Cookbooks offer children food adventures

At last, there is a recipe for green eggs and ham. The ham is glazed with apple jelly and minced tomatillos patted with cilantro or parsley until it's solid green. The yolk of each fried egg is covered with mashed guacamole.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a recipe must be worth well, a cookbook.

Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook: Yots in Pots and Schlotz's Knots, Who-Roast-Beast, "Fritz-Fed Fred" food Feast, Moose Juice and Goose Juice - Recipes inspired by Dr. Seuss! by Georgeanne Brennan, illustrated by Dr. Seuss, with photographs by Frankie Frankeny, is a Random House Books for Young Readers ($16.95).

Will the kids eat it? Will they read it?

Cookies are a good kitchen project for parents and kids.

The whimsical recipes will most certainly appeal to Seuss collectors. From Flapjack Flapper's Flapjacks to Fritz-Fed Fred Food Feast (how to make pickles), the wild and wacky foods are transformed into doable recipes.

The author and photographer perused every single Dr. Seuss book, all 44 of them, and found they were full of wacky foods that needed to be brought to life. Schlottz's Knots became long, twisted pretzels. Cat in the Hat Tub Cake is made with a purchased angel food cake.

In short, this sounds like a Christmas vacation project.

On a more serious cooking note, Williams-Sonoma Kids in the Kitchen is designed to introduce young chefs to the basic cooking tools and techniques. Fun Food and Sweet Treats are aimed at 8-to-11-year-olds. Each cookbook is $19.95.

In Fun Food, Chicken Noodle Soup is a basic recipe that can be adapted to Asian Chicken Soup with rice vermicelli and soy sauce; to Tortilla Soup with avocado chunks and tortilla chips, or to Chicken & Rice Soup. Recipes include Lasagna, Stuffed Baked Potatoes, and Sauted Green Beans as well as a variety of quesadillas.

Sweet Treats will teach kids, with parents' supervision, how to make Strawberry Shortcakes, how to frost a cake, make chocolate truffles, and make strawberry ice cream using an ice cream maker.

The moral of this story is that parents will do anything to get kids to eat - even buy them a cookbook.

Food Adventure: Introducing Your Child to Flavors From Around the World by Elisabeth Luard and Frances Boswell (Kyle, $17.95) is designed to awaken a child's eagerness to be adventurous at meal time. The authors, a daughter and mother-in-law, circled the globe to adapt flavors, colors, and textures. The concept is that the sooner one introduces a wide variety of tastes, the less picky children will be as they grow older.

From puree food to bowl food, from Italian Winter Minestrone to Louisiana Jambalaya or Holland's Beef and Carrot Hotpot, the options are fragrant and have a variety of tastes and textures. Make food a game with Cinderella's Midnight Feast of pasta with pumpkin and ricotta, Princess-and-the-Pea Pancakes, and Beach Party Paella.

Johnson & Wales University is allowing freshmen to senior high school students to enter its National High School Chef of the Year contest. With nearly $1 million in total scholarships, the grand prize winners in both the dinner and dessert senior division categories will receive full-tuition scholarships and a trip to New York for private cooking lessons with Tyler Florence, a celebrity chef, author and 1994 J&W grad. The first 300 participants who submit complete entries will receive a $1,000 one-time tuition grant upon enrolling at the university.

For the 2007 competition, Johnson & Wales aims to increase awareness of teen obesity by requiring high school students to submit a dinner or dessert recipe that is nutritionally balanced according to the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society guidelines.

Contestants must create an entree or dessert using an original recipe that incorporates either their family heritage (nationality) or a recipe with a strong, appealing ethnicity. The top 10 entrants in both categories will be flown to the Johnson & Wales Charlotte, N.C., campus during the weekend of March 16-18 to prepare their dishes for a panel of judges, including chefs, food writers, and industry leaders.

Additional contest details are available at http://culinary.jwu.edu/admissions/recipe.php or by calling the J&W Charlotte Admissions Office at 866-598-2427. All entries must be postmarked or be received by e-mail by Feb. 15.

Research shows that adolescents and children aren't getting enough bone-building nutrients in their daily diets, which puts them at risk for fractures now and osteoporosis later in life.

From the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council Mid-East comes three steps to help build strong bones for the entire family:

•Eat a nutrient rich diet that includes three servings each day of low-fat or fat-free milk and yogurt, or reduced-fat cheese.

•Be active by participating in weight-bearing activities.

•Parents are role models. Children will follow their lead.