September 10th is National Ants On a Log Day. This celebration is held on the second Tuesday in September every year. Ants On a Log is the snack of spreading peanut butter on celery, and sprinkling raisins on top. This snack has been around since the 1950s to help kids eat better. Before I go into the seriousness of getting kids to eat healthy, let me go into a little humor for them to read.
My first book is from my pop-up and movable books collection. This is “1000 Silly Sandwiches” by Alan Benjamin and Sal Murdocca, published 1995. This flip book has nine pages, divided into thirds, so you can flip various pages to make hundreds of crazy sandwiches.
This is just one of the many selections. My grandkids love to read the various crazy combinations. This one was Mayonnaise and marbles, and walnuts and worms, and grapes and grasshoppers. Yum.
Speaking of worms, I think it was my daughter who had to first read this book in school, “How to Eat Fried Worms” by Thomas Rockwell, published in 2006. The story begins with a bet to eat fifteen worms.
I feel you have to joke about eating to get kids, and grandkids to eat. Then you have to have them help cook. I have several books on kids cooking. The first I have talked about before, but will show it again. It is “The Lip-smackin’ Joke-crackin’ Cookbook for Kids” by Wicke Chambers and Spring Asher, published 1974. Around the jokes, are basics in working around a kitchen, and recipes that kids may enjoy making and eating.
The next two books are about cooking when camping, “Cooking on a Stick-campfire recipes for kids” by Linda White, 1996, and Cooking in a Can-more campfire recipes for kids” by Katherine L. White, 2006. These books have interesting recipes and unusual ways to prepare and to cook them. Both are intriguing cookbooks.
I also have a very interesting cookbook “Classic Cooking with Coca-Cola” by Elizabeth Candler Graham (Great-great-granddaughter of Asa Griggs Candler, founder of Coca-Cola), published 1994. I like this book as not only does it have the history of Coca-Cola, it has some family recipes, and also recipes from the company workers, and their families.
This is an in-depth real cookbook with main courses (beef, chicken, fish, pork), sauces, vegetables, soups, breads, and desserts, using Coke, Sprite, Minute-maid, Fresca, and Cherry Coke. If you like cookbooks, and experimenting, this is a good one. Not only do I like a lot of the recipes in this book, I like the idea of “secret ingredients”.
When cooking with grandkids, I found that if you add a secret ingredient, and don’t tell Grandma, they like to cook and eat more. And adding a can of soda into a recipe, is wild to a youngster. The funner(?) you make cooking, (and tasting along the way), the better they will eat. They also like when I make chili, that I put in three Hershey Kisses…
Just don’t tell Grandma!
P.S. National Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day is September 13. (Just read this day again!)
Librarytomes 