The Spatulatta Cookbook makes cooking for kids easy, fun and entertaining!

Maggie received a copy of an adorable cookbook for her birthday, The Spatulatta Cookbook. Maggie was enthralled with the pictures and the easy-to-do by herself recipes. The book notes on the cover that the recipes are from a James Beard award-winning website called Spatulatta.com. My daughter loves to cook and we are always looking for fun ideas. What I love about this book is that the recipes are arrayed by season, which Maggie thought was really cool.

The cookbook is spiral bound so it opens easily and lays flat, a huge plus when cooking with kids. The two authors are kids: Isabella and Olivia Gerasole are clearly having a blast, both on the website and in the cookbook, which is full of large colorful images, simple instructions and tasty, fun and even silly recipes!

Maggie immediately turned to the Fall category to look for something to make. I might have chosen Black Bean Chili or Pulled Pork Sandwiches, but Maggie is all about the desserts. So she chose to make a Stumpkin. This is an adorable spice cookie on a stick, decorated like a pumpkin. Maggie was able to make this recipe by herself with very little help from me and she was so proud of herself! There were not too many ingredients and the instructions were clear and simple. She is 10 and loves being able to cook on her own (we are still working on getting things in and out of the oven, the heat scares her. So I stay nearby but try not to hover or fuss about the mess!)

Here is a link to the Stumpkins recipe on the Spatullata website.

Interesting, when I went to the website, I found that the original recipe is supposed to have canned pumpkin added to it. That would explain why the dough was dry and crumbly, which we solved by adding a little more butter. They tasted great as they were but we will have to try again with the pumpkin.