For today's installment in our series of five 2009 holiday gift guides, we'd like to focus on an area that is near and dear to our heart, and one some folks might think of as two entirely different things: Kitchen gear, cookbooks, and other products to help you and your young child enjoy cooking together, and pretend play items that help kids pretend they are already master chefs. In our experience, the two run together seamlessly if you let them, and an enthusiasm for one will feed an engagement with the other. So we've collected twelve of our favorite items here that cover that spectrum - from products that will fascinate and engage your child's attention while playing in the kitchen while you cook, to products to engage kids from ages 3 to 8 or so with actual cooking, to toys that can help ensure that they regularly engage with the idea of preparing and serving fresh, healthy food. Bon appetit, or as we so enjoyed saying during a brief residence in Holland, eet smaakelijk ("ate smack-a-luck")!


Round cookie-cutter set: No animal shapes can beat an exhaustive set of sized round cookie and dough cutters, and your drawer space will thank you, too. These are also great for making pretend cookies out of play dough - an invaluable "pretend" cooking activity. | $15, Amazon.com

DIY spice smelling and tasting set: Buy a dozen or so acrylic magnifying boxes ($1.50 each, $5 shipping) and an unfinished cigar box ($4). Use non-irritating spices from your own spice rack, supplemented, if desired, with additional spices from your local grocery store. Select spices with dramatically different smells, spices with familiar smells, spices with varying textures, and spices in their whole form (cinnamon bark, cardamom, star anise, vanilla bean), cutting any larger items into segments small enough to fit in one of the 1"x1" boxes. Place in the cigar box, glue in a folded cardboard spacer if desired to fill up any unused space lengthwise, widthwise, or both, and either label it yourself or save that for a fun activity with the kid. Suitable for children ages 3 and up. | About $30, various sources


LillyBean play food: The best felt play food we've found. | $5 and up, LillyBeanMarket.com


Mollie Katzen's kids' cookbooks: The best cookbook series for prescoolers we've ever seen. Pretend Soup, Salad People - anything by Mollie Katzen written for kids is great. Not only are the recipes simple, flavorful, and fun for kids - many, many kids' cookbooks achieve that goal - but the recipes' directions are largely image-based, almost like comics, so kids can follow them much more independently. | $12-$15, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Imagiplay Veggie Cutting Set: We love Imagiplay's version of "cuttable" fruit and vegetables. They're similar to those made by Melissa & Doug, but we trust their paint sourcing better than Melissa & Doug's, which we have some questions about. Imagiplay also use sustainable rubber wood for their toys. | $25, Imagiplay

Handstand Kids cookbooks: Handstand Kids makes great regional cuisine cookbooks suitable for kids from ages 5 or 6 to 9 or 10. We've used and enjoyed their Mexican Cookbook and Italian Cookbook, and each cookbook in the series comes in a "pizza box" package with a kids' chef hat, which Z wears at every opportunity. | $25, Amazon.com


Green Toys Cooking & Dining Set: Green Toys' excellent Cooking and Dining set includes a stock pot and lid, a skillet, four plates, four bowls, four cups, and four sets of knives, forks, and spoons, all made of 100% recycled plastic milk jugs. Green Toys has also split the set into two smaller sets this year, a Dish Set and Chef Set, | $30, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Hand beater: Forget little whisks. Hand egg beaters are where it's at - easier for kids to use, fun to turn, and downright fascinating to watch. Let your child mix any liquids that needs mixing, and don't be surprised when they ask to play with it when there's nothing to cook. Best under supervision until age 4 or so, then all systems go. | $11, Amazon.com


The Manga Cookbook: Japanese cooking in a kid-friendly format. A magical way to get jaded preteens and teenagers back into the kitchen with challenging, interesting food presented in a format they can latch onto. Our teenage cousin gave it two thumbs up. | $11, Amazon.com


Yummyfun Kooking: The world's best cooking show for kids. Think Pee Wee's Playhouse in the kitchen, with a host that will not annoy anyone. Must be seen to be believed.| $15, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Tovolo ice cream sandwich molds: As if ice cream sandwiches needed to be made any more fun. We've used these, they work great. They also offer a Christmas set. | $12, Amazon.com


Aeromax Chef Suit: We have handled Aeromax dress-up outfits extensively at trade shows in multiple years, and have always been impressed with their quality. Aeromax's chef outfit is a great way to encourage kids' pretend play in a play kitchen and to put on for real cooking as well. | $40, Amazon.com

Looking for more gift ideas? Check out our other holiday gift guides, including our 2008 gift guides, which feature about 90% unique and 100% relevant recommendations, in the links at the foot of this post (on our website, RSS and email folks).

All of the items in this gift guide are either things we have owned for a long time, or things we have handled at trade shows and did not receive samples of. We hope you have discovered something your child will love!