Today is Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s birthday! With their whimsical illustrations and trademark Seussian silliness, Dr. Seuss’s books have inspired generations of children to become lifelong readers. They’re a staple in my children’s library and were in mine growing up.

Learn more about Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel and find all his books in the Dr. Seuss Amazon Author Store.

Here are some favorites:

The Lorax – Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth’s natural beauty. The Lorax is an ecological warning that still rings true today amidst the dangers of clear-cutting, pollution, and disregard for the earth’s environment.

Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg – Surely among the most lovable of all Dr. Seuss creations, Horton the Elephant represents kindness, trustworthiness, loyalty and perseverance. Now, the two books that introduced the heroic Horton to the world – Horton Hears A Who! and Horton Hatches the Egg – are available together for the first time in the Dr. Seuss’s Horton Collection Boxed Set.

Green Eggs and Ham – We can’t leave out Sam I Am now, can we?

A great companion of any Dr. Seuss books is the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook with its Seuss-inspired recipes.

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? Comment below and let us know!

My son, Nathan, had eating aversions as a toddler, and didn’t like crunchy or dry foods. This was due to the severe reflux and low muscle tone he had as a baby. (Nathan was a preemie, born seven weeks early and weighing only 3 lbs. 11 oz. Hard to believe he’s over 80 pounds and turns nine-years-old this week.)

Nathan would gag and potentially vomit up anything that wasn’t slimy, squishy or creamy. He soon refused to eat crackers, cereal and even cookies. Instead, Nathan preferred foods like noodles, pudding, canned peaches, cantaloupe, small pieces of cheese, flan and yogurt. The lack of variety in his diet, and the fact that he was still barely in the 10th percentile at age two, were the reason I gave him toddler formula or Pediasure to drink between meals.

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I’m so excited! Ratatouille is coming out on DVD next week (November 6). The nice people at Click Communications sent me a preview copy. It was wonderful timing as my mother, who’s French, was in town. She hadn’t seen it, so it was a perfect movie to share with her grandkids.

We loved watching Ratatouille again even though we had seen it in the theater when it was first released. We enjoyed the short features, too. The foodie in me loved “Fine Food and Film: A Conversation with Brad Bird and Thomas Keller,” a behind the scenes look at how master chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller brought his real life expertise to the table. And the kids loved the new animated short film “Your Friend the Rat,” starring Remy and Emile from Ratatouille

So, What’s Cooking?

For the occasion, I made dinner using a recipe from the movie’s children’s cookbook, What’s Cooking? A cookbook based on a movie? Yes, and a good one at that. It has very authentic but kid-friendly recipes for classic French dishes like crepes, croque monsieur (a favorite of my nephews in Switzerland), and quiche lorraine. There’s a few fun dishes in What’s Cooking? too, like Easy Faux Escargot (roll ups) and Pizza Rats (cut up English muffin pizzas that look like rats’ faces).

(If you would like some more Ratatouille-based recipes, click here to download a four-page PDF from Disney and Family Fun magazine at AtoZKidsStuff.com. The recipes are based on ones in What’s Cooking?)

And of course there was this recipe for Gusteau’s Ratatouille, which my mother and I enjoyed and tried to pursuade the kids to eat

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I’ve already given thanks for Reading is Fundamental (RIF) for their work in encouraging kids to read by getting books into their hands. I also love them for the family reading activities ideas on their website. I especially like this month’s Family Cookbook project since it’s a terrific way to spend time with your kids, while recording family memories. This makes a great holiday gift for everyone who contributed, too!

For children ages 9 and up (though younger ones can participate) help your children gather up favorite recipes from family members. With holidays like Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s coming up this is the perfect time of year to do this.

First, have children solicit the recipes. Have them call up (or email) grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, and adult cousins to request a copy of their favorite holiday recipes. Photocopies can be mailed to your children or recipes can be emailed as well.

Have your children sort the recipes by menu categories: appetizers, soups, main dishes, side dishes, desserts, snacks, and so on. (Younger ones can help here.) After organizing the recipes, older children can check spellings on the ingredients lists, clarify any confusing directions, and credit the contributors.

Assembling the Recipes
There are many ways to assemble the recipes into a book: You can volunteer to type up the collection on your computer. Older children who know how to use a word processing program can help organize and edit the recipes.

Children with good handwriting can copy the recipes neatly on sheets of notebook paper. (Do this for shorter recipes. It could be a daunting task for long, complicated ones.) You can scan this or photocopy it later.

Don’t forget to create a table of contents.

Artwork Ideas
Younger children help create the artwork. Have them draw something that goes with the recipe, like apples for an apple pie, if drawing the dish is too hard. They could also create a collage from magazine photos. If you’re really ambitious, make a few of the recipes and take a photo to use in the cookbook. (Family photos can be used too, especially those ones around the holiday table.) Scan the artwork and put it in your computer document.

Finally, have the children create art for the cover.

Copying Options
DIY on your home color ink jet printer If you’re only making a few copies. Otherwise, print out (in color if possible) or take the file(s) to your local copy store, and have enough copies made to make a booklet for each person who contributed a recipe.

Binding Ideas
Your copy store can collate the booklets and bind them in several different ways depending on the thickness of the book. Have them give you a quote first so there’s no sticker shock.

Or you can put two pages (front and back) into a plastic sheet protector and put them in a three-ring binder (use a view binder to display the cover art). This may be more expensive than the copier store option (and more pricey to mail out). However, the advantage is that you can continue adding to this collection year after year.

Other Options
If you’re a scrapbooker, you may want to make this into a scrapbooking project. However, since the point of this project is to share it with all the family member who participated, be prepared to make several books if you go this route.

Finally, there are several online services that can print cookbooks for you. (They’re usually used for community, family reunion, or fundraising cookbooks.) If you have a large family and lots of contributors, this may be the way to go. PLEASE check out prices, terms, obligations, etc. before signing up.

• Your Own Cookbook
• The Great Family Cookbook Project
• The Cook’s Palate
• The Cookbook Company
• The Cookbook Maker

Technorati tags: giving thanks, cookbooks, family activities, recipes

I was one of those kids who preferred a Filet-O-Fish sandwich at McDonald’s over a cheeseburger. But my kids? Paul got Nathan to eat fish once, and he promptly threw it up. Always Little Miss Opposite, Lucie likes mahi mahi and grilled tuna but won’t eat lake trout. Both kids love the fish tacos at Del Taco, go figure.

I have a friend who swears her daughter begs her to buy crab legs and fish fillets, so there must be some kids out there who love fish. But I think most kids wouldn’t go near it with a 10-foot fishing pole. So here are a couple of recipes that may entice them.

This Fish-In-a-Sack recipe comes from Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Meals for Kids (there’s a more grown up version of this recipe at Foodnetwork.com). The draw here for kids is that you’re cooking food in a brown paper sack and can serve it that way, too.

Fish-In-a-Sack
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

1. 4 brown paper grocery sacks
2. 2 zucchini
3. 4 scallions, chopped or snipped with kitchen scissors into 1-inch pieces
4. 1 cup shredded carrots
5. 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
6. salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
7. 1/2 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped or snipped
8. 2 to 2 1/2 pounds fresh cod, cut into 4 portions
9. 1 lemon, very thinly sliced
10. 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Cut each sack in half across, making shorter paper bags; discard the tops.
2. Open the bags up and place 2 bags on each of 2 cookie sheets or baking sheets.
3. Cut a thin slice off of the length of one side of each zucchini (this makes it more stable for you to cut the zucchini); slice them into 1/4-inch-thick disks.
4. Arrange a layer of about 8 disks in the bottom of each sack, like rows of dominoes that have fallen.
5. Scatter a couple of handfuls of scallions, a few tablespoons of shredded carrots, and some whole tomatoes over the zucchini in each bag. Try to keep the amounts even.
6. Season the veggies with salt and pepper as you are working.
7. Add the parsley to the veggies, about 2 tablespoons per sack.
8. Season the fish with salt and pepper and arrange each portion directly on top of the veggies in each sack.
9. Cover the fish with thin slices of lemon. Drizzle about 1 tablespoon of olive oil down over each portion of fish and veggies.
10. Seal the bags by rolling them tightly – but stop rolling an inch or so above the fish.
11. Bake 20 minutes.
12. Place a whole sack on each plate and serve. Cut sacks open at the dinner table to reveal the cooked fish and veggies.

If you have a reluctant fish eater, try serving some sauces on the side. Teriyaki, barbecue, tartar sauce, and even ketchup are all good choices.

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