Book Report - Cooking Around the Calendar with Kids

Timely Resource for National Family Meal Day

Is your family on the run from morning until night? Never have time to reconnect? Even at mealtime?

The pleasures of cooking and eating meals with the family are rarely practiced in our hurry-up world. Millions of children and adults eat “out of the refrigerator ” and often alone, or spend more time at fast-food restaurants than at heir own tables.

Amy Houts would like to see that change and her book, Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun is the beginning of a mission to help families cook and eat meals together. Over 150 of the recipes and suggestions in the book are intended to help in preparing seasonal food, establishing meaningful traditions, and cherishing he joy of spending family meal time together.


This book is a timely resource for the upcoming National Family Meal Day to be celebrated September 26. On this day families are encouraged to sit down and eat dinner as a family. It is a revealing fact about our society when we need a special day to acknowledge the importance of eating together.

Eating together tends to strengthen bonds between loved ones. There is a strong connection between food, family and friends. Cooking and sharing meals together is an extremely powerful way of connecting with the people you care about.

Make mealtime a time to reconnect with your family. Ask your kids to tell you about their day and share what is happening in your world. Forget the phone, the doorbell and TV. Make this your special time, not only on National Family Meal Day but perhaps a regular part of any day.

Here is a recipe from the cookbook, Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun that ill get the family working together and then enjoying their meal together.

Easy Vegetable Soup

1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
3 cups beef broth
3 carrots, pared and sliced
3 stalks celery, sliced
1/4 cabbage, shredded
1 (8-oz.) can tomato sauce
3 tablespoons uncooked rice
1 (16-oz.) can kidney or red beans.
Season to taste

Brown ground beef or turkey and onion in a 4 qt. pot. Drain fat. Meanwhile, prepare vegetables. Allowing children to pare, shred, or dice vegetables will depend on the age of the child.

Children can measure beef broth and rice and add to pot along with the vegetables. Bring to boil, then turn down heat, cover, and simmer or our. Yield: 6 servings

Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun is available from libraries, select bookstores, and directly from Snaptail Press, Division of Images Unlimited, P.O. Box 305, Maryville, MO 64468 or through their website. ($24.95 plus 4.00 postage)

Media kits, review copies, and interviews available on request. Special feature story inquiries welcome.