Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 Recipes
by Emily Franklin
Synopsis:
"Hilarious and wise, Too Many Cooks celebrates a year in the family kitchen with one mom, four kids, and a picky pediatrician husband.
Emily Franklin's food memoir Too Many Cooks was born of two simple loves: food and children. A foodie and former chef, Franklin wants to pass on her love of food and cooking to her kids; she wants them not only to enjoy what they're eating but to know what they're eating. So, over the course of a year, she introduces her children to new dishes--some exotic, some thrown together with whatever she has in her cabinets--with varying degrees of success. Undaunted by failure ("This tastes like sand!"), Franklin pursues her culinary mission from the heartland of Indiana to the Umbrian countryside. Some meals conjure visions of pleasure while others are utter catastrophes. Along the way, she discovers how a delicious (or even disastrous) meal can bring families together and feed the soul.
As Franklin chronicles her family's year around the kitchen table, season by season, she shares original recipes. From comfort, kid-friendly food like Mummy Nuggets, to the more adventurous Saffron Fish Chowder, to food made on the fly like Orange-Oaty-I-Don't-Know Cookies, each recipe follows a charming or bittersweet or laugh-out-loud anecdote that captures the chaos of cooking for four young kids.
Franklin seasons her stories with how-I-did-it advice on cooking and parenting that makes this such a delightful and inspiring read. And with more than 100 simple, mouthwatering dishes, Too Many Cooks is a happy mix of recipes, memories, and good storytelling."
Emily Franklin's food memoir Too Many Cooks was born of two simple loves: food and children. A foodie and former chef, Franklin wants to pass on her love of food and cooking to her kids; she wants them not only to enjoy what they're eating but to know what they're eating. So, over the course of a year, she introduces her children to new dishes--some exotic, some thrown together with whatever she has in her cabinets--with varying degrees of success. Undaunted by failure ("This tastes like sand!"), Franklin pursues her culinary mission from the heartland of Indiana to the Umbrian countryside. Some meals conjure visions of pleasure while others are utter catastrophes. Along the way, she discovers how a delicious (or even disastrous) meal can bring families together and feed the soul.
As Franklin chronicles her family's year around the kitchen table, season by season, she shares original recipes. From comfort, kid-friendly food like Mummy Nuggets, to the more adventurous Saffron Fish Chowder, to food made on the fly like Orange-Oaty-I-Don't-Know Cookies, each recipe follows a charming or bittersweet or laugh-out-loud anecdote that captures the chaos of cooking for four young kids.
Franklin seasons her stories with how-I-did-it advice on cooking and parenting that makes this such a delightful and inspiring read. And with more than 100 simple, mouthwatering dishes, Too Many Cooks is a happy mix of recipes, memories, and good storytelling."
About the Author:
"EMILY FRANKLIN is the author of Liner Notes and The Girls' Almanac and a dozen young adult novels. Franklin studied at Oxford University and received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA from Dartmouth College. Prior to becoming a mom, Franklin was a chef on historic and luxury yachts. Her recipes have been published in the cookbook Tea-Time Journeys and, recently, in the Boston Globe. She writes about food and family for Wondertime and Parenting magazines. She lives with her husband near Boston, where she is a full-time mother to four children ages nine and younger. With no childcare."
What we thought: This book reads so true to life...I could really relate:) I loved the way Franklin could turn the everyday challenges we face as moms into funny anectdotes that were enjoyable to read. Too Many Cooks was an inspiration to me and motivated me to follow in Franklin's footsteps to make my children's palates more worldy and well-rounded. I loved that this wasn't just a cookbook full of recipes, but more like a useable, interactive memoir:) A truly enjoyable read written by an amazingly engaging storyteller!! ABCD Diaries gives Too Many Cooks an A+!
Buy It: Find Emily Franklin's wonderful book, Too Many Cooks, at your favorite book seller or online book dealer.
Disclosure: ABCD Diaries received a copy of this book as a member of The Bloggers' Book Club from the author, Emily Franklin for review purposes only. We were in no other way compensated. The opinions expressed in this post are ours and ours alone.
i wish i could get my son to eat any of the things she convinces her kids to eat in this book. but it's good to see i'm apparently not alone in trying to get my son to branch out.
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