Cooking means sharing in tradi-tions that go back thousands of years.
Family recipes hold family history. Maybe
your great-grandmother brought that
pasta recipe with her from Rome. Maybe
your dad learned to make his tacos in
Texas when he was a kid. Wherever they
came from, those recipes contain stories
about your own past.
Cooking passes on world
history, too. Every culture
expresses itself with its
own special foods. When
you’re eating hummus,
spring rolls, or curry, you’re
experiencing other places in
the tastiest way.
Adults Required!
A kitchen is a glorious place. It can
also be a dangerous one, though. So
before you do any of the activities
in this book, ask permission from an
adult. And while you’re in the kitch-
en, an adult needs to be with you
at all times. Never cook alone.
(Cooking is more fun with
other people anyway!)
You can join that great tradition.
It’s easy. Not only can you learn to
make family favorites, but you can
invent your own mouthwatering
dishes, too.
The more you cook, the more
you’ll get to know how foods
and flavors go together, and
how to change things up the
way you like. One day you
won’t even need a recipe—
except when you want to try
something really different.
Cooking is old, yet at the
same time, for a creative
cook, cooking is always new.
Welcome to the club!
family traditions
Do you and your family eat a special holiday meal, handed down for
generations? Or do you have fun food traditions that you invented your-
selves? Here’s what girls have to share about their own family traditions.
Every year, my family and I—including
my mom, sister, cousin, grandma, and
aunts—make hundreds of homemade
ravioli to eat at holidays and birthday
dinners. They are the most delicious
ravioli ever tasted, hands down!
—Rosita
For Hanukkah, my
mom always makes
her own donuts and
potato pancakes.
—Rachel
At Christmas, my mama
makes tamales and posole.
Posole is a Mexican soup
that has hominy, meat, and
a spicy broth. Tamales have
masa on the outside and
spicy sauce and meat on
the inside. They’re delicious!
—Naya
I’m from Sweden, and we
always make saffron buns
for the holiday Saint Lucia.
The buns are shaped like
an S and have raisins. Saint Lucia brings light to the darkest time of the year! —Caroline
We have spaghetti for dinner every
Monday night. It always gives me
something to look forward to on
the first day of the school week!
—Katie
My grandma has a
recipe called Czech
puzzle cookies. They
are crunchy and
have powdered sugar
all over them, and
they’re so good! Best
of all, she passed the
recipe down to my
sister and me.
—Erin
My family makes monkey bread
for any special holiday. My mom
makes it, my mom’s mom makes
it, and my mom’s mom’s mom
makes it, too!
—Tyler
About once a month,
my mom or dad will
serve one of us kids
on
