Recipe Road Trip: Cooking Your Way Across the USA by Nanette Lavin (Kitchen Ink Publishing, 2023, $24.95HB, 252pp, ages 6-10 years, grades 1-5) Review by Skye Anderson.
A Keeper, Whether You Have Kids or Not
So, you're not a cook. Or, so you need something fun to keep your kids occupied and learning?
Recipe Road Trip is a creative way to learn cooking and geography with plenty of good jokes thrown in for laughs. Travel through the US from the northeast to the territories, one state at a time, stopping over to cook easy, intermediate and advanced recipes while learning fun facts and jokes about those foods.
Cook Your Way Across the USA!
With more than 120 delicious recipes, this book will last a long time! A bonus is meal menus from the various regions with a recipe for each level of difficulty for each meal so all three kids can all participate!
We started with Maryland, then went to Washington and Idaho and Arizona and Hawaii - then all the others. Maryland dishes are crab cakes (level 1, beginning cook) and Berger cookies (level 2, intermediate cook) while Washington's are wild mushroom barley (level 2) and Emma's applesauce (level 1).
Suggestions
We would suggest, for the 2nd edition, that the book be spiral bound for ease of use and for some of the recipes we simply did not 'get' the connection with the states they are listed under, but then we are not real foodies. We loved the jokes but a couple were forced and before we passed them on, we reworded some of them slightly. One favorite: Q: What do you call a pig who gets fired from his job? A: A canned ham.
For Washington: Q: What did the apple skin (peel) say to the apple? A: I got you covered.
And why couldn't the teddy bear finish his muffin? Because he was stuffed already!
Maybe add a diary page so readers (and cookers) can write down their favorite recipe, a new joke, and make this book really theirs.
All in all, this book is a keeper for kids and adults as well.
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