This edition of Newsgram highlights a unique cookbook designed to bridge the gap between young aspiring chefs and complex adult recipes. Teens a League of Their Own was inspired by Christine Burton’s experience working with students of all abilities who loved watching cooking shows but struggled to follow traditional cookbooks. By simplifying instructions into easy-to-follow, step-by-step formats, this book empowers young cooks—some as young as four or five—to confidently navigate the kitchen. With 200 tested and photographed recipes, this cookbook is more than just a guide; it has the power to shape future culinary talents.

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Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

Have you watched a cooking show? I’ll bet you have. One of the top rated shows on Netflix is the Great British Baking Off. We are fascinated by chefs, cooking and baking shows. I think it’s because there is something highly satisfying about watching simple ingredients turn into something extraordinary. Then add creativity, competition, and a universal love of food, and you’ve got a recipe for satisfaction on multiple levels. Whether it’s a fiery, spice-packed meal (my personal favorite) or the comforting sweetness of a homemade cake, food has a way of stirring emotions and memories. It reminds us of home, of adventure, of love.

Is your mouth watering yet? Well let me introduce you to a refreshing summer treat called Watermelon Pico de Gallo. It’s a simple recipe that combines watermelon, honeydew, cucumber, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, basil, mint, some honey and lime. It is the perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and fresh. One bite, and you’ll taste the magic.

Christine Burton – If you really want something different for the summer, mix up your melons, watermelon, honeydews, anything, just you put it all in there. But when you’re following the ingredients, it’ll say for a crowd. But if you only want to do it for one person, take a couple of little pieces and just do a separate little bowl for yourself and just, you know, chart it down.

That is Christine Burton and she’s responsible for this recipe and many, many others – 200 to be exact – and they make up a new book called Teens A League of Their Own: A Perfect Culinary Blend Cooking and Baking Recipes and I think you are going to love hearing the backstory on this book. 

Christine Burton – I worked with kids in grades kindergarten all the way through the charter school after high school, and the ones that are still trying to get their GEDs. I worked with a lot of the disabled, the anger management, and I was there to assist these kids daily in the majority of their classes. One in particular was the cooking class, and I would hear all kinds of stories from during the day, and they wanted to help, and some teachers wouldn’t let them help unless they had someone. So we went, and I started helping them there, and they got to love it, and then they started asking, oh, I wish there was a book on the market that had stuff other than celery and peanut butter, stuff like that, and they wanted more adult recipes. The high school kids wanted to challenge themselves, and the younger kids, which to my surprise, the four and five-year-olds were the best. They wanted to help mom and dad out.

So she went about creating various recipes that went beyond the simple, non-cooking recipes that she mentioned earlier and testing them out with the kids. She knew was onto something when the kids were able to read the recipe and create their own dishes. One of her most rewarding success stories involves a student on the Spectrum.

Christine Burton – I became friends with one of them and would go to his house. And I knew him from like third grade, but we’ve been in high school now. And so we went and I would write the recipes, which was like we made noodles. And his mom thanked me very much after, because he loved making noodles. He could just pat them down and cut them the way he wanted them. But then he always wanted them, if you know autistic, they always want to keep doing the same thing and everything. And I thought, Oh shoot. So the mom said, Oh great. You know, but the kid loved it. And then he wanted to make lasagna. So he had company coming and I taught him how, and then I said, would you like to have me help you make another pan? And he said, Nope, go away. And he wanted to do it himself. He was reading the instructions and he made it very nicely. So he was very proud of himself.

I thought something interesting about the teen aged kids was that they wanted to cook using recipes from adult cookbooks but they found them confusing—and, surprisingly, I had the same experience. Many cookbooks are written for those who already know how to cook, but if you’ve never learned the basics of combining ingredients, much of the content can be hard to understand. That’s what makes this book so great—it’s accessible for all ages and skill levels.

Christine Burton – I wanted it to be so simple that anybody, and I’ve been selling the books to a lot of senior citizens who are living by themselves and have never really cooked. And so they’re taking it and they’re really enjoying it because the recipes are adult recipes. You can down them. You can make them more into team type recipes if you want, or, you know, have parties, the teams can have parties with their friends, one culture, all different cultures and start doing recipes and using their different spaces and stuff and learning different things. So that was my purpose in this was for them to challenge themselves. 

Part of the process of making it simple was also the need to make it adaptable for dietary needs and preferences so her recipes are designed as “base recipes” that can be modified based on personal preferences.

Christine Burton – Each recipe should be treated as a base recipe. So you can follow them as they are, if you’re just starting out, but if you’re a little bit more progressed in it and stuff, you can, if you’re a diabetic or you have gout or other type of diseases or whatever, you can adjust the recipe to fit your, even if you’re on a diet, you can use nonfat ingredients or gluten-free ingredients. So it’s all adjustable to what you want to put in it. And then the herbs and spices, you can put in what you want. If you don’t have what I list, I give ideas. Don’t let them intimidate you because they’re just ideas. And you can buy them sometimes in a bottle in the store that’s already pre-packaged with like five or six different herbs or spices in each little bottle. So I let them let you know how to utilize that kind of stuff in the book. 

Since the students helped test the recipes in her book, it became clear that they were fully capable of following instructions, using kitchen tools, and applying cooking techniques—making the project a success.

Christine Burton  – I want them to have success…in the kitchen. A lot of times, if you don’t know what’s going on, you’re going to have these recipes come out and they’re not going to look good. They’re not going to taste right. And so you, you are not going to try it again.

Another interesting thing she did was feature photos of the dishes that were not perfect. Food is typically hard to photograph so most books have gorgeous professional looking dishes that never really look that good in the end. I think her approach ended up being pretty perfect. 

Christine Burton  – And then the photographing. I did not want touched-up pictures. I wanted my readers to know exactly what it’s like while they’re cooking. I didn’t want them intimidated by these doctored-up photos. I wanted them to see this is how it comes out of the oven, and it’s all right if it’s this color or that color. So then they would try and photograph it, and they would try displaying stuff on the plates with it so that it looked presentable. And they just kind of worked the whole steps with me as we went along.

The finished product is a cookbook full of kid tested recipes, created through a unique collaboration with children, friends and neighbors using real looking photos of dishes that were created with love. 

Christine Burton – It was my friends that would do the proofreading. After everything was said and done, we had to go back and proofread these recipes to make sure everything was written correct because you just don’t want to have a cup of salt sitting there. So I wanted to recognize those people that assisted with that.

It’s no wonder this book won the Notable Indie Award and the Gold Seal of Literary Excellence. Teens A League of Their Own: A Perfect Culinary Blend Cooking and Baking Recipes By Christine Burton. It’s a long title so do me a favor and head over to Teenscookbook.com that’s her website and you’ll find everything you cold possible want there. 

So whether you’re a teen, a senior citizen, or just starting your culinary journey, this book has something for everyone. Check it out at TeensCookbook.com. Thanks for listening to this edition of Newsgram from WebTalkRadio.com!

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