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My Grandma's Kitchen : Louise Fulton Keats

20th January 2012 By Urvashi Roe Leave a Comment

My grandma's kitchenThis book is inspired by Louise’s childhood growing up in her grandmother’s kitchen.

About the author

Louise is a graduate of Cordon Bleu Cookery School and like me, has a passion for helping children develop a love of food. Her Grandmother Margaret who wrote the recipes for this book, is one of Australia’s most respected cookery writers.  She sounds much like our very own Mary Berry!

The book is very simply split into recipes for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.  There is a wonderful blend of photography and illustration in this book in a Charlie and Lola style that makes this book a wonderful read.  My 7 year old daughter, Amy, quite enjoyed reading this without doing any of the cooking as there is a little puppy that interacts with the Lulu, the narrator, and Harry, her brother.   The language is very simple and engaging for children and all the measures are in cups and spoonfuls whereever possible/

The recipes are simple and include a mix of those children and parents are likely to know as well as other’s which are not traditionally perceived as “child friendly”.  I like this mix because it helps to introduce children to “adult” food in a very familiar way.

For example, my children are used to having porridge with fruits and nuts but had never tried Bircher Muesli.  Not sure why as my husband and I love it! The ingredients were familiar and after reading and measuring everything out herself, Amy happily ate a bowlful and invented her own combinations.

This is the same for the peach smoothie.  We didn’t have any peaches so we used our blueberries.  Such a great way of getting healthy botanicals and calcium into children who have given up a daily bottle or glass of milk.  

My girls love poached eggs but as yet I have not let them cook these because I’m not quite confident about them cracking eggs over boiling water on their own.  With the Eggs in Ramekins recipe, they made their own in little recycled Gu Pudding pots!

The recipes are written very simply and older children could make many of these on their own under your supervision.  My girls cook on their own every weekend and if this is something you are keen to encourage with your own little ones, then this book is a perfect starting point.  For example, my eldest daughter Amber made Pink Pavlova by herself following this recipe and using our KitchenAid.  She really enjoyed seeing the mixture change consistency and then experimenting with the pinkness.  Imagine the fun at Halloween with green!

This book is perfect for primary school aged children and parents wanting to take that first step towards raising children to be confident cooks and eaters.    Hope you’ll have lots of fun with it.  Listen to what my daughter Amy thought of it…

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Recipes

I made the Oat and Raisin Cookies below for my Afternoon Tea event at Pipedream Restaurant for the children and Amy made them with step by step pics for The Great British Baking Club.

Image courtesy of Monica Shaw at www.monicashaw.com

Book details

Hardcover ISBN 9781742701141: £12.99 

Published by Hardie Grant Books

Louise’s details

Twitter : @LFultonKeats

Web: www.mygrandmaskitchen.com.au

To enter a giveaway for a copy of this book, simply leave a comment below and for an additional chance, tweet  ”I’ve entered the @BotanicalBaker giveaway for My Grandma’s Kitchen”.  Closing date Friday 10 February 2012.

Related

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Children

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Andrea Frost says

    6th February 2012 at 7:38 pm

    I have a very enthusiastic toddler who already enjoys helping in the kitchen. I would love some simply structured recipes to further encourage him

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      6th February 2012 at 7:46 pm

      Brilliant! I think that’s the important thing.

      Reply
  2. Catherine says

    6th February 2012 at 10:08 pm

    Sounds great. I have two young boys that I want to ensure can competently handle a kitchen. Perfect husband material for the future!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      6th February 2012 at 10:33 pm

      I like that line of thinking!

      Reply
  3. Stacey says

    6th February 2012 at 10:29 pm

    I love the sound of this. My son is an enthusiastic baker and batter eater – trouble is more goes in his mouth than in the baking tins!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      6th February 2012 at 10:34 pm

      To the cook go the spoils!

      Reply
  4. kathvbtn says

    7th February 2012 at 8:04 am

    Please could you add me to the entrants, its a gorgeous looking book!
    Tweeting as @kathvbtn

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 9:11 am

      done 🙂 thanks for entering x

      Reply
  5. Jane Willis (@janesgrapevine) says

    7th February 2012 at 8:31 am

    My granddaughter is almost three but already learning to cook and will eat almost anything, especially if it has her own home made curry powder in it. She grows some of her own herbs and veg too! Her Mummy has just sterted teaching her to bake, so i would love this bookso that I can join in too.
    I’ve also tweeted. @janesgrapevine

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 9:12 am

      That’s brilliant! Thanks for entering. Good luck with your little botanical baker 🙂

      Reply
  6. Emma Cella says

    7th February 2012 at 8:44 am

    I have a toddler who already enjoys helping in the kitchen

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 9:12 am

      Thanks for entering Emma 🙂

      Reply
  7. Louise Tibble says

    7th February 2012 at 9:26 am

    My little girl loves cooking we usually stick to the simple fairy cakes and gingerbread men but it would be great to have some different ideas and introduce her to some different recipes.

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 10:27 am

      Perfect! Thanks for entering 😉

      Reply
  8. Debbi Beard says

    7th February 2012 at 9:33 am

    I have a 9 year old boy who sometimes wants to m,ake things. This sounds a good book for him to interact with

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 10:26 am

      I would say this is a little young for him but have entered you anyway. 🙂

      Reply
  9. Emma says

    7th February 2012 at 11:46 am

    This sounds great and a lovely thing to share with the nephew and niece when they come to stay, so they can bake and take treats home!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 2:12 pm

      What a great aunt you are! Thanks for entering x

      Reply
  10. Karen F. says

    7th February 2012 at 8:29 pm

    My children love to cook with me, and this looks like it would be really fun.

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 9:08 pm

      If they are pre primary school or early primary school, they’ll love it! thanks for entering x

      Reply
  11. teresa says

    7th February 2012 at 9:21 pm

    what a fabulous book – know just who I would share this book with! thanks

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      7th February 2012 at 9:22 pm

      Thanks for entering Teresa x

      Reply
  12. Melanie Heavenly says

    10th February 2012 at 10:20 am

    My Gran was a huge inspiration to me. I still have her handwritten cookbook, which was a huge A4 hard cover book and I treasure it. She also used to cut out recipes from magazines and paste them the book. It’s a nostalgia trip to page through the book. I’d give this book to my 5 year old nephew, who already cooks with his Granny, my Mum and I have high hopes for his culinary future.

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      10th February 2012 at 10:53 am

      Aww that’s awesome! I am making a book like that from recipes from my aunts. They never wrote things down in their day as many didn’t know how to write. They passed it on by teaching and word of mouth. Thanks for entering the draw x

      Reply
  13. Gilly says

    10th February 2012 at 12:50 pm

    My 6 year old son and me have been baking together for years, he even has magic words for when cakes go in the oven and they’ve not failed us yet!! Yesterday his 15 month old sister joined in the mixing fun, and even egg washed the scones for us!! Would love this book to give us more inspiration for rainy day baking magic!!!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      10th February 2012 at 1:18 pm

      Brilliant! Thanks for entering x

      Reply
  14. Ruth Tarrant says

    10th February 2012 at 1:15 pm

    My children want to write a cookery book, hopefully they won’t have to wait until I am a grandma to do it though!!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      10th February 2012 at 1:19 pm

      Mine write cookery books too. We do them per recipe step by step like this : http://www.greatbritishbakingclub.co.uk/2012/01/budding-bakers-baked-cheesecake.html and then print them off and put them in a folder. Thanks for entering x

      Reply
  15. Rebecca Linsdell says

    10th February 2012 at 2:23 pm

    This looks lOvely!!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      10th February 2012 at 3:26 pm

      It is a gorgeously illustrated book. thank you for entering x

      Reply
  16. jo ingleby says

    10th February 2012 at 9:14 pm

    As a chef and mum of 2 I’m all for etting kids cooking,
    I work on a food project with children as young as 6months who cook, explore food, and above all eat!
    I’d love to win this though,it sounds like a great inspiration from Amuy’s review!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      10th February 2012 at 10:09 pm

      Fantastic! Thanks for entering x

      Reply
  17. Sarah says

    10th February 2012 at 9:14 pm

    My 3 yr old and 5 yr old would love helping me make some things out of this book. It looks fab x

    Reply

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Hi I'm Urvashi!

I love food. This blog is a little glimpse into my foodie world which is an escape from two teenage girls, a busy job and my little cafe.

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