Book Notes No. 13 : The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers & Children, Wardley & More

Mostly cloudy but with the occasional sunny interval. People here are starting to talk about lighting fires in the hearth (who has and who has not), using the cucina economica (the wood-fired cooker; who is and who is not) and when they might consider cranking up their central heating.

I just loved breastfeeding my two children. After a stuttery start with AJ, the oldest, things went as smoothly as a smoothie. There was always enough, always at the right temperature and always containing just the right mix of vitamins, minerals, protein and carbs (and occasionally with the slightest hint of Barbera for future reference).

But at four months I knew my number was up. It was time to bite the bullet and start weaning. And this meant not only learning how to cook baby foods, but how to cook full stop.

Luckily for me, the editorial director at Duncan Baird Publishers in London heard my prayers for help and answered them by sending me a copy of their Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers & Children, which they had just published.

Spiral-bound and stoutly-built to withstand the maltreatment it will inevitably receive in a child-friendly kitchen, this book is deliciously illustrated and packed to the gills with no less than 365 recipes plus variations. And a very sensible index, which is vital, but inexplicably often missing in the recipe book genre at large.

The book starts with how to make all that nutritious baby mush - carrot, carrot-and-potato, potato-and-califlower, potato-and-pea, you get the drift - and freeze it in cubes for quick Mama-goddess baby meals. It then goes right on through to the age of six with basic techniques, and all kinds of well-balanced meals for that kindergarten-kid on the go.

Great stuff. Well-edited and beautifully put together as one would expect from a DBP book. And B is in love with one of the little boy models.

Oh, and I like this book in particular for one more reason. It contains no less than 24 recipes involving chicken. And if the younger of our two cockerels doesn't stop attacking me every time I step into the pollaio, he'll soon be ending up in one of them!