About the Holiday
Hmm-mmm! Nothing satisfies quite as much as tangy, spicy dishes. Garlic, red pepper, ginger, mustard, cumin, and many other spices and flavors bring a tantalizing tingle to taste buds. Today’s holiday was established to encourage people to explore all the savory sensations of bold cuisine. You know how to celebrate! Visit your favorite restaurant or cook up your own zesty meal.
Tacos! An Interactive Recipe Book
Illustrated by Lotta Nieminen
Do you have all your ingredients? The tortillas, black beans, chicken, avocados, ears of corn, cabbage, radishes, lime, scallions, cilantro, cumin, ancho chili powder, and salt? How about mixing bowls, cutting boards, a pot, a skillet, and an array of utensils? Get ‘em! Got ‘em? Good! Now… “use the first cutting board and knife to cut the chicken into cubes and toss them in a bowl with the spices.” Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to one hour.
Copyright Lotta Nieminen, 2017, courtesy of Phaidon.
Next, cook the chicken in the skillet “until the pink color disappears.” While you’re waiting for the chicken to finish, grab the big knife and cut the vegetables. Now it’s time to use that avocado—plus the lime, salt, and a bit of cilantro—to make guacamole. Mash and stir all the ingredients until you’ve made a smooth, green paste.
Copyright Lotta Nieminen, 2017, courtesy of Phaidon.
You can set the guacamole aside while you heat up the black beans in a pot and slice the corn kernels off the cob—zip! zip! zip! Now comes the building part! Gather all of your ingredients, plus any others you may like to add, like sour cream, cotija cheese, or pico de gallo and set to work! Warm your tortillas by “wrapping them in a damp paper towel and then in foil, and placing them in the oven for 10 minutes.”
Ahhh! Lay the warm tortillas on a plate and add the chicken, beans, corn, guacamole, and your favorite toppings. All that’s left is to fold your tortilla in half and take a bite. Hmm-mmm!
Copyright Lotta Nieminen, 2017, courtesy of Phaidon.
Lotta Nieminen’s Cook in a Book series of interactive cookbooks for kids (and fun-loving adults) are smart, refreshing, and addictively playful. Nieminen’s sophisticated art and color palette invite kids (and did I mention adults?) to play around with cooking through clever tabs flaps, wheels, and pull outs. In Tacos! readers sizzle up chicken through a pull tab that turns pink cubes to golden brown. On the next page, children can remove the cardboard knife and pretend to chop as the pull tab creates slices and dices of scallions, cabbage, and radishes.
Kids can put the knife back in its slot or use it on the next page to divide the avocado, which opens like a little book. By turning the wheel, children mix the guacamole ingredients from a light green to a rich green texture. The same wheel allows readers to stir the black beans on the stove when they turn the page. The mechanics at work between the thick board book pages make removing the corn kernels a joy. Slide the top of the ear down and kernels “fly” to each side accompanied by a rippling feel and sound.
Copyright Lotta Nieminen, 2017, courtesy of Phaidon.
With all the ingredients prepared, children come to Step 8, where a round of foil awaits. On the facing page a tortilla is ready. With just a pop of the finger hole, kids can lift the tortilla from its place, turn it to the plain side, and lay it on the foil. After a bit of waiting for it to “warm,” children (or adults!) can turn it over to where all the delicious toppings mingle, fold it in half, and…enjoy!
The text consists entirely of the recipe, with the directions described in easy-to-follow steps that are sprinkled across the pages, adding a jaunty energy to each spread.
Tacos!—as well as the other books in the series, Pancakes! and Pizza!—would make a fantastic gift for foodie kids and for children who love playing with toy kitchens or in the real thing. Tor the HGTV crowd, the book would be a happy surprise as a housewarming or holiday gift.
Ages 4 – 8 and up
To learn more about Lotta Nieminen and view a gallery of her graphic design and illustration work, visit her website.
Phaidon, 2017 | ISBN 978-0714875057
Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day Activity
Spice Bottle Penguins
After you’ve used all the spicy goodness, make some cold-weather friends from those little bottles with this fun craft!
Supplies
- Empty glass or plastic spice bottle with cap
- Black paint
- White paint OR White fleece or felt
- Black paper
- Yellow foam or heavy paper
- Googly eyes
- Styrofoam ball (optional)
- Glue
- Paint brush
- Scissors
Directions
- Paint the inside of the glass or plastic bottle with the black paint, let dry
- From the white fleece, cut an oval for the penguin’s belly and glue it on. Alternatively, paint a white oval on the jar to make a belly. Fleece may be a better option for younger children, as the paint can scratch off glass and plastic surfaces.
- Glue googly eyes near the top of the jar, but below the cap
- Cut a triangle of yellow foam or paper for the beak and glue it on
- Cut two tear shapes for the wings from the black paper. Glue the top of the shape to the body of the penguin, overlapping the belly a little. Fold the tips up
- Give your penguins Styrofoam ball snowballs to play with!
You can find Tacos! An Interactive Recipe Book at these booksellers
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound
Picture Book Review
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