Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys & Girls

I got this book for Christmas when I was nine years old. The recipes were laid out with pictures of what to do step by step. It was so simple, I could do it, no problem! The peanut butter pudding—Jell-O instant chocolate pudding with peanut butter mixed into it—was my favorite and first recipe. I'd pour it into my mom's fancy green-glass pudding cups, let it set, and put Cool Whip on top. It was awesome. The tea sandwiches were just ham and American cheese, but you cut them out with shaped cookie cutters. This wasn't the kind of stuff that my mom would make for dinner, so it was a treat. I still have the book. I use it with my own kids, who are eight and five. We'll take it out and make the pudding. But it's really a precious thing, so I don't leave it around for them to play with; my daughter would scribble all over it. —Terence Feury, Fork, Philadelphia