his criticisms or praise.  Like his paternal grandfather, (my husband) he is a great connoisseur of food, and his suggestions were valuable.

When you publish online, you have to adhere to a certain format which is not so easy for someone my age and one who is not exactly a geek!  And moreover, you have to promote your book! And that is when the grands decided to put me back on Facebook.

Here is a sample recipe, and do try to read Kids Kitchen on Kindle, you can tell your children I've written a story for every chapter!


BISCUIT FACES

 24 Marie biscuits
¾ cup mashed paneer mixed with 2 tbsp of butter
20 black grapes or black currants or black olives
10 tomato slices
6 cheese slices
6 cucumber slices
½ bunch washed coriander leaves with stems

     Place the biscuits on a big plate
  1. Mash the paneer smoothly and apply on each biscuit
  2. Cut each grape into half and use for the eyes
  3. Using a kitchen scissor cut curved strips from the tomato for the lips
  4. Cut thin triangles for the nose from the cheese slices
  5. cut thin curved strips for the eyebrows from the cucumber
  6. Arrange the coriander leaves to look like hair at the top edge of the biscuit faces.
  7. Place all these as you wish, and you can make different faces if you feel like it or use other ingredients

Note:  It is always safer to have extra ingredients so that you will have enough in case some of them are not cut properly. If you don’t like sweet biscuits, you can use any of the salty biscuits in the market. Home made paneer is easier to spread, if you buy the paneer from the shop, blend some butter so that it is smoother.