During a recent visit to my mother's house, I unearthed my very first cookbook, a spiral-bound wonder of the 1970s called Kids Are Natural Cooks. I had forgotten about the hours I used to spend with this book but as soon as I spotted the rainbow-colored cover, I felt like a wide-eyed six-year old again, learning about seasonal cycles, wholesome ingredients, and even mise en place. Best of all, this book taught me to have fun in the kitchen, using my own two hands to nourish myself and my loved ones.
Created by the Parents' Nursery School in Cambridge, Mass., Kids Are Natural Cooks had full, step-by-step recipes (Sesame Honey Candy was a big favorite!) as well as looser, improvisational guidance for foods one might have around the house. I remember poking around in the pantry and then consulting chapters like "What can you do with popcorn?" or being inspired to make fruit pudding for my younger brother.
The really wonderful thing about this book was the way in which it instilled a sense of discovery and possibility in the kitchen. I still smile at the playful illustrations by Lady McCrady featuring singing gingerbread people, cakes with fluffy cumulus clouds of frosting, and people shouting "hooray" at the sight of beautiful homemade bread. Cooking, I learned, was joyful, creative, and full of love. As I consider the things I'm thankful for this month, my first cookbook is certainly on the list.
Do you remember your first cookbook?
Related: Nostalgia: What Was the First Cookbook You Ever Bought?
(Images: Emily Ho)
How to Cook Rice on the Stove
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
10 No-Fail Decor Tricks & Tips for Small Spaces
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
The Winnie the Pooh Cookbook. I was around 6 or 7. Lots of honey recipes--among the ones I made were honey cake and taffy. I still have it.
I had 2 technically- my grandma sold Tupperware so I had a Tupperware kids learn to cook book (only had 4 or 5 "recipes" but my first real one was called, not ironically, My First Cookbook and another called My First Baking Book. They were illustrated with bears and quirky recipes. Still how I make chicken pot pie!
http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Cookbook-Bialosky-Friends/dp/089480846X/ref=pd_sim_b_1
http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Baking-Book-Bialosky/dp/0894805797
Mine was called Kids Cook Microwave. It had all sorts of things I could make in a microwave. I was 7, so the micro was safer than the stove for me :)
http://www.lairdbooks.com/si/004716.html
Mine was a series of international cook books I used to get from the library (probably around age 10-12). They were terrific. I remember making Swedish, Japanese, Greek, and African meals (Sub-Saharan rather than North African). I wish I knew what that series was called. I would happily cook from those books today.
My first 'real' cookbook, with actual recipes was the Williams Sonoma Kids Cooking cookbook - it was a present and I cried (yes I was a brat). Fast forward a month or so and I couldn't use it enough.
It's that cookbook that I still go back to for perfect sugar cookies and a few other gems.
After a little research, I found out my cookbooks were called Easy Menu Ethnic Cookbooks. Each title was Cooking the __ Way (Cooking the Greek Way, for example). Apparently a revised version is available, so I'll be using these with my kids in a few years.
i remember in 1st grade my teacher had parents send in recipes of our favorite foods, and then the teacher sat each of us down as we told our teacher how to make our favorite food.. 75% of the recipes were chocolate chip cookies and consisted of recipes like "1 dozen eggs, 1 cup of flour, and 10 chocolate chips"... my mom uses some of the REAL recipes to this day, and i always get a chuckle reading what i THOUGHT was in chocolate chip cookies at age 6. if you are a teacher, this is a GREAT idea for your kiddos!!
I *loved* my first cookbook so much - it was the Fun to Cook Book and I got it from a neighbor across the street whose daughter grew up w/my Mom. I remember it was marked 5 cents and she gave it to me for free - I couldn't have been more than 7 or 8, but I remember running home to get a nickel out of my bank.
I still have the book & use it w/my 4 year old son - he thinks it's pretty cool.
The Gold Medal Alphabakery Childrens Cookbook. I still remember the jam tarts I begged my dad to help me make. What a good sport!
http://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Bakery-Gold-Medal-Childrens-Cookbook/dp/B000FGVG70
Betty Crocker's Junior Cookbook. It had a red and white gingham pattern cover with blue lettering just like Mom's big version. I still use the recipe for walnut penuche. But mostly my mom encouraged me to use her cookbooks.
@keltrue-
I have that cookbook on my shelf right now! It was my moms before she gave it to little me!
I recall rummaging through the cupboards to read grown-up cookbooks, though I was not allowed to cook from them. There may have been a Peanuts cookbook for me, which I thought was inane and refused to use.
The series of ethnic cookbooks for kids sounds a lot more fun.
My first cookbook was the Rookie Cookie cookbook, given to me by my grandmother. Rookie Cookie was a character in the Mini Page, an insert that came in the newspaper on Mondays. My grandmother and I would read it together (she lived next door). I would love to know what happened to that book! Sad to think I lost it!
Betty Crocker Cookbook For Boys And Girls. The recipes have changed in the different editions since I got mine in 1963 (from my grandmother for Christmas) but the pink marshmallow popcorn balls is still one of my favorite things ever and I still make them every Christmas.
My first cookbook (which I still own) was Kids Can Cook from Klutz publishing. It came with a set of measuring spoons and had fun illustrations of animals cooking. The American recipes are fairly easy and were a nice change of pace from the ethnic food I grew up with (I'm Mexican and Filipino, so that's mostly what we ate). I can't wait to make some fun stuff from it with my son once he's old enough.
I had the Alphabakery Cookbook too! My little sister (now a die-hard vegetarian) was famous for the 'D is for Drumsticks' recipe at what couldn't have been older than age 6. Such an adorable memory being kids in the kitchen w/her.
My First Cookbook which was put out by Imperial Sugar Co. Obviously, lots of sugar in each recipe and lots of baking. Could explain why I like to bake rather than cook. I still use a cookie & pecan stovetop icing recipes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBj9cVjpZM0&feature=related
I grew up using the same cookbook, Kids Are Natural Cooks. My sister still bakes the pumpkin pie recipe for Thanksgiving every year!
Mine was the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook in 4th grade. My first recipe was for the Italian bread.
the teddy bears' picnic cookbook...mostly soup and sandwiches, but it made me want to be in the kitchen. and i felt super fancy whenever i completed a recipe. also taught me the proper use of an apostrophe.
The Peanuts Cook Book via Scholastic Book Club in grade one.
Lucy's Lemon Squares FTW.
http://www.amazon.com/Peanuts-Cook-Book-Charles-Schulz/dp/B0006CJ2N8
The Betty Crocker Jr Cookbook. My now 9-year old's first was Pretend Soup.
Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls given to me in the 60s when I was somewhere between 7-9 years old. I owe my love of cooking to that book and to my parents who ate every recipe I made from it. I still have the book though it's a little ragged, to say the least!
I still have my ragged copy of the cookbook my mother and I cooked from when I was little - Nellie Edge's Kindergarten Cooks (also called Kids in the Kitchen), see: http://www.nellieedge.com/shop/cook-books.htm
The recipe that brings back so many happy memories for me is her Peanut Butter Fondue. I'm saving it to share with my little boy when he's a bit older.
My parents still have my copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Step By Step Kids Cookbook that I got from my aunt. I made quite a few recipes from that book if I remember right!
My first was Holly Hobbie's Cookbook. Thanks to The Kitchn for prompting me to look it up on Amazon...just seeing the cover brought back a flood of great memories!
My first cookbook was Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual by Klutz. I got it for my 5th birthday and I used to pour over it for hours. It came with plastic measuring spoons, as well, which I still have - and the cookbook itself is still part of my collection! So fun.
http://www.amazon.com/Kids-Cooking-Slightly-Messy-Manual/dp/0932592147/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321332577&sr=8-1
Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes
I don't remember the name of it but it had simple recipes like making "pizzas" out of english muffins, pizza sauce from a jar, and cheese in the microwave. But what I remember more from it was it had instructions on how to properly set a table :) The rest of my cooking endeavors were either from my mom's avocado green tin recipe box, which were mostly recipes from my grandmother or ladies from church, or just by making stuff up, like mixing in different spices with ground beef and then mixing it with pasta or something. I actually just made the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I've been making from the recipe box since I was about 6, last night!
Mine was the 1983 better homes and gardens new junior cookbook. I saw it on the shelf this weekend while in my mother's kitchen. I thought the jam filled muffins were just about the coolest thing ever. http://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Junior-Cook/dp/069601145X/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1321418613&sr=8-10
I had the "Kids Are Natural Cooks" book! It has some pretty great recipes in it.
I also took a Pre-K class that was half art and half cooking. I still have a recipe for some no-bake cookies we made and it contains coffee. Not sure who thought giving caffeine to four-year-olds was a good idea, but they're kind of tasty nonetheless.
Mine was a Disney Cookbook. In it was a recipe for a Cinderella Sundae. Which was a glazed doughnut, a scoop of ice cream, and chocolate sauce.
Surprised no one mentioned this yet. Mine was the 'Little House' cookbook. I still have mine.
My first cookbook was a picture book with illustrated animals that represented each recipe! I particularly remember a cupcake recipe with pink frosting hosted by a lizard(or an iguana) with a bow in her hair. Does anyone who also had this book remember what it's called?!
First cookbook was "I hate to cook" by Peg Bracken. Actually it really wasn't that I hated to cook, but that I didn't know how to. The little paperback was full of simple and quick recipes. And she showed you how to graduate from using pantry items to making things like sauces yourself. Sorry that I gave it away. Lots of memories with that little book learning to feed my new husband and away from all family and friends.
Besides the fact that I used my mother's cookbooks when I was a child, the first cookbook I ever owned, that was only mine was La Cuisine est un jeu d'enfants, with recipes in French and English. And I still have it in my cookbook bookcase. The cover may be a bit worn, but the recipes are still good.