Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I knew I was in trouble with this book by page 14, when it starts listing STUFF you need to have in order to cook. By page 29, when the author is gabbling about dancing with your toddler in the kitchen and having them "help" you cook, it's too late. You realize you've purchased a LIFESTYLE book. Not just any lifestyle book, one that promotes a lifestyle best suited to the six figure income and up crowd, and for mothers who are obsessed, neurotic, or insane. One: The kitchen is not a place for dancing, playing, hanging out, or anything else, with small children. All the major injuries I received as a child under three were kitchen related, ergo, as soon as my son becomes mobile I plan to encase my kitchen in heavily reinforced chicken wire. If he wants to dance, learn manners, or engage in social activities, he can do it well out of the way of huge knives and hot things and glass bits. Two: My kitchen has quite enough "stuff" in it, being as it's not a stadium sized chef-style...thing...from the pages of Home Digest. It is, in fact, what my mother and I term a one-behind kitchen, and most of America has one exactly like it. There is no space for another spoon, let alone five separate cutting boards and a food mill or "moulis" or any other French Food Twaddler. If it can't be done with a blender, it doesn't need to be done for an infant. Three: I categorically refuse to serve "Baked Ricotta Cake" (page 144) or "Portobello Burgers" (page 214) to anyone not yet old enough to order an appropriate Zinfandel to go with them. Perhaps you live on a portobello mushroom farm, have lots of portobello mushrooms lying about the place, and feeding the family grossly expensive mushrooms makes economic sense to you. However, in my house we have something called a "food budget". This book is a shining example of the horrific competitive parenting tripe I see at every turn. If your idea of good parenting is a $40,000 pre-school, by all means, this is the lifestyle learning experience for you. I'll be in the kitchen mashing homegrown carrots with a fork, thanks.