Customer Reviews

Paula Deen's My First Cookbook

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We really looked forward to Paula Deen's cookbook coming out. My grandson is just starting to try to cook. We just expected more out of the cookbook she would publish. We found many frustrations. The main one being no photographs of the finished dishes. My grandson said, " I can't tell what it's supposed to look like" - for stuffed shells there was just a drawing with a yellow blob in the dish, or for Haystacks - what are they supposed to look like? We sure couldn't tell. The lists of things needed for each recipe is good. Many of the recipes are very very basic, such as Ants on a Log.. Put peanut butter in celery add raisins, now you got ants on a log. There are recipes to make pretzels, which again could do with a diagram on how to fold the dough to make a pretzel, it would be a help to first time cooks. We were just disappointed with a book that we thought would be more instructive help for first time kids trying to learn how to cook

Paula's personality shows in this cookbook for kids. I think it is very practical for kids that are familiar in the kitchen and even for youger ones with help. I love the recipes in here. They are practical and its not complicated. I look forward to having this book in my collection for years to come.

We are big Paula Deen fans and were really looking forward to this book. It was a huge disappointment. The recipes are very ordinary. Nothing original. NO pictures, either. My daughter likes to look at the pictures to decide what she wants to make (and I like to do the same!)

First, the one big downside: Far too many of these recipes are unnecessarily unhealthy. While some foods *should* be made with butter, adding lots of butter to the inside of a chicken pot pie (to name just one example) is unnecessary. Cream cheese, butter, various types of canned dough and sugar play major parts in many of the recipes.

I know, I'm from the South, too, and that's how it's done. But, with all the diet-related health problems our children are facing today--why not teach kids to make yummy foods that will nourish their body for a lifetime? I find that children are very likely to eat what they've cooked, so cooking together is a great way to improve your child's eating habits.

Fortunately, so far we've found the many of the recipes fairly easy to improve by using healthier fats, whole grains, etc. Knowing how to make recipes healthier is an important skill to teach kids, and this book provides that opportunity.

Now, the upsides: So far, everything we've made has been delicious and the book is easy to use. The size and shape is perfect, the pictures are cute and book lies flat on the counter. We also had good luck drying off a page that was dribbled on. Another big plus is that the reading level is just right for my 2nd grader. She loves studying the table of contents in each section (dinner, lunch, etc.) when deciding what to make. It's also nice that most of the directions are very simple to understand. And I appreciate that she tells the kids when the adult needs to do something that would be unsafe for a child to do.

Overall, this cookbook is cute way to get your early elementary aged child interested in cooking...and a great way to introduce the concept of changing recipes to make them healthier.

Pamela Gould
Author of Feeding the Kids: The Flexible, No-Battles, Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family (Fork and Spoon Field Guides) (Fork and Spoon Field Guides)

I had this cookbook pre-ordered because I LOVE all things Paula and my kids love to cook with me. I love the younger days pictures of Paula and her boys and the recipes bring me back to my own childhood, cooking with my own mom. The recipes in this book are easy, kid friendly, fun, and just plain good! Thanks so much Paula for this wonderful newest edition to my Paula Deen library! My kids and I will have such a great autumn cooking away in this wonderful cookbook!

By the way, there are a few fun non-food recipes in here too. If you have kids and you love Paula you have to get this cookbook.

I recently bought Paula Deen's My First Cookbook for two of my granddaughters who are 9 and 10 yrs. The book is very well designed and illustrated and the recipes easy to follow. Food and recipes selected are appealing to this age group so my two granddaughters cannot wait to "don the aprons" and start cooking.
What a wonderful start they will have if they experience success with these easy recipes to becoming "budding" chefs.
Kudos to Paula Deen for coming up with such a fun and easy way to introduce cooking to your child.

I love that there are drawings of each ingredient, and even bowls, utensils, etc. needed for the recipe, but do wish that there were photos or even larger drawings of the finished recipes. Still a great first cookbook, just don't expect lots of pictures of finished food.

I had really never heard of Paula Dean so take this into consideration. I was bummed that the cookbook has you opening a can of biscuit dough to do this or that. It seems part of the fun of kids cooking is making things from scratch and actually getting their hands dirty. So i was fully disappointed with the the cookbook. It doesn't seem healthy or like something most parents would feed their children, or even have on hand for cooking....I am just bummed that I wasted my money on something i will never use..She has you putting food die into eggs!!!

I purchased this cook book for my 9 yr old niece. Looking through it i think it is wonderful! I has everything from describing techniques, to great kid friendly recipes to good manners!

This is a must have for any young blooming cook! A+

I perused many children's cookbooks before selecting this one. The reason I selected this book is that not only does it have many palatable, easy-to-make recipes, it also has a great section on introductory cooking terms and information. My niece really wants to learn how to cook and the starter information in this book will provide her a life-long foundation of basic cooking knowledge. My niece created her first "culinary masterpiece" :) using basic kitchen staples within the first thirty minutes of receiving this book.