I Fed My Little Girl Meals From 195 Countries & It Was Bonkers Cute (23 Pics)

I spent four years cooking more than 650 recipes from every country in the world and fed every dish to my daughter before her 5th birthday.

My goal is to make international cooking approachable and fun. My husband and young daughter are eager guinea pigs. We live smack-dab in the middle of Middle America and face many of the same challenges as our community – a picky family member, finding ways to spice up dinnertime on a dime, and a desire to teach my child to love her world. We can’t travel right now, so bringing the world to our kitchen was a great solution for our family.

You won’t find recipes for deep-fried tarantulas or mopane worms on Global Table Adventure. My recipe adaptations may come from more than 195 countries, but this is not about shock value. I explore recipe “bridges” – authentic meals that are simple, healthy and make my family say YUM. Most recipes can be made quickly with ingredients that are available in the average city. I only use ingredients I can purchase locally.

Working my way through new recipes every week is a walking meditation that helped me to find inner peace. My debut book “Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness” shares what drove me to cook the world and how my tumultuous childhood shaped who I would become as a mother.

Ava was a tiny 7-month old when we started with Kabeli Palau (Afghanistan)

By the time she turned 4 she was making some pretty awesome spring rolls (Vietnam)

Together we made artisan bread (France)

Took a big bite of coconut sticky rice towers – and still asks for them today (Malaysia)

Caviar was not exactly a success (Russia)

But she was a HUGE fan of watermelon lemonade (Ghana)

She was gnawing on grilled corn with coconut milk (Cambodia)

She helped mom make beer – but didn’t drink it (Germany)

Nearly 100 countries deep, she went crazy for chili peppers (Laos)

One year later she fell in love with a Gingerbread Ricotta Tart (Estonia)

And what kid doesn’t love noodles – like this bakso soup (East Timor)

There were a few sticky situations, like walnuts dipped in concentrated grape juice (Georgia)

She adored rolling her own pita bread (Iraq)

And was a sushi rolling boss (Japan)

She satisfied her sweet tooth with a Macadamia Pie (Marshall Islands)

Sometimes she fed ME… Curried Corned beef (Fiji)

Soon she turned 3 – and this egg & baguette sandwich didn’t stand a chance (Niger)

Gobbled up lamb stuffed, deep-fried potato wedges because… duh (Libya)

Her frankincense Ice cream tasted like Christmas Trees in July.. until it fell to the ground (Oman)

But her spirits stayed high with Lumpia Shanghai (Philippines)

She was a royal fan of the Swedish Princess Cake

And she conquered her fear of stuffed grape leaves (Qatar)

When we finished it was a little bittersweet… but mostly sweet thanks to these Candy Cakes from Zimbabwe. Thank you world. You were delicious!