Cook Me A Story

We've been reading fairy tales for the past few weeks and we are having the best time. It is part of our Jot it Down! curriculum from Brave Writer. I honestly didn't think we would enjoy it this much, because I thought I didn't like fairy tales very much. I have nothing against them, I just always thought they were boring. Jot it Down! has us take a week or more on one fairy tale and read several different versions of it. This has really gotten the kids interested. Then we do a simple art project to go along with it and the kids retell the story to me in their own words, which I "jot down" for them. While this in itself has been fun and quite educational, we have found ourselves going into even more depth with each story.

One of my favorite things to do with the kids is to connect the things we're reading with food. I have found a lot of great cookbooks that have food from childrens' books, and I just found another at my library that I think is so awesome:

Cook Me A Story by Bryan Kozlowski

It has recipes for each of the stories we're doing in Jot it Down! plus a ton of others. The recipes we've tried so far have been easy and they taste great. My favorite part is that the recipes themselves are so fun. They tell a little bit of the story then have you add an ingredient, so you cook as you read it. Of course, the stories are changed slightly (and humorously) to go along with the cooking. Because we have read so many other versions of the fairy tales, with slight changes in each one, the kids have really enjoyed that aspect. Okay, so the ones we've done so far:

Goldilocks and the Three Pears - Pear and Sweet Milk Porridge

Rapretzel - Braided Pretzel Twists

The Fizzy Frog Prince - Sparkling Green-Slime Punch

Of course, I have no pictures of the results because they were eaten too quickly! My five year old son asked me today if we could skip doing the art project for the story we're on and just continue cooking our way through the cookbook. Coming from that art-lover, that was quite an endorsement. I have no affiliation with this book, other than loving it, and I highly recommend you check it out!