I've always been a reader. Now, at the ripe old age of 29, I can hardly remember a time when I didn't have the ability to rip through books at breakneck speed. However, one thing I do recall is the first chapter book I ever read without confusion or parental intervention. It was The Boxcar Children, the story of a family of four children who lose the parents and so go off and live together in an abandoned box car in the woods. My favorite parts of the story were the moments when the children would cook for themselves. I particularly remember them making stew out of beef and baby vegetables and creating a 'refrigerator' out of a bend in a nearby stream in order to keep their milk (in a glass bottle) cool. The Boxcar Children Cookbook, by Diane Blain, came out in 1991 and contains recipes for many of the meals the Alden children consumed in that first book, as well as in many of the subsequent books (I was never as interested in the rest of the books as I was in that initial one). It's a cookbook geared for kids (which makes sense, as it is based upon a series of children's books) and contains lots of recipes that would be fun for parents and kids to make together, including homemade peanut butter and Dr. Moore's Favorite Brown Cookies (essentially just chocolate chip cookies).
If you also have an unnatural affection for the Boxcar Children series, this cookbook should be a must have, simply for the nostaglia factor.
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