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Still looking for kid friendly cookbooks for holiday presents? How about one of these:

The Pampered Chef® Let’s Eat! cookbook - I love the stand-up easel design. It makes it so much easier to use and wish adult cookbooks came in this format. The cover is laminated and the pages are stain-resistant.

Favorite Brand Name: Silly Snacks - I got an older version of this fun cookbook at the Scholastic bookfair at school. The current one will introduce your finicky little eater to healthier eating habits. This jam-packed collection offers countless innovative ideas for turning vegetables, fruits, and other less popular foods into silly snacks your kids will actually eat.

Usborne Farmyard Tales Children’s Cookbook - Of course we have to have a literary cookbook in the list! This one is a favorite from Usborne Books and is part of the Farmyard Tales collection. Join Poppy, Sam and Mrs. Boot in the kitchen at Apple Tree Farm, and follow the step-by-step instructions to make delicious cakes, cookies and other tasty dishes. Everything is simple to prepare, fun to cook and good to eat. For ages 6 and up.

Finally, there’s Maurice Sendak’s Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months. While not a cookbook, it does celebrate the monthly virtues of chicken soup with rice:

In December
I will be
a baubled bangle
Christmas Tree
with soup bowls
draped all over me.
Merry once
merry twice
merry chicken soup
rice.

During this hectic holiday season, try this recipe for chicken soup with rice from Epicurious.com. It uses rotisserie chicken, which cuts down considerably on cooking time. This would be nice with latkes for Hanukkah, or on a cold winter night after Christmas caroling.

Chicken Soup with Rice
Makes 6 to 8 servings (2 quarts)

Ingredients:

1. 1 (2-lb) rotisserie chicken
2. 3 celery ribs
3. 1 medium onion, quartered and left unpeeled
4. 6 fresh parsley sprigs plus
5. 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
6. 2 fresh thyme sprigs
7. 1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
8. 10 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (80 fl oz)
9. 2 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
10. 1/2 cup long-grain rice, rinsed

Directions:

1. Remove meat from chicken, reserving skin and bones. Coarsely chop 1 celery rib and put in a 6- to 8-quart pot along with chicken bones and skin, onion, parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and chicken broth. Simmer, partially covered, 1 hour.
2. While broth is simmering, shred about half of chicken meat into 1-inch-long pieces (about 1/4 inch thick) to yield 1 1/2 cups meat, reserving remaining meat for another use. Cut remaining 2 celery ribs into 1/4-inch dice.
3. Pour chicken broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing hard on solids with back of a ladle and then discarding them. Skim fat from surface of broth.
4. Return strained broth to pot, then add carrots, diced celery, and rice and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and rice is very soft, about 30 minutes. Stir in shredded chicken and chopped parsley.

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