In Which I ponder things...

Just imagine me like Winnie the Pooh, sitting saying "Think, think think...." some days that's how I feel, trying to get my thoughts into order.  I've sat down to write another blog post a half a dozen times and each time my thoughts putter out before they start making sense or the baby stops being contented or I remember there's a mountain of dishes perpetually waiting (okay not really but that's how it feels) and a mountain of laundry, twin peaks Mt Stinky and Mt Clean to be conquered as well.  They too feel like permanent fixtures in our house.  Sometimes I can ignore them, sometimes they mock me and I must engage them in battle.  Sometimes I weaken their positions greatly, sometimes I just annoy them but don't manage to gain any ground.

Anyway so I've been wanting to post again but keep getting derailed. Topics it has run across my mind to post about

The food I want to make

The cookbook of favorite recipes of Joey's and mine that I'm working on

The baby

Various issues I'm passionate about

Breathing

Now, interestingly, three days just passed between writing that and now this!  I got distracted by something, I can't remember now what it was and have just now gotten back to writing this.   I was just thinking about the last topic, breathing, last night.  I was getting baby to sleep and he was crawling over my head and winding down and he stopped moving for a second to take a break and his abdomen and chest were right on my ear and I could hear him breathing (and his heart beating <3 ) and I did something I do a lot when I'm trying to get him to sleep and he's bouncing around like a spider monkey on too much caffeine, which is odd because he's down to one Mountain Dew a day now(I kid!). So I start breathing deeply, long breath in through the nose, blowing it slowly out.   It calms me down and then that helps him calm down too.   So I started consciously breathing deeply and within a couple of breaths I could hear his breathing slow down too. Then after a minute it was obvious he was asleep. It was also obvious my neck was going to pay the price for having a 21 lb infant lying across it like that. Such is the price of parenthood. Anyway it was really neat having that instant feedback that my actions can directly influence Mini-Memblers state.

Oh, and I've figured out why babies don't come with warning labels.  Nobody ever sues the baby!  

In Which I mess up my kitchen...

You know that thing that happens, well maybe it doesn't happen to you but it happens to me, where you get the dishes all done and the kitchen relatively clean and then you just cannot resist messing it all up again for the sake of some delectable treat?   Then you're left with a big mess in the kitchen right back where you started from.  It's like some sort of insidious compulsion.  A delicious insidious compulsion I say. 

So the alternate title of this post could be "In Which I make sour cream cake donuts".    I've tried to make yeast donuts before and they were good but these donuts were marvelous!  They were tender and cakey and had just the perfect amount of nutmeg.  

After looking through some recipes I settled on one that kept popping up.

I used
2 1/4 cup of flour (the recipe I used called for cake flour but I used AP)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
2 TBSP shortening or butter
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg into a bowl and set aside.  In a mixer bowl beat shortening and sugar together for a couple of minutes, then add egg yolks and beat at medium speed, stopping to scrape occasionally, until it's light and creamy.  Then I mixed the vanilla in the sour cream, then you alternate adding the flour mixture and the sour cream  After its' all incorporated it should be like a thick sticky biscuit dough.   Then you leave it to rest.  The recipes said to let it rest for 45-60 minutes but it also keeps for up to 24 hours.   I ended up cooking mine at the 12 and 24 hour marks and they were wonderful both times.   Then you roll it out the thickness you want, I ended up between 1/3-2/3's an inch thick I think, and cut into donut shapes(I ended up using a biscuit cutter and the top to baby's saline spray, you can quit laughing now it was perfectly round and just the right size :P). Then you fry them in hot oil (I don't know what temp but I had my heat set to medium high) till they are golden brown turning them over once then drain them on paper towels and then glaze them while hot (Glaze: 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I sifted mine) 1 tsp corn syrup, a pinch salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and 1/4 cup hot water).  The recipes said to dip but I spooned the glaze over and I liked that because it kept the glaze from coating the bottom making them too sweet. 

They were wonderfully wonderful.  Although probably quite bad for me in the end but they were indeed wonderful.  Just as good or better than any store bought donut that's for sure :)

And just for fun here's a picture of the finished product.  So I have my kitchen to clean up again, but these lovely donuts were worth the mess!

In Which I feed baby-part 2

So I posted last about feeding baby dinners. I thought I'd post a little more today about the rest of his meals and my general approach to feeding him and his eating.

My approach to dealing with baby's eating is I don't want there to be any power struggle there that I am creating.  Not to say there won't ever be any but I'm going to try to create a space where he feels in control over what he eats. I mean I think I'm succeeding, he felt very in control when he found that bug the other day and ate it and if I'd found him trying to eat it ahead of time I'd just have engaged him in a power struggle and tried to stop him while as it was I just got to dig the half masticated bug parts out of his mouth! See, it's important to not create needless power struggles with babies :P.  Seriously though I think kids will, in general, eat when they're hungry and my job is to provide healthful choices for him to choose from when he feels the need to eat. My goal is to help him learn to listen to his bodies signals and develop healthy eating habits from the first.   He's not going to like everything, heck, I don't like everything.  I will have him, when he's older, take a "no thank you" bite.  Both because we should in general give new foods a fair shot but we also have to be able to reject them politely if we don't care for them.  So I will use it to teach him how to taste something he doesn't like without  making faces or saying "yuck". But after that bite he won't be forced to eat any specific amount of the food and if he gets hungry later there will be simple healthful snacks (veggies and fruits) around for him to have then.   I also am not going to fight with him over how much he eats.  He won't get to go fill up on junky food after rejecting healthful food but I want him to learn to listen to his own body, not mama saying "you need to eat this much of this".    I want him to listen to mama when it's important but I don't want to tell him to listen to me instead of his own bodies hunger/satiation signals.



His meals now tend to be fruit (jarred baby food fruit) and yogurt (plain regular dannon right now) and baby cereal all mixed up for breakfast. I give him this with cheerios to pick up for pincher grip practice. Sometimes I scramble him an egg and he can pick those pieces up.  Lunch is some sort of veggies(sometimes home pureed, sometimes jarred) with crackers ( a few ritz style crackers, graham crackers or oyster crackers).  And dinner tends to be a baby-safe version of our meal or if that's not possible (you try to babyfood frozen pizza, go on, I dare you! It also has to not give the baby blowout diapers in the end, so yeah, not possible) then I make him a separate dinner for him. Sometimes I boil pasta and put it through the mill and mix it with jarred baby veggies. Sometimes I cook some frozen veggies and put them in the food processor. 

In Which I feed baby.....

I thought I'd write a post on how and what I feed baby.  I love cooking and I love cooking for my son as well. 

For making his food I have a food mill  and a little food processor.  Not an expensive food processor, just a cheapie one I found for under ten bucks.   I have a big bad food processor too but it just didn't work for me to make babyfood in it, way too big.   I don't freeze mini's food, we don't have enough freezer space so I just make enough to 2-3 meals for him at a time. 

Here are some of the meals I've made for him:

Baby s'ghetti
zucchini
pasta sauce
whole grain spaghetti
Parmesan cheese

I took a small zucchini and shredded it and cooked it with probably 1/4 cup of water stirring it occasionally until it was well cooked  I put a good handful of cooked whole grain spaghetti and put it through the food mill and added it to the zucchini then I added about 3 tablespoons of pasta sauce to coat everything and added the tablespoon of Parmesan cheese and divided into meal size portions.  I tend to put things in 3-4 ounce portions for Mini.  Now my little guy likes things chunkier so I didn't put the zucchini through the mill or processor after it was cooked.

And Mini-Memblers really loved his spaghetti, he ate all of it happily through three meals.

Baby chili mac:
Whole grain pasta.
pinch ground turkey
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
4 tablespoons finely chopped peppers, I used 2 tablespoons green and 2 tablespoons yellow
small spoonful chili beans
regular spoonful kidney beans
tomato sauce to bind everything

I made this alongside our chili, I sauteed the onion and peppers in a very small amount of olive oil.  Then I added the ground turkey and cooked it very well.  Then I added the beans, pasta and tomato sauce and cook for a couple more minutes. I didn't make it saucy, I put just enough in to coat everything.  Then I put it through the food processor which worked really well. 


Grilled cheese and tomato soup for baby

Grilled cheese sandwich, real American cheese, two slices whole grain bread, a little bit of butter
Tomato soup (I made mine with milk)

I tore the sandwich up into small pieces and put it through the babyfood mill (who knew a grilled cheese sandwich could do that?) and then mix in enough tomato soup to create the consistency desired.

Baby loved this as well. 

So that's what I tend to do, take what we're having and make a babyfied version alongside ours if ours is too strongly spiced or too rich.    

I'm lucky to have such a wonderful son and I'm happy he's an adventurous little eater!  

In which I ponder the dangers of parenthood...

This past week in parenting mini-memblers has been challenging.   When you're childless they don't tell you stuff like "kids can be dangerous and cause injuries".  They don't come with that warning when they hand them too you in the hospital either.  They should though.   Yes, all infants should come with a warning label stamped on their little butts "Warning: watch out for sharp parts and grabby parts and one day you'll be used as a piece of playground equipment.  Injury may occur".

Yes, people act like infants are the helpless ones and true,while they are itty-bitty they are rather harmless overall, but watch out as they grow!   When they are tiny there's not much they can do but pee and poop and puke on you and scream until you want to sit and a corner and cry yourself (it's okay, every parent has been there, just make sure your little air raid siren is safely in their crib first).  But as they age?  Oh my oh my. First their fingernails, or as I call them "their little velociraptor claws" grow.  Then they get teeth, or as I call them "their baby barracuda teeth" and then you end up with little indents on your skin if you're lucky.

Now those baby velociraptor claws, those little suckers and dangerous and danged difficult to trim.  And frightening to trim too.  You'd think that humans, being as inventive as we are and as fond of making baby products as we are that someone at some point in time, would have invented a foolproof non-terrifying way to trim those little suckers.   Because it is absolutely terrifying to trim them and with good reason.  The first time I trimmed mini's nails I clipped off the end of his thumb. It was horrible and I was so upset.  It healed in a week or so but nine months later I'm still filled with terror when I manage to catch him in a dead sleep and take on the task of trimming his nails.    But it must be done.  And I'll tell you why.

One day this last week I was wrestling him to sleep (what? you've never heard of that?  lucky you)  anyways I was wrestling him to sleep (you see it's because he knows if he holds still for two seconds he'll conk off and he doesn't want to sleep) waiting for him to get past the "climbing mommy like a tree" stage where he bounces around gleefully while climbing over my head which is right before the "rest my head on mommy's shoulder for just a second" stage wherein he falls fast asleep.  So he was bouncing around and his finger went up my nose and I swear his little claw must have nicked a vein as I've never had a worse nosebleed in all my life and my nose throbbed for 1/2 hour afterwards.  

I am rather surprised that parenting has never wound up on the list of "most dangerous jobs" and that babies have never made even one "most dangerous creatures" lists either.  

So yes, babies need warnings.  "Handle with caution" "may be dangerous"  "likes to grab hair, shave head(and chest if you're male) before handling"  "Watch out- you'll fall hopelessly in love with me"  stuff like that :)

In which I cook soup for the family....

Beautiful Sou-oop
Beautiful Sou-oop
Soup of the evening Beautiful Sou-oop
Beautiful, Beautiful Soup.

Beautiful Soup, Who cares for fish,
Game or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
(from Alice in Wonderland)

Last night I cooked a lovely turkey vegetable soup.   I cooked two soups actually, one for my husband and myself and one for baby.    It turned out wonderfully as my soups almost always do turn out.

Here is how I make vegetable soup, I rarely measure anything so I have no measurements here.  I also make it with different veggie combinations so I don't really have an ingredients list either! I usually use up whatever veggies are needing used up from the fridge and then add in whatever sounds good.   Helpful I know!

I start with onion and garlic, sauteing them in a little olive oil.   Last night I also chopped up a green pepper and yellow pepper and had them in with the onion and garlic as well.  Then I took thawed ground turkey on the turkey I sprinkled on oregano, basil, parsley, black pepper and added a bay leaf and cooked it til it was browned.  Then I added water and beef base.  Then I added potatoes, scrubbed well and diced, carrots scrubbed well and chopped, celery also scrubbed and chopped and a yellow squash and zucchini squash.   Then I added dark red kidney beans and garbanzo beans.  Then I added frozen peas and corn.  Then I seasoned it again with more oregano, parsley and basil.  Then I added an 8 oz can of tomato sauce(minus about 1 tablespoon that went into baby's soup)   Then I covered it and let it cook till the veggies were all cooked to a nice tenderness but not falling apart and it was beautiful beautiful soup!  

Other things I've added in the past: okra, diced tomatoes(both canned and fresh), pinto beans, butter beans, great northern beans, green beans and more that I can't recall at the moment. 

For the soup for baby this is what I did, I put a small handful each of onion, green and yellow pepper and sauteed that in about a teaspoon of olive oil then added a good pinch of ground turkey.  I seasoned his turkey with a pinch of garlic powder, a shake of dried parsley and one grind of black pepper.  When the turkey was browned I added just enough water to cover everything then put in about a teaspoon of beef base then I added a small handful of carrots, celery, potato, yellow squash and zucchini, a good spoonful of kidney beans and garbanzo beans and probably 1/4 cup of peas and corn and made sure there was enough broth to mostly cover everything still. Then I added a tablespoon of canned tomato sauce.   Then I put the lid on and cooked it until the veggies were nice and tender.  Then I let it cool a bit and put veggies with enough broth to blend it into the food processor until it was a good consistency for baby.

I made some nice beer bread to go with it
3 cups of flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
12 oz beer 

Mix dry ingredients then add beer and stir to combine and bake at 375 degrees till done, I put mine in an 8 in round pan and it baked to perfection in 25 minutes.  The recipes I saw said to put it in a loaf pan and bake it for an hour, the 8 inch pan has less depth than a loaf pan so that's why it took so much less time I think.  Then I brushed melted butter over the top of the loaf and cut into slices, which I also brushed butter on.  Yay butter! 

It was a very hearty and satisfying dinner which parents and baby both enjoyed greatly! 

In which I realize how long it's been since I posted....

I recently remembered out of nowhere that "I have a long-neglected blog!" and thought I'd come back and try to post again regularly. 


You might ask "why has it been so long since you posted?".  The answer is that it's the fault of my little scapegoat, um, er, my son who is almost nine months old now :)  He has very definite ideas about what Mommy should be doing and typing on the laptop isn't one of his approved activities! 

List of baby approved activities in no particular order:
Building block towers for him to knock down
Reading to him
Tickling him
Singing him songs
Taking him outside
Playing with him in general
Feeding him

Activities that are NOT baby approved:
Playing on the internet
Being out of the room he is in (even if talking/singing to him)
Going to the bathroom
Changing his diaper
Changing his clothes
Fixing food
Cleaning
Sleeping
Showering
Talking on the phone

So you can see that getting back to doing stuff I normally do, like cleaning and cooking and bathing, let alone blogging, has been a slow process here.   I'm hoping that now that he's getting a little older I'll be able to do a few more things (It's okay, I'll wait for you to stop laughing so I can continue.... ).    So yeah, I'll probably be back in another six months (hopefully not but realistically yeah :P )