Did I say she was off fresh peaches? She seems to have had second thoughts about that. Peaches are a go!

Dinner last night was Israeli couscous with caramelized onions, chanterelles, bacon, cream, and parmesan. It went over well, but the couscous gets everywhere. Mae really enjoys saying "couscous", though (but who doesn't?).

About time for an update? Yes, I think so too.

We've been eating our way happily through the months. I don't have a new recipe for you today, but I do want to share the sorts of things that Mae has been enjoying lately, in case you're interested and just to help my own memory a bit.

Breakfast, one of the following: toast with butter. Plain yogurt (perhaps with freeze-dried strawberry powder on top). 7-grain hot cereal with dried peaches and cinnamon. Cheese grits. Eggs (fried or scrambled). Wheat puffs, toasted. Berries if we have them.

Berries are big this year, but sadly, she seems to have forgotten her love of the peach during the long, peachless winter, and now won't touch them (well, she ate some in a pie, but that hardly counts). Well, more peaches for me.

Snacks: peas! Frozen peas, straight from the freezer. I put them in a little mason jar, plunk it down on her stroller tray, and she nibbles away. She snacks on cheese to a lesser extent. Some days are cheese days, and others, not so much. Same with bananas. They have their place. Freeze-dried fruit is still a favorite.

We got an insulated snack case that has a freezer insert, so I can take refrigeratables (or hot food) along on our trips to the park-- because why else would we go to the park if not to have a nice picnic?-- and it's been wonderful.  Also for taking supplementary meal items when going out to eat. Yesterday I made a quick tuna and black-eyed pea salad with finely chopped pecans-- it went over very well. A lentil, sun-dried tomato and feta salad was also a hit, but had unfortunate consequences later. Take note: toddlers cannot digest de puy lentils.

Another trick I've learned is that you can make a very serviceable macaroni and cheese by simply 1) boiling the pasta, 2) adding pasta back to pan, adding cream, 3) stir in shredded cheddar to taste, heat gently until it melts. Adjust with more cream if necessary to get the right consistency. Add a little dry mustard, herbs, or paprika if you want to fancy it up. It's quick to make, freezes well. I freeze it in individually-sized portions that I can microwave when I need a quick additional side dish (what? She's still hungry? Ok, how about some of this?). I also like to bring it to restaurants when I fear they may have nothing better than the powdered cheese product on their children's menu macaroni. *shudder*

Peanut butter shortbread recipe

Easter was a bit of a challenge. I have fond memories of hunting for eggs and a basket full of goodies-- I'm partial to the Reeses' Peanut Butter Egg-- but wanted to keep the sweet factor to a minimum. So I came up with a couple of things that were bite-sized, tasty, and small enough to be stashd in a plastic egg, yet not too extravagant in the sugar department. For this shortbread I use mostly whole wheat pastry flour, and natural peanut butter (I recently discovered how easy it is to make nut butters at home if you have a food processor: 1) roast nuts, 2) process. Add a little oil if you need to to get them to the right consistency. Voila!).

Peanut Butter Shortbread

1 stick (4 oz) butter, room temperature.
1/3 c. natural peanut butter (no added salt or sugar)
2 Tbs. sugar (possibly optional, but I haven't tried leaving it out completely yet)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 c. All Purpose flour
pinch of salt (optional)

Cream together the butter and peanut butter. Add in sugar, salt (if you decide to use it), and vanilla. Stir in the flours. Refrigerate 30 minutes or so until it's not totally squishy. On a floured surface (Silpat!), roll half the dough out to between 1/8-1/4 inch thick, and cut out your shapes with your cutters. They don't puff up much, so you can space them fairly close together on your pan. Bake at 350 just until bottom is beginning to turn golden, 7-9 minutes. You could also pat it into the bottom of your trusty cast iron skillet and bake the whole thing for quite a bit longer (30 minutes?), and cut it into wedges when it's done.

Gonna try it with cashew or almond butter next. Or maybe pistachio!

Have I mentioned how much I love 101Cookbooks? Because I do. Everything I have made from there has been stellar. Even when I'm a bit skeptical-- you know, you look at the ingrdient list and, mindful of previous disappointments in the realm of whole grains, greens, and beans, proceed cautiously. And then discover that whatever it is is absolutely delicious.

Like the Baked Farro Risotto, the leftovers of which I'm eating now (well, I used oat groats because my farro was buggy, but it still turned out). I have someday-plans to use pearl couscous in this and serve it to Mae as the holes of a certain well-known canned ring-shaped pasta. If such marketing to her turns out to be necessary (which last night, it certainly didn't. She liked it almost as much as I did).

Or like these, a sort of sugar-free little cookie. I know. "sugar-free cookie"-- the skepticism registers. And yet! I subbed chopped dates for the chocolate, and it's still fab.

14 month food update

Fork use is proceeding apace. There was an unfortunate incident in the first couple of days where she was all excited and showing off at a restaurant and nearly stabbed herself in the eye, but other than that, she's getting the hang of it.

No new recipes of my own at this point, but this lentil soup from 101Cookbooks was a huge hit with everyone, including Mae. It's the best lentil soup I've ever had-- usually lentil soup makes me feel at best virtuous and satisfied, but this one actually manages to seem indulgent. Without actually being so. Amazing. Go try it. (Browned butter, I'm telling you! Browned butter.)

Also made Ma Po Tofu last night. I was worried it would be a little too spicy for her, but she tucked into it, yogurt on the side just in case she needed a cool down. Even ate some of the tofu, which she has so far mostly given a pass despite its surface resemblance to cheese. She is not to be fooled.

In the last couple of months we've discovered Trader Joe's freeze dried fruit, it's our go-to portable snack now. In order of preference: strawberries, banana, mango. Blueberries were briefly a hit, but now get set out onto the floor. If we go to the park (which we have every day for a week or so, until today when the temperature cruelly plummeted again), snacks are a must, otherwise she starts trying to confiscate other people's snacks.

Now that she's a bit older, I don't feel the need to be quite so strict about her sodium intake. Sugars I still try to avoid, though I do share anything I've got so she doesn't feel excluded. I'm not quite sure yet what the right approach to take is with sweets. On one hand, I don't want it to seem special or like a "treat" (which implies that there's something wrong with the other food she usually gets), yet I do want it to be enjoyed infrequently and in moderation. I guess maybe those aren't really at cross-purposes-- after all, I enjoy, say, Thai food infrequently and in moderation, but that doesn't make it A Big Treat. Not like cupcakes. Sweets occupy a certain place in landscape of desire, and I'd like them to have a different role in hers-- but I'm so bound by the way the system works for me that it's hard to imagine it really going any other way.

But what I was going to say was that now that the sodium thing isn't such a big deal, I'm going to frame my preferences for her in terms of avoiding processed food. And if you do that, the sodium and the sugar tend to be minimized automatically.

She's waking up from a nap now, more on this later (maybe).

Ployes-- Buckwheat griddlecake recipe

(Quick, while she's asleep-- post a recipe!)

These pancakes are great-- quick to whip up, they cook quickly (no flipping involved!), and store and reheat well. They feature buckwheat flour (good stuff!) and some AP flour to hold them together (what with buckwheat having no gluten). They're thin and flexible like crepes, but no egg is involved-- a great multipurpose wrap. They remind me a bit of Ethiopian injera. I like them as a wrap for tuna salad; Mae likes them best with nut butters or nacho cheese spread (not as scary as it might sound-- my own recipe to come soon). Recipe from RecipeSource.

Ployes

1 c. buckwheat flour
1/2 c. AP flour
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1 c. cold water
1 1/2 c. boiling water
1 tsp baking powder

In a bowl, whisk together the flours, the cold water, and the salt (if you're using it). It'll be pretty thick. You can let it sit there for a while until you're ready to cook. When it's time, preheat your cast iron skillet. You might want to preseason it (I heat up some grease, get the pan good and hot, and wipe out the excess oil quickly with a paper towel), but don't grease the pan like you would for pancakes. While your pan is heating, whisk in the boiling water and then the baking soda. Pour some into the pan and swirl to coat. It should be a very thin layer, and if your pan is hot enough will sizzle and start to bubble immediately. Lots and lots of tiny bubbles will form, and the surface will gradually set. Don't flip it! Just let it set, and when it's done in the middle, slide a knife or fork under the edge to pry it loose. You may have to finesse it a bit, but if it won't come up relatively easily, it may not be done enough on the bottom. Let it cook a little more-- when a nice crust forms, the ploye will come up more easily. Stack it on a plate and repeat.

I used the smallest skillet I have (about 5 inches?), and got 19 of them with this recipe. They're soft enough that even a little one who isn't quite up to regular bread yet should have an easy time gumming them.

Via Food Politics, see this study on health claims on foods marketed to children.  Hey, guess what? If it's marketed to kids as healthy, it probably isn't.

Table manners. Sort of.

1. She went through a phase a couple of months back where she tossed everything over the side if she didn't want it. I would have to try to catch it in my hand to teach her to give it to me, or to put it in the little cup holder area of her tray as a special place for undesirable morsels. It mostly worked, although stuff still goes over, particularly when she REALLY doesn't want it and is tying to be emphatic (No, Mommy, I really don't want any of the orange stuff. Really! *toss*), or when we're at a restaurant and she's all done and bored but the rest of us are still eating.

2. Spoons. No real development on this front. She's always been good with taking a loaded spoon and navigating it into her mouth if she's sufficiently interested in what's on it. Sometimes she gets too excited about having a spoon and wants to wave it about in celebratory fashion before putting it in her mouth. That doesn't work so well. Can't get her to try the whole dipping-and-scooping procedure herself, though she does like to take the handle end and bash things with it pestle-style. I think they should make a kayak-paddle type spoon with scoops at both ends.

3. Plates and bowls. I've been giving them to her with a few pieces of this and that on them, hoping that eventually the novelty will wear off and she'll get on with eating off of them. She doesn't knock them onto the floor or anything dramatic like you see in paper towel commercials, but she is far too interested in them as objects and wants to pick them up and turn them over and so on. Still working on this, in other words.

4. Forks.  Haven't tried it yet, but as soon as I see a plausible toddler fork, I'll give it a go. Why not?

5. When she's getting full and/or bored, she tends to pick up pieces of food, get them most of the way to her mouth, and then drop them in her lap. Very little ends up on the floor, lots in her lap and in the chair. And it's harder to tell when she's getting full, because stuff keeps disappearing. I keep telling her she can leave it if she doesn't want it, but I suppose that won't be a useful instruction until she can understand what I'm saying.

Still here!

Did you miss us? We're still here, still eating, if blogging (and reading blogs) a lot less frequently. I haven't quit on you! Mae is turning into a very busy little toddler. She had her first birthday recently, and has started to walk.  She's got a few words now, too-- besides some approximation of 'mama' and 'daddy', she produces 'uh-oh', and 'kitty' (pronunciation may vary, and I have a newfound respect for child language acquisition researchers who have to be able to transcribe this stuff and try to assign it a meaning). She stacks blocks, works on baby puzzles, and puts her toys through the cat door down the steps to the garage.

Foodwise, we're still going strong. She's not quite the chowhound she once was-- she balks a little at carrots, sweet potatoes, and brussels sprouts, and doesn't wolf down a peach the way she used to (maybe it's the out-of-season peaches). Doesn't care for the stewed apples of her youth, either, although she enjoys a slice of fresh apple for an afternoon snack. But she still loves avocado, peas, broccoli, meat of all sorts (still no sausage). Bread, pasta (but not soba, puzzlingly enough), beans, anything garlicky, all sorts of cheese (cheddar, blue, anything really).

My determination to keep exposing her to new foods at home has not waned, although my ability to do so has suffered what with lack of time to think of new dishes to try.  as she gets more active, she eats more, and it's all I can do to keep up with 3 meals and two snacks. Breakfast is usually one or more of the following: eggs (fried or scrambled), banana, avocado, or orange, toast, pancakes, 10-grain cereal with dried fruit, or toasted oatmeal in plain yogurt.  Lunch is leftovers from the last night's dinner, or soup. Yesterday we had roasted veggies-- sweet potatos (which she had about 2 slices of before losing interest), and roasted garlic mushrooms. She surprised me by eating mushroom after mushroom. Sometimes she hasn't the slightest interest in them, then other times...!  Just goes to show, never give up on offering certain foods. You never know when they'll develop a (perhaps temporary) enthusiasm for something.

Snacks: cheese, fresh bread or muffin if I've got it on hand, apple. Still no Goldfish! Still no Cheerios! Though I do understand others giving those out. It's hard to find neat, handy snacks that you can tote around without them going bad or stale on you.

She had a taste of pound cake at New Year's, and on her birthday, an entire mini-cupcake all to herself. Brown sugar, brown butter with orange frosting, thank you very much. Yeah, she liked it. As if there was any doubt? Got it on video, but no still photos, alas, so I can't put one up.

More on how her table manners are developing in the next post.

Food and fun

I came across an interesting article on the notion that food for kids should be different and "fun". 

"...fun food works to clearly carve out and validate the cultural category of childhood by affirming that certain foods are specifically for them, that adult fare does not fulfill children’s particular culinary needs. The culinary “need” here is not about nutrients; it is about fun. Children’s packaged supermarket foods suggest that fun is imperative to the consumption experience. Adult fare (...) bears scant resemblance to the colorful, bizarre and interactive eatertainment found in child-oriented packaged foodstuffs."  -- Charlene Elliot, "Eatertainment and the (re)classification of children's foods" Food, Culture, and Society 13:4.

In other words, the marketers are working hard to sell everyone on the idea that kids' food should be different from adult food, and that the point is entertainment rather than, oh, taste or nutrition. Elliot gives a few reasons to be concerned about this trend; I'm daunted at the task of how to teach Mae to continue to rely on her own hunger cues in the face of such advertising, marketing, and social pressures.

I've always found marketers' promises of "fun" to be often empty-- guess I have to try to help Mae notice this on her own, too, when the time comes.

What? Where did I go? Well you might ask. Just have not had time to update with recipes and photos and so on. I have been cooking, though!

Highlights include: buttermilk crackers (lightest, fluffiest crackers I've made yet, although I think Mae prefers the pumpkin ones), chili, a shepard's pie with leftover pork loin, mushroom gravy, and a mashed roasted yam and pumpkin topping.  Gosh, that was good.  Due to Halloween, which marks the onset of my annual empty-calorie food-preparation extravaganza, aka the holiday season, I've also been busy making all sorts of things I can't share with Mae: marshmallows, caramels, butter 'mints' (not minty). 

I need to get back into my recipe posting groove. I'm not quite there yet, I'm afraid. We're hosting Thanksgiving this year, though, so I promise yumminess before then.

Futari-- pumpkin and yam stew for baby led weaning

In our final installment of Pumpkin Week, we've got another East African dish: futari. It's a wonderful stew of coconut milk, pumpkin, and yams. The pumpkin begins to fall apart and thickens the liquid a bit, while the yam retains its integrity a little better and prevents it from being entirely porridge-like. Serious comfort food! Not photogenic, however. No glamour shots this time. No photos at all, in fact: Mae took a late nap and the good light vanished before I could take a photo of her eating this. (There are leftovers; perhaps tomorrow).

There seem to be only one or two recipes for this out there on the web, and I used one of them. It does taste a lot like what I had when I visited Tanzania, so it works for me. The only change I made was to add peanut butter. The recipe I found suggests that if you don't have coconut milk, you can thin down some peanut butter with water and use that as the liquid. But seeing as I do have both, and I feel strongly that they would be yummy together, I added it in addition to the coconut milk. I was right: they are good together.  (Feel free to omit it if you want, though. I won't get mad.)

Futari

1 large onion
2 Tbs oil
2 lb peeled, chopped pumpkin
2 lb peeled, chopped yams/ sweet potatoes
2 cans coconut milk
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
uninhibited spoonful of natural peanut butter
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste

Heat oil in a large, deep pot. Throw your onions in and let 'em go till they're brown.  Add the cloves and cinnamon, fry briefly. Add remaining ingredients; cover and let simmer until vegetables are tender.

I think this would lend itself well to crock pot preparation, but I haven't tried it yet.

Bacon and cheddar butternut gratin recipe for baby led weaning

Ok, we're venturing a bit further from pumpkin proper here, but any good winter squash or nice fresh sliced pumpkin would work in this.  I use butternut because it's so easy to peel (and yummy).  Just as any vegetable is good roasted, I'd also contend that almost any vegetable is good slathered in cream, surrounded in cheese and, if possible, bacon, then baked.  (Maybe I should try that with beets, but they might prove the exception and just be a waste of good cheese.)(Can't risk wasting cheese).

Bacon and cheddar butternut gratin

2 strips bacon, chopped
1 2lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1/2 c. whipping cream
4 oz. sharp white cheddar, cubed
1/2 c. grated parmesan

Grease up a large casserole dish (the shallow rectangular kind). Preheat oven to 400.  Fry up the bacon, drain on paper towels once it's nice and crispy. In the casserole, array half of the squash slices.  Scatter the cubed cheddar over it. Cover with the remaining squash slices, douse them liberally in the cream, sprinkle the bacon and parmesan over and finish it with some freshly grated black pepper. Bake for 30 minutes until it's all brown and bubbly and irresistable.

The quantities of all the ingredients are highly adjustable-- more or less of anything. To tell the truth, I never measure with this one.   

Cuminseed, Poppy, and Coriander Pumpkin Crackers

 Now 9 months old, Mae is getting much better at eating crackers! It's funny, she's been eating solid foods for three months now, so I shouldn't be surprised that she's making progress-- but since she doesn't have any teeth, I guess I wasn't expecting a huge change in how well she eats certain foods until she sprouted some more chompers. But she still just has the two, and yet is getting better at eating.  She now has the technique down for sucking on these crispy crackers until they are moist enough to break up and swallow.  It takes her a little while, but she perseveres (and it keeps her out of trouble for a few minutes).

These pumpkin crackers don't taste all that pumpkiny-- just a little.  I used banana squash puree; perhaps canned pumpkin puree would give a stronger flavor. In any case, they're a good backdrop for a number of flavors, from sweet pumpkin spices to more the savory.  I chose to go with the savory-- coriander, poppyseed, and cuminseed. Their lovely golden color is a bonus-- I think I know what I'll use when it's time to finally unleash my faux-Goldfish crackers.

Pumpkin Crackers

2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 c. butter

1 c. winter squash or pumpkin puree

cumin seeds

poppy seeds

ground coriander

Preheat oven to 375.  In a bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or with your fingers-- you want small pieces, no larger than peas.  Mix in the pumpkin.  Start the process with a spoon, but finish by kneading it in gently with your hands, as the pumpkin needs to get squooshed around to mix in properly-- don't overwork the dough!  Mix until just combined-- it'll be the consistency of a medium-stiff cookie dough. (Note: I used fresh squash puree, so it was a bit wetter than canned pumpkin. Add a little milk if you have difficulty incorporating all of the flour into the dough).  Divide in half, and form each half into a flattened disk.  If you're confident that you didn't overmix, you can roll it out right away-- otherwise, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a half hour just to be on the safe side.  Generously flour a baking parchment or a silpat, and roll out one of the disks as thinly as you can-- 1/16th of an inch of possible, and no more than 1/8 of an inch. Sprinkle the dough with ground coriander, poppyseeds, and cumin seeds-- roll over them gently with the rolling pin to get them to stick. Cut the dough into rectangles using a pizza cutter or, if you're feeling fancy, deploy thematically appropriate cookie cutters (I wouldn't try removing the extra dough from around the shapes, as it's a bit delicate-- leave them in situ and pop them out once they're baked).

                                                                        Just before baking.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.  The trickiest part of this is getting them done just right-- underdone and they're a bit chewey and relatively tough; overdone and they're, well, burnt. I usually take them out at 12 minutes, remove the crackers from the edges that are starting to brown, and return the rest to the oven for 2 minutes, let them brown a bit, repeat the procedure until all of the ones in the center are done properly.  Break them apart once they're cool.  Repeat the procedure with the second disk of dough. Devour.

                                               

Variation: Instead of the seeds, add 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ginger into the flour mixture. 

Rubbed sage or curry might also be nice mixed into the dough, but I haven't tried them yet. If you do it, let me know how it turns out!

Savory pumpkin custard

You might need to use a loaded spoon for this one, as it's not very pick-uppable. It's definitely a messy one to give a baby (a 3 on the messiness scale).  But it's so good, it's worth all that.  This custard's got a lovely golden color, silky-smooth texture, and delicate flavor. Although I call it pumpkin, in truth I used roasted and pureed Hubbard squash, and I credit a lot of the success of this dish to the intrinsic deliciousness of the squash. The better your squash, the better the final product will be. Butternut would work fine, but I'd stay away from canned pumpkin.

Savory pumpkin custard

3 egg yolks
1/2 c. whipping cream
1/2 c. winter squash puree
1 sprig rosemary
1 large clove of garlic, sliced
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 300.  In a small saucepan, heat the cream to a gentle simmer, and add the rosemary, garlic, and pepper. Turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes, then strain into a small bowl and let the cream cool.  Discard the spices. When it's cooled, whisk in the pumpkin and egg yolks. Pour into ramekins (I used two shallow and wide ones, but do whatever you like; be aware that you may have to adjust the cooking time a little depending on the size of dish you use). Set in a roasting pan and fill the pan with water to reach about halfway up the sides of the custard dishes. Bake until just set (if there's a little wiggle in a small area in the center, they're done), about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

She doesn't look like she's having much fun, but she ate about half of one ramekin all by herself. This is early on in the process-- later, the custard covered the nose and entire chin.

Muffin Monday-- Pumpkin Spice Muffin recipe for infants

It's pumpkin week!

We made our annual pilgramage to my favorite pumpkin patch recently, and now I've got to use up the 2 quarts or so of pumpkin puree I have in the freezer to make room for this year's crop (it's a disease, I know...now leave me alone).  Well, not pumpkins, actually-- I find most pumpkins to be flavorless, whether from a can or from a fresh pie pumpkin. I'm a winter squash fanatic-- the big blue-grey Hubbard being my squash of choice.  The pulp of a Hubbard is dry and so sweet I can eat it freshly roasted with no seasoning whatsoever. Delicious. And it makes any recipe you use it in just that much more delicious, too.  (Of course, to get the dadgum thing open, you have to toss it off the front stoop and bust it open on the sidewalk. It's the safest way. Trust me.) (Yes, I said "dadgum". What of it?)

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, muffins. This is based on my favorite, favorite pumpkin bread recipe-- I've reduced it in size to make a manageable quantity of muffins, added in whole wheat pastry flour for a bit of nutrition and a tender crumb, reduced the sugar dramatically, left out the salt.  It's still delicious, but much less like a cupcake than the original recipe was. (Though if cupcakes are what you're wanting, you could hardly do better than trying the original recipe).

Awesomely autumnal muffin pan ("cakelet" pan, to be precise) thanks to Mae's Grammy, who always keeps us eating in style.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1/2 c. sugar
1 c. oil
3 eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 c. All Purpose flour
2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease up your mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. In a smaller bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined, and fold in the walnuts if you're using them.  Fill your muffin tins 3/4 full, and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Hiatus

Well, Mae's dad is traveling a lot and I can barely find time to eat a piece of toast, much less try new recipes and blog about them. So I'll be on a brief hiatus until his return early next week. If I get lucky I may get a chance to post something-- maybe even a recipe-- but no promises. Just hang tight, I'll be back in action soon.  Just in time for...Pumpkin Week! Oh yeah!

Beets, at last

What have I got against beets, you ask? Well, I'll tell you: I am another victim of the canned beet. My mother used to buy them and eat them straight out of the jar. I don't think she even rinsed them off. I shudder at the very memory of the smell.  (She used to do that with asparagus, too, and I was well into adulthood before I discovered that I actually do like asparagus when it isn't pulled straight out of a can). (No offense, Mom.)

I gave the beets I bought plenty of time to go bad in the fridge, but they never did (root vegetables, go figure-- perhaps I should have left them out on the counter), so I had time to research the best way to prepare them. I read this thread in its entirety, and learned that you can eat them raw, you can eat them pickled, you can steam them, you can roast them. If you roast them, you should roast them at a high temperature. Either that or a low temperature. And you should put olive oil on them. Or not. And you should peel them. Or not.

So I peeled one, and washed the rest and stuck them in the crock pot for a few hours on high, just to see what would happen.  What happened is they became very soft, and the outside was a bit caramelized. Very promising! I took a small bite of one and liked it. Then I took a larger bite and did not. I probably should have gotten smaller beets.

Anyway, since they were soft and sweet, I thought I'd let Mae have a go at them. This was her verdict:

This is the first time she has made this face.  The funny thing is, she went on to eat most of what was there anyway, which just goes to demonstrate how much she likes putting stuff in her mouth.  I have 4 1/2 beets left, so I'm going to offer them to her again tomorrow and the next day. Who knows, maybe they'll grow on her. And as for me, I'm going to try some of the other preparations I've seen: tossed with balsamic vinegar. With salt, maybe. Perhaps with goat cheese. I'm going to put these beets through their paces. I may even buy some more, smaller ones and have a go at them before I conclude once and for all that I just don't like beets.  No one will be able to say I didn't give beets a chance.

Sweet Potatoes Mayai recipe for baby-led weaning

A few years ago I got to visit Tanzania for a couple of months. A popular street food was "chips mayai"-- deep-fried chips with an egg (the 'yai', plural 'mayai') broken over them, resulting in a tangled, greasy-good mass of chip and egg, best slathered with pilipili (pepper) sauce. This recipe was inspired by that, but is less greasy and involves sweet potatoes rather than fries.  It's a good general formula that could be readily adapted to whatever veggies you have on hand-- potatoes, squash. Well, really just potatoes or squash. Maybe carrots. Still! That's pretty versatile!

My main discovery is that if you grate things directly into your frying pan, they cook quickly and you save time on cleanup. I am gonna be doing this with everything from now on. Well, really just potatoes or squash. Maybe carrots. Still! I eat a lot of potatoes and squash! So it's a useful technique!

Sweet potatoes mayai

2 Tbs olive oil
2 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 onion
1 egg
ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp dried thyme
your favorite pepper sauce

Get the olive oil heating up in your trusty skillet over medium-high heat.  Using the coarsest side of your grater, grate in the onion. (Watch your fingers!). Give it a stir. The quickly grate in the sweet potatoes. Stir in the black pepper and thyme.  Let cook until potato is cooked through, stirring with restraint (you want browned bits).  It really only takes a few minutes. When the veggies are cooked, break your egg over the middle of the pile. Cook like you would any fried egg, flipping halfway through (aim it onto some unincorporated veggies if you can). 

Let some cool for the baby, and eat yours with added salt and hot sauce. Yum!

Perfect for those practicing their pincer grip, or those not quite ready for that can grab a big hunk with egg and still get some veggies, too.

French Silk Pie Recipe

It was my birthday recently, and the chard recipe I was going to write about today was a bust. So no baby recipes today-- instead, I bring you my favorite favorite pie (decidedly not infant-friendly, except perhaps with respect to its fat content).

My mom made me cakes when I was a kid, but occasionally (very occasionally) she also made this pie. One year she asked what kind of cake I wanted, and upon reflection, I said, "You know, that pie was really good. Cake is good, but that pie is better."  And I've had French Silk Pie on my birthday ever since. 

No candles, for the following reason: the recipe seldom came out just right for her. She was cooking it in unusual conditions for the first few years (long story short, we lived on a sailboat and the refrigeration system wasn't what it could have been).  And she always did it with a hand mixer (the only kind we had). It consistently came out a bit runny. Every now and again it would almost set up right, just often enough to lend support to our assumption that it was something about how she was doing it that was causing the problem. Nowadays, Mae's Dad makes it for me-- he fixed the recipe (the proportions were just off a bit), and it sets up perfectly every time.  Of course, if I'm lucky enough to spend my birthday with my mom, she makes it her way, and I enjoy licking the runny filling off the plate. Something about that just seems right. :)

Here's the (corrected) version:

 French Silk Pie

3/4 c. sugar
1/4 lb butter, softened
2 eggs (we used the pasteurized egg stuff in a carton and it works beautifully)
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled a bit
3/4 tsp vanilla

Add eggs to sugar one at a time. Beat 5 minutes after each.  Add the melted chocolate and beat for 5 minutes. Add the vanilla. Turn it out into a baked pie crust and refrigerate a few hours until it's set.