I have been working on sets of illustrations inspired by a Facebook conversation where I asked the question, “If, for some reason, you could only teach your child to cook five or six things really well, what would they be?” The answers attempted to assemble versatile recipes which could act as building blocks, covering as many of the basic techniques of cooking and baking as possible.

I answered with “no-knead bread, because it’s easy and really good; pasta with variations, because it’s versatile and cheap if you’re broke; and roast chicken, because it’s pretty cheap, easy, and can be served as a fancy dinner or for several meals,” and I think I’d add a quick bread or cookies, and soup.

Lots of vegetables and other ingredients you need for making minestrone soup, plus a few demonstration illustrations.

Fresh baked popovers, hot from the oven. Inspired by my tween daughter, who has been baking popovers half her life.

I have completed two sets of illustrations for this Cooking with Children series, Cooking Minestrone and Baking Popovers, available in my creativemarket shop. I may add a Baking Quick Bread set eventually since popovers are not as versatile but my daughter loves them and has been baking them since she was very young.

Kids’ illustrations to help with chopping up vegetables and making some nice minestrone soup.

These illustrations are available as clip-art sets in my tpt shop [edit – I have closed my TPT shop. Please visit my creative market shop for clip art sets.]

I also have cooking-themed merchandise available on redbubble.

A bunch of the vegetables you might need to make some minestrone soup, plus a knife to cut them up with.

A big pot of soup and a big bowl of minestrone plus some of the ingredients you need to make it.

A bright cheery pattern with vegetables and a few things to cook with.

And I have six Cooking School fabric designs on spoonflower. Eventually, I’d like to create a set of kitchen towels with the basic steps of the recipes that can be used as a guide by kids who are learning how to cook.

A nice recipe for kids for cooking minestrone. Keep it handy for reference and for cleaning up spills.

An easy kids recipe for popovers on a tea towel. Keep it handy to use as a guide and to wipe up spills.