Review; Annabel Karmel Top 100 Finger Foods

Finger foods are ideal for babies and toddlers who haven’t quite got to grips with using cutlery. With Toddler Boy, I was forever making home-made Pizza, Spinach and Ricotta Pastry Parcels, Vegetarian Ravioli, Macaroni Cheese and Chips. Now I have two of them, although one does use a knife and fork occasionally, I really am trying to make a bit more of an effort.

The main problem with feeding children, is trying to make dinners that everyone in the household likes. Otherwise you end up running around like a headless chicken trying to cook separate dinners for everyone. The beauty of Annabel Karmel’s cookery is that the recipes taste just as nice of adults as the kids. Indeed, I’ve often given dinner parties using her recipes alone and the cheesecake that I often make as a treat is one of hers.

I particularly liked this cook book as the recipes on the whole were quite simple, they didn’t use millions of ingredients that I had to buy specially and they could be easily adapted. So what have we made so far? I used the strawberry and yogurt ripple cornets recipe to make the ice-cream. Hubby made the Salmon Fishcakes which went down well with Toddler boy but we thought were a little bit sweet thanks to the inclusion of Tomato Ketchup. However, the greatest success of all were the Minty Lamb Koftas which were really easy and quick to make and lovely. I adapted the recipe to the tastes of the boys in our house and made them into burgers. The addition of Oven Baked Wedges made a dinner which was cheap, reasonably healthy but perhaps more importantly was a success. The above photograph illustrates my result. Excuse my childrens table covering!

The thing that really makes a good cookery book is the addition of really nice photographs, so you can see what you are aiming for. This book is nicely presented, with lots of photographs, good descriptions of how to make the recipe and even more helpfully, the ingredients listed in a separate colour. This makes is easy to see them quickly as you juggle the baby, write your shopping list and discipline the toddler. If you have kids I think it would be a really valuable addition to your cookery book collection. You can find out more here.