Product Description

Want to prepare one meal the entire family will actually eat? Get your children to finish their vegetables? Spend more quality time with your kids?

Enter The Family Kitchen, where award-winning chef and mother of three Debra Ponzek shares recipes that are simple enough to please kids, refined enough to satisfy parents, and easy enough for everyone to roll up their sleeves and help make. From Breakfast to Dinnertime, Bake Sales to Vegetables and Salads, Snow Days to Summer Supper on the Grill, chapters include 125 flavorful crowd-pleasers such as Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Green Apple–Cranberry Compote, Honey-Glazed Carrots, and Double Hot Chocolate with Homemade Marshmallows. This is food you and your kids will want to eat every day—and not a smiley-face pizza in sight!

While dinner may frequently be over all too soon—cut short by homework, practice, or bath time—preparing meals together in the kitchen can help you steal a little more time with your kids. The kitchen is warm, the pace relaxed, and the conversation easy. Children are also proud of their culinary accomplishments, exclaiming at the table: “I helped make it!” and then diving into a huge portion of those very same carrots they peeled just minutes earlier. Each recipe includes a list of exactly which steps kids can tackle. In addition, there are tips on how to incorporate healthful ingredients and new flavors into a child’s diet; how to make a kitchen safe for children; and how to pull off a kids’ cooking party. The indispensable companion to every family’s favorite gathering spot, The Family Kitchen has a place in every home.



Surely I am not the only mother who can barely recall what it was like before three kids took over the house, the car, the backyard, and my heart, and it’s precisely because of this 180-degree turnaround that I wanted to write this book. The book is for moms and dads who like to cook, who want to teach their kids proficiency in the kitchen, and who want to eat well—without pretension—when they find time to cook at home. Above all, this book is about the possibilities for connecting with your kids and enjoying your family by cooking together. —From the Introduction

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #374684 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-11
• Released on: 2006-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Ponzek, mother of three, owner of the Connecticut specialty food chain Aux Délices and a former chef at New York's Montrachet, aims to extend the time families spend together for meals by assembling the family before they even get to the table. She invites kids into the kitchen to help, teaching them kitchen skills, encouraging them to discover new flavors and bonding with them. Each breakfast, lunch and dinner recipe lists tasks that kids (even little ones) can enjoy doing. The excellent introduction helps children become familiar with kitchen safety and cooking techniques, while the 125 recipes will teach them to cook with seasonal produce and adult flavors. There's Garden Vegetable Soup with Pesto for lunch, Grilled Spicy Red Snapper Tacos for dinner and Double Hot Chocolate with Homemade Marshmallows for a snow day snack. Selections in each chapter (which include "Picnics," "Lazy Winter Weekends" and "Kids' Parties") range from simple to more complicated, but all contain lessons for willing kids. Although there are plenty of kid-friendly favorites like Patchwork Apple Pie (with scraps of dough flattened by little hands forming the topping), Ponzek's experience as a chef and mother assures that each dish is homey yet sophisticated. Photos. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Debra Ponzek is the chef and owner of the Connecticut specialty food chain Aux Délices. As former executive chef of Montrachet in New York City, she was named one of America’s Ten Best New Chefs by Food & Wine magazine and Rising Star Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation. She lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I have never met a child who didn’t like the idea of eating dinner out of a foil pouch because it is sort of like an indoor camping trip. Once the ingredients are prepped, everyone can customize his or her own packet, and anticipate the meal even more happily. As the fish and vegetables steam in the foil, they produce their own juices and everything blends together; the whole thing just smells great when you open the packets. You can substitute cod, striped bass, or any mild, white-fleshed fish for the snapper.

Serves 4

Call the Kids
• Cut the foil sheets
• Peel the carrots
• Divide the vegetables onto the foil
• Put the fish on top of the vegetables
• Put the tomatoes on top of the fish
• Fold the packets

Ingredients

• 2 small carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 1 zucchini, cut into matchsticks
• 1 yellow squash, cut into matchsticks
• 16 white mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Four 6- to 7-ounce red snapper fillets
• 2 ripe tomatoes, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/2 (one-half) cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves

To Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Lay 4 pieces of aluminum foil on the counter, each approximately 14 x 12 inches. Distribute the carrot, zucchini, and yellow squash matchsticks near the centers of each piece of foil. Scatter the sliced mushrooms and garlic over the vegetables. Generously season with salt and pepper.

Season each snapper fillet with salt and pepper and put one on top of each pile of vegetables. Place 3 slices of tomato on each fillet.

Drizzle each portion with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with thyme.

Bring the 2 longer sides of the foil together over the fish and seal the edges by folding them over, as you would wrap a sandwich or fold a letter. Tuck the sides in, folding them together once or twice to form an airtight seal. Make sure there is some room for air to circulate in the packets and that they’re not bursting at the seams. Transfer the packets to 2 baking pans large enough to hold them in a single layer or a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Check one packet by unwrapping it very carefully; the escaping steam will be hot.

Put a packet on each plate and warn everyone to open them with great care because the steam is very hot. Or, open them before serving, transferring the contents to individual shallow bowls or a serving platter.

Customer Reviews

A book for the family, delicious ideas and culinary tips you'll refer to again and again.
Really one of the few books that appeal to an entire family. Easy to follow recipes with fantastic color photos. Debra Ponzek melds an impossible marriage; healthy foods and food that kids will actually want to eat. (The grilled vegetable lasagna and croque monsieurs are two of our family favorites, not to mention the desserts). From youngest to oldest, creating time in the kitchen that is fun and delicious for all. High recommendations for this cookbook...........

Splendid family cookbook
I am impressed with the quality of the recipes in this book and the meals that come from them. I have cooked three things so far, and my husband and I have enjoyed them: Ricotta, Tomato, and Basil Pasta, Grilled Prosciutto and Provolone Sandwiches, and Raisin/Apricot Breakfast. My 6-year old ate the latter with no problems. What I also like about the cookbook and Ponzek's philosophy is get the kids in the kitchen to help; even if they don't eat what they help make (like my son), they are still learning important skills, sharing time with you, and eventually may be persuaded to try one of these high-quality dishes. The meals aren't fussy, but they are easy to do and taste wonderful. I checked this out from the library first, and I have now bought it a week later. Worth every penny.

She breaks her recipes up into thoughtful categories that include Breakfast, Breakfast in Bed, Afternoon Snacks, Lazy Winter Weekends, Bake Sales, Dinnertime, etc. Other wonderful-looking recipes include Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa; Easy Apple Pancake (yep, looks easy); Fresh Berry Bismarck (a Dutch Baby); Butternut Squash Gnocchi. Again, your kid may not eat everything, but the experience of making quality meals with you and having exposure to different flavors in simply-made food is worth it.

A MUST HAVE Cookbook !!! - so many amazing recipes !!!
My wife and I recently picked up this cookbook and were amazed at the number of excellent recipes. Most cookbooks I have bought recently have a fraction of the number of recipes that are in "The Family Kitchen" by Debra Ponzek. We especially love the easy directions and stories behind each recipe. Each recipe lists tasks the children can perform which is a great way to keep my kids (wife, grandparents) busy. Buy this book for the excellent selection of recipes and especially the traditional chocolate cake recipe; IT IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT !!!