Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold – Pease porridge under the princess’ bed?

books, cookbooks, food, kids, picky eaters | November 14, 2011 | By

Nablopomo – Fairytale

The Fairy Tale Cookbook by Carol MacgregorThe Fairy Tale Cookbook by Sandre Moore

I went to find a link for the first book when I discovered the second book instead. I guess more than one person thought it’d be cool to publish a cookbook using fairytale foods, huh? Actually, if you keep looking, there are several cookbooks along the same idea.

Between the two of those right there, though, here are some of the recipes and tales covered:

~The Pancake (a big blueberry pancake)
~Hansel and Gretel (bread trail, gingerbread house,etc,)
~Goldilocks and the Three Bears (porridge)
~Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (poisoned apple)
~The Three Billy Goats Gruff (wild vegetables and grass)
~The Princess and the Pea (the pea)
~Puss in Boots (a wild rabbit for the king)
~Strega Nona (pasta)
~Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (fruit)
~A Story, a Story (yams)
~The Bremen Town Musicians (baked beans and frankfurters)
~East of the Sun and West of the Moon (a fine meal, and fish)
~Sleeping Beauty (a feast of chicken)
~Little Red Riding Hood (the basket of goodies)
~Tom Thumb (pudding)
~The Twelve Months (strawberries, apples)
~Cinderella (oranges and lemons)
~The Nutcracker (pecans)
~The Ugly Duckling (bread and grain)
~The Gingerbread Man 
~Three Little Kittens (pie)
~Jack and the Beanstalk 
~Paul Bunyan (pancakes)
~The Three Bears (porridge) 
~Stone Soup

Yum.  Involve the kids in making their favorite fairy tale’s recipes and you may have an easier time with your pickiest eaters. Or hey, at least have some food maybe you’ll enjoy after you give in to their PB&J requests instead. :P

Homemade is Best – IKEA’s visual cookbook with picture recipes

cinnamon roll cookbook ikea
That is the recipe for these cinnamon rolls:
cinnamon rolls from visual cookbook ikea

Toxel had people arguing and criticizing about how useless it is, but I really think a lot of people missed the idea of it being photographic art and less of a “real cookbook” replacement. It could be used as a real recipe, but if you’re someone who lives by very specific measurements with detailed instructions, you’d definitely have a harder time with these visual guidelines.

Here’s another example, using a berry cake:
berry cake with visual instructions and ingredients pictures
picture of berry pie from ikea cookbook
From IKEA, here’s a bit about their inspiration and motivation for creating a book like this:

We wanted to ensure a connection between IKEA’s kitchen appliances and one of the best things you can do in a kitchen, some great baking. So the main attraction in the campaign became a 140 page coffee-table baking book presented in a very visually unique and spectacular way.

90% of all the photographs taken in baking books look extremly alike. We wanted to try something different and present the recipes in a totally new fashion.

We let ourselves be inspired by high fashion and japanese minimalism. The idea of the book became to tone down the actual cake and put the ingredients in focus. The recipes are presented as graphic still-life portraits on a warm and colourful stage. And when you turn the page you see the fantastic result.

The baking book contains 30 classic swedish baking recipes everything from small biscuits to large cakes.

I think they did a pretty good job at what they were aiming for. This site actually has what looks to be all (or most) of the recipes.
IKEA cookbook Hembakat Ar Bast Homemade is Best visual recipes with pictures instead of words instructions

Cookbook trailer and release – Better than the movies


Perfect One-Dish Dinners from Three Many Cooks
I don’t own the book. I probably won’t buy it (nothing personal against the book….I just have too many books as it is and I prefer to get my recipes online). I don’t really even know that much about it. I have no connection with the author, her kids, the website, nada.
But how cool and quirky is it for there to be a trailer for a cookbook? lol