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What's Cooking?

En Espanol

Cook with your kids! Visit the library to plan, prepare and enjoy a meal together. With cookbooks, culinary magazines and other media on cooking all available at your library, there are many ideas right at your fingertips.

@ YOUR LIBRARY

  • Each month, explore the world through food by learning about different regional, national or cultural cuisines. Visit your library in person or online to see what cookbooks can help you begin your culinary journey.
  • See what culinary programming your library might offer for teens —from Cooking 101 to Cake Decoration.

AT HOME & IN THE COMMUNITY

  • Make storytime delicious! Ask a children’s librarian to recommend a book with a food theme. Read the book together at home and follow it by snacking on a food that was featured in the book.
  • Share stories and recipes about special family dishes. Make a short family “cooking show” video to capture the recipes. Share with extended family in person at the next holiday or online right away.
  • Explore the world of cooking and food with your teen. Check out the titles on the Young Adult Library Services Association’s “What’s Cooking” recommended reading list, which features more than 25 titles of fiction and nonfiction books for teens that relate to cooking or food. Visit www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists. Click on “Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults” and then “What’s Cooking.”
Turning up the Heat
Hand made cake - Mad HAtter

Cooking for yourself is fun and healthy and a necessary skill for living on your own. The library is a great place to get information on how to cook, but many libraries are going further by giving teens a place to cook as well.

Celebrate With Food - and Without the Guilt!
Family at barbecue

Independence Day usually means barbecuing, which is often a feast of indulgence. By eating healthily, you will have more energy to enjoy holiday activities and not feel sluggish. And eating healthy doesn’t necessarily equal restrictive eating. Sometimes the healthier options are just as, if not more, great tasting as the junk-food staples. Make this Fourth of July about indulging in creativity.

The Art and Science of Food
Family at barbecue

The Fourth of July commemorates the day in 1776 when the colonists decided to declare themselves independent of Britain. Today, we celebrate it by chilling in the sun with hotdogs, burgers, ice-cold lemonade, and red, white and blue desserts. By why not spice it up this year?

Instead of hosting a traditional barbeque celebration, organize a molecular gastronomy cookoff!

It’s not as fancy as it sounds. The phrase simply means applying scientific techniques to cooking. If you’ve ever made popcorn, you already know something about it.