#bookaday June 7th Forgot I owned it

This one is sooo tricky.... how can you write about a book you've forgotten you owned..... when you have forgotten about it.

So this led me to my bookshelf ............. well actually........... my kids bookshelf........

When I was little all my books that I'd grown out of were stored in the loft, sadly after a leek I lost a lot,
however some survived - and "Cooking With Mother" is just that book.

"Cooking With Mother" is a Ladybird Early Learning  book from 1977.  It is by far the best first cook book I've ever found.  The easiest way to describe just how great it is is to post the contents page for you with a brief description of what you will find.

1. The Rules
     Basically reminding you to wash hands, read recipes and make sure a grown up is with you.
   
   
   
   
   
2. The Kitchen
     Yes it actually is just a picture of a kitchen with various parts labelled.
   
   
3. Kitchen Utensils and How to Use Them
     Lots of pictures of spoons, whisks, knives and for some reason bananas, apples and tomatoes.
   
   
4. Measuring
     It gets a little bit more detailed her telling you how to accurately use a spoon to measure or portion out butter.  It doesn't go into scales.
   
   
5. The Food we eat
     Types of foods e.g. those for growth or energy.  when you may eat foods e.g. egg and bacon for breakfast, pie for lunch and cakes for tea.
   
   
6. Drinks
     a few pictures of various drinks, e.g. tea or milkshake
   
   
7. Cheese and Pineapple Hedgehog
     Lets not start with something tooo challenging.  This recipe (don't forget the book is called COOKING with mother) shows you how to cut cheese and pineapple and put them on cocktail sticks.  Before poking them into an orange.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Fruit Salad
     Another tricky one to cook and I KNOW you are desperate to buy this book to find out how to ........ cut fruit and decant it to a bowl with syrup on it.
   
   
9. Cookers
     Oh good, a cooker.  This page labels a gas and electric cooker.
   
   
10. Egg and Tomato Mushrooms
       This is quite a nice one for kids tea parties.  boil an egg.  chop a tomato and place on top of shelled egg.
    
    
    
    
    
11. Chocolate Crunchies
       A popular recipe for cooking with children - basically a Rice Crispie cake and YES the book does name the brand :)
    
    
12. Cheese and Potato Pie
       We love this in our house........ except it's not QUITE as you would expect.  No, whether it was due to an issue around potatoes (I'm not really up on my 70's history) or whether it was deemed peeling potatoes may be too dangerous I'm not sure.  But this recipe starts by asking you to get "large packet of instant potato (500ml).   And, because I know you are wondering, yes... steps 3 and 4 do tell you how to boil water and make up the instant mash.
    
    
    
    
    
13. Cherry Tops
       A simple sponge bun with a cherry on top - no icing.
    
    
14. Banana Milk Shake
       - mash banana
       - add sugar and milk
      - whisk
      - serve
    
    
15. Salads
       A summer one and a winter one.  Summer is your typical lettuce, cucumber etc while winter features cabbage, raisins and walnuts.
    
    
16. Helping in the kitchen
      washing up. peeling veg, setting the table, tidying up.
    
    
17. Ladybird Cake
       wow, what a jump, but i guess now we have mastered buns kids can tackle something a bit more ........ oh no wait "mother will make the cake and you can ice it".
        It does explain how to use the earlier simple sponge recipe and make it chocolaty then describes how to make chocolate butter icing......
    
    
    
    
    

It may be basic but it's a part of my childhood and now I've found it I think tomorrow may be spent making sponge cakes and Egg and Tomato Mushrooms.

This really is the original book from the 70's .... right down to the price of 30p on the back cover.