Random Things.

I bought a box of the new Newtons Fruit Thins (Cranberry Citrus Orange) the other day - I had two coupons, which made them semi-affordable, and I was really hoping I wouldn't like them. Oh, well. :) Hueston seems to like them, too.

This is the second day in a row in which Hueston has decided not to nap. *sigh* I do hope this is not a trend.

We went to Chick-Fil-A before the lunch rush and gave Hueston a chance to try out the playground on his own. I think he liked it. Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C.

Wednesday storytime at our local library includes poems, storybooks, a puppet show, and the highlight - an instrument parade. Hope you enjoy it as much as he does! Video 1, Video 2

Family resemblance? :)

Vignettes.

1. Hueston now has his own YouTube playlist. It includes several songs by Third Day ("Gone," "Your Love Oh Lord," "God of Wonders," "Creed," and "Children of God") as well as Chris Tomlin's "Amazing Grace." 
2. He can also sing each of these songs in some form.
3. When I'm not typing this post, I'm playing a spoon like a guitar. On command.
4. We are trying several new popsicle flavors, thanks to Nana's present of a popsicle mold a while back. So far: cinnamon/yogurt/applesauce, straight applesauce, strawberry/banana/blueberry/yogurt, strawberry/peach/yogurt, and (in the freezer now) banana/peanut butter/cinnamon. Yum!

Mostly-Wordless Wednesday.

The universal sign for "Sing the 'Itsy-Bitsy Spider' song!"
(accompanied by "Eeeeeeeeeeeee...")

What?

Oatmeal!

Beans.

Apparently, all I need to do to get Hueston to eat something previously refused is to allow him access to my dish, rather than trying to use baby spoons. He finished off a serving of black beans (spicy!) with evident enjoyment.

New Foods.

Hueston has decided that he likes

cucumber
blackberries
and tangerine skin.

(Mostly-)Wordless Wednesday.

Lasagna.

Fun With Avocado.

It all started with a humble avocado. Mine was mixed with lime juice, salt and pepper, on tortilla chips. Hueston's was mixed with milk... let's call it guaca-mommy. Eating was going better than the last time we tried it, but there came a point when Hueston was just done. So...

I can't believe she's really going to let me do this...

The aftermath was really not so bad, although none of it ended up in his mouth.

Yogurt.

The jury is still out.

Questions.

For some reason, Blogger will not allow me to comment on my own posts. Therefore, here are the comments I would've posted in answer to questions posed in comments made by others. :)

Yes, the planets print that David bought is hanging on the wall above the crib. Most of my pictures are at floor level, so it's not very visible!

Yes, Hueston does take after his daddy. I'm hoping to scan a few photos that will prove just how much!

Yes, the trilling is a relatively new sound, following after raspberries and sucking sounds.

Sara, I haven't tried corn or peas yet, but carrots will be next, I think.

Yes, he does have a very handsome uncle. How did you know? :)

Also, stats: we have his 9-month checkup next week, but when we went for a sick-baby visit several weeks ago, he was almost 23 pounds, and I've measured him at about 29 inches. I'm sure we'll be continuing in the 90th-percentile range!

Home Cookin'.

So far, I've been able to make Hueston some yummy food. We started around the beginning of January, with a few breaks for sickness, and it's going well so far. I'm having fun cooking things I hadn't tried before!

[Pretend there is a picture of fresh, whole acorn and butternut squash here.]

This is what they looked like after I baked them and scraped out their insides.

[top - acorn; bottom - butternut]If I were a real food blogger, I would have taken pictures while they were in the oven, along with their friend the sweet potato. I would also have shots of the scraping process. However, I am not. Therefore, there are not.

This is what the good stuff looked like after I scooped it out. The lighter-colored bowl is acorn squash; the other is butternut.

And here they are with the sweet potato. The butternut squash and sweet potato are almost identical in color (the photos don't do justice to the colors); however, the squash has a somewhat waterier texture.
[clockwise from top left: acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potato]

Next, I put each one in my handy-dandy Magic Bullet and pureed it, spooned the puree into ice-cube trays, covered the trays with foil, and froze them for several hours.

When they were set, I dumped the cubes into freezer bags so they'd take up less room and be more accessible when I needed them.

Aren't they pretty?
(clockwise from top left: green beans, sweet potato, butternut squash, acorn squash)

When I want to feed Hueston, I just pop a couple of cubes in a bowl and thaw them. Usually I put the small bowl in a bigger bowl of hot water, but the microwave works, too.

For meals on the go, I put a few cubes in a tiny Tupperware-type container and let them thaw in the diaper bag. Usually they're close to room temperature by the time we're ready to eat.

Hueston has done really well so far - he's eaten everything I've offered him. The only exception has been avocado, and I hadn't pureed it - just fork-mashed it, and so I think it was more of a texture thing than taste.

FOOD REPERTOIRE:
sweet potato (baked, then pureed)
rice cereal (I tried grinding my own in a coffee grinder and cooking it, but it was a little too lumpy at first, so we've been using Earth's Best)
avocado (fork-mashed)
banana (fork-mashed; also pureed and mixed with rice cereal)
acorn squash (baked, then pureed)
butternut squash (baked, then pureed)
green beans (frozen; cooked according to package directions, then pureed)
pears (peeled, cored, diced, cooked on stovetop, then pureed - yum!)
apples (peeled, cored, diced, cooked on stovetop with extra liquid from pears, then pureed)
oatmeal (Earth's Best - but I'm going to take a crack at grinding grains again soon)
prune juice (mixed with cereal, also mixed with water from a syringe - cups and bottle have been unsuccessful so far)
chicken (baked, no seasoning, diced and pureed)
broccoli (steamed, then pureed - H has only had a taste from my fingertip, so we'll see how he likes it at dinnertime tonight!)

Eating Habits.

Hueston is definitely showing more interest in food!
He even leans forward to get to the spoon.

More sweet potatoes...

...and we've also added banana and boxed rice cereal to our repertoire.

Today, we tried green beans!

Kitchen Tools.

Here are some things I really love recently. One I bought for myself, and the other was a Christmas present.

This is the Kitchen Spritzer from Pampered Chef.

You just pump the top to build up pressure, then spray. It's endlessly refillable, and I can always tell how much is left. And I never have to go to the store to buy Pam or figure out how you properly dispose of aerosol cans. I have one for olive oil and one for canola/vegetable oil.

Most recent cooking success: I've made oven fries several times lately, and I just spray the baking sheet, slice up the potatoes, place the slices on the sheet, and then spray the slices and add seasoning. Yum!

*******

This is my new pan. I've been using a great set of Calphalon hard-anodized pots and pans that we received as a wedding gift, and they've been wonderful. However, recently the nonstick surface of the saucepan I use most often has started to come off, and I thought it would be a nice opportunity to try stainless steel.

Hence... this pan. This is the 3-quart version.

It's not a super-de-duper expensive pan (at least I don't think it is), but it works wonderfully so far. Yes, things cook differently than they do in a nonstick pan, but I don't have to worry about scratching the finish when I wash it. I also don't have to worry about someone dropping metal utensils in it. And it has a cool little grommet in the lid that seems to allow enough steam to escape that it hasn't boiled over on me yet.

...and Sweet Potatoes.

Baked a sweet potato in the toaster oven (400F for an hour), scooped out the yummy insides, pureed with a little water (thank you, Magic Bullet!), and stuck in a spoon!
Froze the rest in an ice cube tray, pending enjoyment of the first round...

I think he probably ate a couple of teaspoons or so...

The aftermath.

For those of you keeping track, no, I did not adhere to the "four-day-wait" rule. I didn't think the rice was that much of a success, so we're going to pretend the sweet potatoes came first.

Rice, Rice, Baby.

We tried homemade rice cereal yesterday with the following results:





It tasted like grits to me (without the butter and salt, of course). Ground brown rice in my coffee grinder (clean, of course) and cooked it with water (1:4 ratio), then mixed it with a little milk.

Sweet potatoes are next. Maybe they'll be more successful.

Pear-Cranberry Crisp

I made this last night for our small group and it turned out yummy. Sorry, no pictures!

-----

Here's the basic fruit crisp recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.

Fruit Crisp
5 cups sliced, peeled cooking apples, pears, peaches, apricots, OR frozen unsweetened peach slices
2 to 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup regular rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped nuts or coconut

• For filling, thaw fruit, if frozen. Do not drain. Place fruit in 2-quart square baking dish. Stir in granulated sugar.
• For topping, in medium bowl combine oats, brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg, ginger, or cinnamon. Cut in butter till mixture resembles coarse crumbs. stir in nuts or coconut. Sprinkle crumbs over filling.
• Bake in a 375F oven for 30-35 minutes (40 minutes for thawed fruit) or till fruit is tender and topping is golden.

My Adaptation

• I used 3 pears, diced and NOT peeled, and about half a bag of fresh cranberries - basically enough to cover the bottom of my dish. I kept adding pears and cranberries until I liked how the proportions looked in the dish.
• I probably used more like 6 heaping spoonfuls of white sugar, and if I'd thought about it I probably would have stirred in a few tablespoons of flour to thicken the filling, although it was nice as it was - not too juicy but not dry.
• I have no idea how big my baking dish was. I just picked one that looked like it would hold enough for everyone. It was an oval CorningWare dish that came with a wire carrying rack.
  
• I used whole wheat flour and about 3/4 stick of butter in the topping, and I used a food processor to cut in the butter. Then I remembered the oats and used a pastry blender to add them.
• I used nutmeg, cinnamon, AND ginger. :) And no coconut (I didn't have any) and no nuts (I didn't feel like chopping them).

I've also made this successfully with frozen blueberries and cranberries. I usually just eyeball the amounts - which is kind of how I cook everything. It's not very useful for sharing recipes, though! :)

Pumpkins, Revisited.

I bought some pumpkins last year and thought I'd have better luck with them. I did roast them, puree them, and eat the puree in yogurt with some spices (yum), but they didn't turn out as flavorful as I'd hoped.
So I've just bought two more (for the same price as six last year - ouch!) and I'm determined that they will turn out better. And that I won't wait a whole year before I document how I use them. Here's hoping!

True.

"You may start to ask yourself: Is it really worth it? Am I wasting my time? To this I can only give my standard reply: Folks, you only get 80,000 meals — maybe — in a lifetime. A good meal is never, ever wasted."

- T. Susan Chang, on NPR.com's Kitchen Window blog

Dinner's Secret Weapon: The Make-Ahead Marinade

Pumpkins.

These were $4. For all six. I'm overflowing with ideas about how to cook them.
Plus, they're just pretty.