While going through my cookbook shelf recently, I found a treasure that had slipped behind the others: a cookbook that our grammar school put together seven years ago. Each laminated page includes a piece of original artwork completed by a kindergarten through fourth-grader along with a recipe.
While there are certainly a few standout pieces of art, it’s the kids’ recipe choices that I like the most. The recipes are straightforward and easy to prepare. Simple meat-and-potato dishes are popular, along with crowd-pleasing, easy desserts. I love the add-ons and marginalia—nuggets of wisdom or disclaimers in the typed recipes, embellishments and exclamations in kids’ handwriting and drawings.
Smokey Salmon Roll, a cream-cheesy mix of fish, liquid smoke, horseradish, and pecans, includes these directives in the recipe and handwritten postscript: Fishing is a prerequisite, but you can use canned fish if needed. PS: You need to know how to fish. Amen to that.
On the following page, the salmon roll author’s brother shares a recipe for Sweet Bacon-Wrapped Venison which includes only three items beyond the deer: bacon, soy sauce, and sugar. The marinade doubles as a glaze and then helps make a sweet crust. The fourth-grader swears by it. And still does.
A first-grader’s submission for Crack Potatoes is a dish her family often enjoys during holidays. In this case, the student has carefully drawn each ingredient in the casserole. In the typewritten part of the recipe, her mother jokes that this mix of frozen hash browns, sour cream, bacon bits, and ranch dip is truly addictive and quick to toss together. She finishes with a suggestion: The next day, do a juice cleanse and go for a run.
I’m writing this article while enjoying August’s abundance. Each year we host a large outdoor barbecue for our school’s teachers, staff, and their families. This year, we had a few appetizers, four kinds of smoked meats, and a bunch of sides for around a hundred guests. By far the star of the night for me was dessert: sliced peaches we bought from the temporary fruit stand on 19th Avenue, a little cream, and a dash of brown sugar. Simple, easy, and just like our rediscovered cookbook.
I was a little sad when I revisited our contribution to the book. My then third-grade son had submitted a drawing of cookies hanging from tree branches, then filled up the rest of the page with orange cookies on top of green stems growing from the ground like gooey tulips. In third-grade cursive, he added the fragment, “I wish my mom’s chocolate chip cookies,” followed by a slew of exclamation marks. In the typewritten recipe, I tried to finish his idea: “perhaps he meant to say ‘grew on trees’?” Soon thereafter he had to take a dietary detour around his favorite cookies, and somehow I haven’t made a batch or an adapted version of them since. That’s my new fall project.
Will you join me? Find something simple to prepare this fall and nail it. Pull out a recipe for your grandmother’s apple pie or maybe pot roast like an uncle used to make. Many of us have great nostalgic memories of cooking from when we were kids—but for those who don’t, dream one up and go with it. Try to use as few ingredients and steps as possible. The goal is wonderfully simple joy.
