I’ve been asked to find some cookbooks that would be appropriate for my 11 1/2 year old granddaughter for Christmas. She’s the one that helped make various dog treats for a charity sponsored by her school and made $700! She obviously has some interest in cooking! I have ordered several cookbooks aimed for young teens but I’m not sure if they will interest her (more about those books later). Most of the books, from what I can tell online, show a photo of the finished product but don’t show the steps along the way. Then, the instructions are written in paragraph form. I know written instructions are followed more easily if presented in short bulleted sentences. I also like showing the steps with a photo if possible. I can’t help myself! The format I’m using for my recipes is modeled after my Joy of Cooking cookbook.
I’ve never really written my Deviled Eggs recipe down but I wanted to include it in my notebooks for my kids/grandkids of my favorite recipes. I thought I’d see if I could write the recipe in a way my granddaughter could follow along and make them herself.
Since my WordPress web program won’t let me format in two columns, I’m going to post the recipe first; then I’ll treat each page of my tutorial as a photo so you can see what I’m trying to do. See if this makes sense to you!
Here is the recipe:
Here are the four pages of the illustrated version:
Pg. 1
Pg 2
Pg. 3
Pg. 4
Granted, this is a pretty simple recipe. Before I expand other recipes of her choosing, I’d love some feedback if you have access to a young teen. Does it make sense?
I’m thinking I could work with my granddaughter and try a recipe…take photos of her making the recipe and create an illustrated recipe for her to keep in her very own Favorite Recipes notebook. We’ll see if she’s interested at Christmas time!
Do you have a stash of recipes you refer to all the time? Think about sharing them with your loved ones this Christmas!
Hi Aunt Mary! I just made deviled eggs on Friday, so the steps are fresh in my mind. I like flow, and I really like the pictures; easy to follow and visualize. I have 2 observations: from my own experience, I usually like to see the list of ingredients up front so I know what to pull out of the cupboard, what ingredients I might need to buy, and how complicated the recipe might be. If it requires equipment, like a blender or food processor, that might also be good to know up front (i.e., “List of ingredients” and “List of materials”). Another thought is to include an explanation about certain ingredients or techniques. For example, I always wondered what I could do to help peel off the egg shells more cleanly, and I presume that’s why you add the baking soda and oil. An 11 year old might be wondering why those ingredients are added. Of course, this would add more words, which is counter to your objective, but it could be brief (“…to help peel egg shells peel more easily…”). The other question regarding hard boiled eggs that I’ve heard from my kids is “why don’t you boil the water first, then add the eggs?” The explanation here is more verbose. Here, I guess you’d have to weigh the length and complexity of the explanation vs. the value of the information. Just a couple thoughts! I bet you’d get better feedback from an 11 year old kid than from me! Love, Todd
Thanks for all that great feedback! I guess the way Joy of cooking lists ingredients in bold type I can scan down the recipe to see what I need. Thanks for hints about missing explanations too. If I were cooking with Anna I’m sure the question about baking soda and oil in the water would come up! Thanks so much!!
I love the deviled egg recipe and have never been told before to use baking soda and olive oil. Interesting! I’m inspired by your post since I just returned from my 13 year old granddaughter who has asked me if I would be interested in giving her a FaceTime cooking class once or twice a month. I told her I would, so we’ll certainly be starting with your deviled egg recipe. Keep me in the loop with what you’re doing for your granddaughter and hopefully I’ll be able to pilfer your ideas. Love you much!
Hi Cindy. I tried just adding salt to the water and it made no difference. I tried baking soda and it made no difference. Adding the oil seemed to help. Kathy makes hard boiled eggs in her InstaPot and says she never has trouble getting the shells off. May have to try that next time!