"The River Cottage Family Cookbook" by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Fizz Carr (Ten Speed, $32.50)

Most cookbook authors who title their guides "family cookbooks" mean that you alone will be doing the cooking; they recommend the dishes as those your kids will not sneak to the pet dog under the kitchen table. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Fizz Carr, however, have literally put the family — both yours and theirs — into their "The River Cottage Family Cookbook."

In answering what a family cookbook is, the authors say it's one "that everyone in the family can pick up and use. If you're around 10 to 12 years old, we reckon you'll be able to cook from it with maybe just a little adult help. Twelve-plus and you might be able to tackle most of the recipes on your own. And if you're an adult with younger children, we hope you'll enjoy cooking from it too, with your kids alongside, fully engaged in the mixing, sifting, stirring and rolling."

In fact, the families not only of Fearnley-Whittingstall and Carr, who have three and five kids respectively, but those of their book designer, photographer and editor all participated in developing recipes — photographer Simon Wheeler played fly on the wall as they cooked.

This means recipes that truly emanate from family spirit, like quick ice cream from your own salt and ice base, pancakes that are used in a footrace and instructions on planting a vegetable garden.

Perhaps assign the passages in the book as a little bit of tasty homework to older kids, or deliciously read it to youngsters instead of a fairy tale. Topics are numerous, including "What is an Egg?" or "A Short History of the Spud." The topic entitled "When is a Fruit Not a Fruit?" delves fruits that end up in the vegetable bin, such as avocadoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, peppers and chiles. Projects contain everything from making your own salt to creating yogurt, cheese and butter.

Fortunately, ease is not only behind texts and recipe instructions, but also preparation, since the authors understand that most families experience time crunches. This delicious Garlic Rosemary Potatoes recipe, for instance, shows the technique of roasting, but doesn't make you take time to peel potatoes or garlic.

GARLIC ROSEMARY POTATOES

1 1/2 pounds small boiling (waxy) tomatoes

1 whole head of garlic

Few sprigs of rosemary

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

1 lemon

Yields 4 to 6 servings.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Wash potatoes; dry them well on a tea towel — no need to peel. Cut into halves or quarters, depending on size. Separate head of garlic into cloves; tear away any of loose papery wrapper (no need to peel cloves). Break rosemary sprigs up into little pieces.

Spoon oil into roasting pan. Add potatoes, garlic cloves and rosemary into pan; stir around with wooden spoon so they are well coated. Add salt; grind in some pepper and squeeze juice of half the lemon over potatoes.

With oven mitts on, place pan in center of oven. Roast for 15 minutes, and then put oven mitts on again. Carefully remove pan; stir potatoes around with wooden spoon. Put pan back in oven and leave for another 10 to 15 minutes, then remove; stir again. Return to oven until potatoes are golden on outside and soft inside (5 to 10 minutes more).

Using slotted spoon, transfer potatoes to warm serving dish; sprinkle with a little salt before serving.

Serving suggestions: If you really enjoy lemon-tasting potatoes, you could sprinkle juice from the other half of lemon over them just before eating. Squeeze out all the delectable softened flesh from paper wrapper of roasted garlic.

CREATING YOUR OWN ICE CREAM MAKER

9 tablespoons well-chilled heavy cream

Few drops vanilla extract, 9 strawberries, 6 teaspoons jam or 1 tablespoon melted chocolate

6 teaspoons confectioner's sugar

15 cups ice cubes, kept in freezer until use

3 cups salt

Yields about 3 scoops ice cream.

Spoon 3 tablespoons cream into each of three clean half-pint Mason jars. Add flavoring to each jar (either vanilla extract, strawberries, jam or melted chocolate; for strawberries, crush until runny before stirring into cream). Add 2 teaspoons of confectioner's sugar to each jar.

Screw jar lids tightly closed. Place jars in refrigerator.

Get ice from freezer. Ice should be as cold as possible. If that sounds silly, remember temperature of ice can vary. Straight from freezer, it could be as low as 14 F. Ice that's been sitting around in a bowl and is just beginning to melt will be only 30 F or 28 F. Put ice and salt into plastic or metal container; mix together well. Container should have lid and be large enough to contain all the ice, salt and jars.

Make wells in ice mixture. Take Mason jars out of refrigerator and stand them in wells. Put lid on container; let it stand somewhere cool.

After 10 minutes, take off both lids; carefully stir cream mixture, making sure you don't get any salt in it. It will have turned very cold, but it won't have started to freeze yet. Replace both lids. Repeat this stirring process at 10-minute intervals until cream turns into ice cream. It will do this suddenly, so be ready. This technique can be used to make all sorts of homemade ice creams and sorbets.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "After Work Gourmet" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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