The Boxcar Children cookbook

by Diane Blain

The Boxcar Children love to cook! In all their adventures, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny take time out to make and eat great food. Now you can impress your family and friends with these delicious homestyle Boxcar favorites, including:

Mystery Ranch French Toast
Golden Horn Pizza
Benny's #1 Favorite Sandwich
Aunt Jane's Birthday Cake

67 easy recipes, inspired by the Boxcar Children Mysteries created by Gertrude Chandler Warner, for kids to make with some grown-up help.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1991

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"At first, when Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny lived in the boxcar, they had to cook because there was no one else to cook for them."

I remember LOVING the Boxcar Children series when I was a kid. I would devour book after book after book.

Now that I'm an adult, I'm revisiting all of my old favorites...and if they have a cookbook, I snatch it up. I love reading a book then experiencing it again through the recipes and meals that the characters enjoyed in the original series.

Now, I will admit, I am VERY particular when it comes to my literary cookbooks and overall, I would say that this is a pretty good one!

This cookbook contains many recipes organized into nine major categories (Beverages, Breads, Breakfast, Sandwiches, Main Dishes/Soups/Stews, Campfire Cooking, Salads and Vegetables, Cookies and Cakes, and finally Desserts).

At the beginning of each category, there would be a little blurb connecting the story to the food type. For example, under Beverages the book says,

"After a day of exciting adventures, the Boxcar Children are hungry and thirsty. They know how to make beverages that just hit the spot."

Then under each category there would be a handful of recipes that further tie into the story. I do really appreciate how the recipes cited to specific books.

The Snowbound Hot Chocolate Mix comes from when the children are stranded in a cabin in Snowbound Mystery. The Campout Cornbread recipe is based on The Yellow House Mystery and how Mr. Hill taught them how to make ham, eggs and cornbread.

I do really wish the author had gone just a step further and had included a quote from the book to go along with each recipe. I love the boxcar series but I don't have a working memory of the 150+ titles in this series.

So, I have to trust the cookbook author when she says that the Mystery Ranch French Toast came from The Mystery Ranch but I would prefer to have a quote and a page number to help jog my memory on the series.

Additionally, I noticed that there were several book repeats (multiple recipes coming from the same book). That might just be because that particular book had a lot of good meals mentioned but in a 150+ book series and given that there were just over seventy recipes, I feel like there didn't need to be so many repeats, especially when you consider that the are 220+ books if you count the spin offs.

[Wasif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cooking books. Great recipes for new beginner cooks. Simple instructions .

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice cookbook about the boxcar children series!

[Marla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Likes:
* Very clear and child friendly instructions.
* Each recipe comes with a reference from one of the books.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really need to actually try some of these recipes but it's just a fun read and takes me back to all the Boxcar Children books I read as a child.