Food ‘N’ Fun, Kids In The Kitchen is available at All Saints Episcopal Church, Duck’s Cottage Bookstore, Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church, Sea Dragon and St. Andrews by the Sea for $23.00. Shortly, the cookbook will be available on Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Nobles’ The Nook. All proceeds will be donated to Food for Thought.
Anne Snape Parsons, born in Glasgow, Scotland, now a resident of Martin’s Point, has authored a new cookbook, Food ‘N’ Fun, Kids In The Kitchen, with all proceeds going to Food for Thought. The nonprofit organization provides weekend healthy meals to pre-school, elementary and some secondary school children who meet federal criteria in Dare County during the school year.
“A few years ago, when I was packing weekend meals at Food for Thought, I decided to find another venue to assist this worthwhile organization,” said Ms. Parsons. “As a food writer, the idea of a cookbook popped into my thoughts. The thrust of Food “N” Fun: Kids in the Kitchen, is to encourage parents, grandparents, and other family members to bring children of all ages into the kitchen to share the fun of cooking. Kids in the kitchen acquire so many skills without noticing: reading, counting, measuring, organizing, weighing, and understanding time and fractions.”
It comes as no surprise that diet plays a crucial role in a child’s mental, emotional and physical development,” said Ms. Parsons. On the Outer Banks, the school feeds children breakfast and lunch, but not on the weekends. That’s where Food for Thought comes in.”
This unique cookbook, chock full of more than 150 appealing, nutritious kid-friendly recipes, is designed to help folks “toss out the junk food, bring your kids into the kitchen and get cracking with some great recipes. Share the fun of cooking with the kids… discover that the roots of home cooking run very deep. So, let’s encourage kids to come into the kitchen, engage kids in the fun of preparing meals, and educate kids about nutrition and healthy choices.”
The cookbook is divided into Fall and Spring semesters with additional parts for Winter break, Spring break and Summer holidays. It also has basic kitchen rules and cook’s tools to help youth in the kitchen: there is also a chapter on how to start an edible garden – much of which was authored by local resident and master gardener Sally Lowe.
Not only is the cookbook to be for youth, she wanted many of the recipes to come from local families, and to be tested by students and other area youth. “To get the recipe from page to plate is quite an accomplishment,” continued Ms. Parsons. “Poor recipes are muddled or careless. A good recipe has ingredients listed in order of use, and the reader must never be ambushed with surprise instructions mid-way through the cooking. Details matter. Can you spot the difference between one pound of apples, peeled, quartered and cored and one pound of peeled, quartered and cored apples? There is a difference in weight.
“In these weeks before Christmas, chefs flaunt their books. But just think: chefs have everything prepped for them,” continued Ms. Parsons. “They use multiple pans and various ovens. The recipes in this cookbook were tested by a special group of ‘chefs.‘ In the culinary classes at First Flight High and Manteo High schools, under the guidance of Lisa Mulglia and Karen Bares, 18 students tested home-cooking recipes and wrote reports. Some recipes did not make it into the cookbook.”
Many other recipes were garnered from friends and family in various countries. “Cooking and eating goods from other cultures stimulates a child’s curiosity about ethnic cuisine,” said Ms. Parsons. “One of the recipe-givers is Nongdak Krans who bested Bobby Flay in Food Networks PAD THAI THROWDOWN. From Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Pamela Barefood, who founded the Blue Crab Bay Co., is committed to her community and was quite keen to provide a great recipe to help our community.”
Other local residents who helped with the cookbook include: Cindy Barnett, Marty Batsel, Neal Blinken, Maureen Buckley, Yvonne Burdick, Sandra Byberg, Janet Colegrove,
Peter Collins, Donna and Milt Countryman, Jessica Cull, Amy Dougherty, Audrey Esposito,
Yen Fine, Renata Hackmann, Loismary Hoehne, Marcia Keeney, Sharon Little, Nancy Maturo, Camille Miller, Jill Neilson, James Morgan Parsons III, Jill Sheffer, Mary Sweeney, Nena Teller, Ginger Webster and Anna Zummo.
Parsons emigrated to the United States as an adult and has lived and worked in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D. C. before moving to the Outer Banks. Extensive travel throughout Europe, Asia, South America, India, South Africa, the South Pacific and Morocco, has increased her appreciation for the rich traditions of food and, just as importantly, the history and migration of foods. As a former leader of Outer Banks Slow Food, she advocates supporting local farmers and fishermen, understanding where food is grown and harvested, and sustaining a real food heritage.
Her food and human interest articles have appeared in a number of publications. In her previous cookbook, Kitchen Memories: a Legacy of Family Recipes From Around the World, she wanted to “rescue, share and increase our repertoire of treasured family recipes.” In this cookbook, she hopes that kids will create their own family memories as they reap the benefits of cooking and eating together.
Food ‘N’ Fun, Kids In The Kitchen is available at All Saints Episcopal Church, Duck’s Cottage Bookstore, Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church, Sea Dragon and St. Andrews by the Sea for $23.00. Shortly, the cookbook will be available on Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Nobles’ The Nook. All proceeds will be donated to Food for Thought.
Food for Thought is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that provides healthy non-perishable breakfasts and lunches for more than 550 pre-school, elementary, and secondary students who meet specific criteria in Dare County on weekends during the school year. The non-profit was one of five in Dare County that received the prestigious North Carolina Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service in 2009. For more information about contributing, call Loismary Hoehne, 252-480-0036.
