Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Oakland, CA

My mom loves giving gifts and she has about a 50% success rate when it comes to choosing the perfect one. For every popular hits-the-nail-on-the-head there is usually the equivalent head-scratching kind of gift. We love her so much for trying.

This post is dedicated to Grammy.
We love you and your thoughtful gifts.

Pretend Soup is one of the best gift books we've ever gotten because it is a great book and it encourages the best kind of playing together in the kitchen: the kind where we get to eat the result. Don't let the title fool you, the food is real.


All the recipes are kid-tested. Each recipe shows the steps as a picture so pre-readers can easily follow along. Also, there are cute illustrations and stories to go along with each recipe.

Wrap it up as a gift for your preschool chef with a small whisk, a set of Ikea knives, and a mini work apron.

The author, Mollie Katzen, is perhaps best known for the Moosewood Cookbook but she has several more great titles for big people. Salad People and More Real Recipes is a sequel to Pretend Soup.

Need another reason to buy this cookbook? It's published here in Berkeley.