Family Meals and Adventures in “Baby Food”

Two hands are better than one!

Baby participated in family meals even before she turned six months old. She would sit in her chair at the table and we would entertain her with toys, words and funny faces. Once she hit the six-month mark, it was clear that she was more interested in what was on our plates than in her toys. I think she liked eating from her first taste, but that’s no surprise…

Imagine how exciting the world of food is to a little person: experiencing so many new things through touch – with both hands and mouth – and then taste, getting flavour feedback with every bite. Baby has already had many culinary adventures:

Apple | Arctic Char | Asparagus | Avocado | Banana | Banana Pancake | Beef | Beef Chili | Beet | Blueberry | Broccoli | Cantaloupe | Caraway | Carrot | Cauliflower | Celery Root | Cheddar | Chewy | Chicken | Chives | Cinnamon | Creamy | Crisp | Crumbly | Cumin | Curry Chicken | Dried Apricot | Dried Prune | Dry | Duck | Egg | Fennel | Feta | Firm | Ginger | Grainy | Green Bean | Green Pepper | Goulash | Hemp Hearts | Honeydew Melon | Juicy | Kidney Beans | Kiwi | Leek Quiche | Lentil Chili | Lumpy | Mango | Millet | Minted Peas | Mushy | Oatmeal | Orange | Papaya | Parmesan | Parsnip | Pea Risotto | Pear | Pickled Beet | Pickled Ramp | Pineapple | Pork | Potato | Quinoa | Raspberry | Red Pepper | Rice | Rice Cake | Salmon | Salsify | Slippery | Smoked Gouda Omelet | Smooth | Soft | Sour | Spinach | Strawberry | Sweet | Sweet Potato | Swiss Chard | Tender | Tomato Sauce | Tongue (yes, she makes her Papa proud) | Turkey | Wet |Yoghurt

Our meals always include Baby and are fun and stress-free! We introduced solids using the baby-led weaning approach. We offer Baby a variety of foods she can handle herself, carrot stick-style. She decides what she wants to “eat” and how much. I write “eat,” because at this point it’s all about exploring tastes and textures. Her main source of nutrition is still breastmilk and will continue to be for a while yet.

We try to give Baby some of what we are eating, usually supplementing with steamed vegetables or fruit. When we’re eating something that she can’t handle with her hands, then we’ll mush it up a bit or mix it with something else, e.g. chili with avocado, and offer it to her on a spoon. She takes the spoon if she wants it and guides it to her mouth. She rarely misses her mouth, but she doesn’t always open wide enough to get the whole spoonful in. She’s also still learning how to use her tongue and lips to clean off the spoon. Inevitably food ends up on her face! It’s impressive to see how her self-feeding skills, dexterity and hand-eye coordination have developed in just two months.

The shopping cart serves as an impromptu high chair for Baby as she feeds herself a yoghurt and hemp heart sample with a spoon. Note evidence of her parents' "good" eating habits in the cart: chips... although I wholeheartedly agree with what it says on the bag: "food should taste good."

One of my challenges is how to maximize flavour before seasoning with salt or adding sugar. My criteria for her food is that I have to want to eat it too, so it has to taste good! Meanwhile my espresso and Chinese tea cups are getting a second life… They are the perfect size for baby portions!

Mini banana pancakes for Baby.

The Beginnings of Beanstalks

This year I decided I would start beans indoors for the first time, to give them a head start and hopefully find the “success” in succession planting.

Well, I am having success of some sort. The beans are growing fast and furious, already reaching past the tops of the two-foot stakes I put in the little pots. What am I going to do until I’m able to plant them outdoors?!

Beans are usually among the last seeds to be planted since the earth needs to be warm for them them to germinate. That means, they go in at the end of May. But my seeds have already germinated, so I wonder if I could plant them outdoors a little earlier?

Based on some discussion threads on gardening websites, it sounds like:

• I may have planted the beans indoors a little too early.
• They can handle being transplanted to cooler soil.
• I should harden them outside in a protected location for a week prior to planting.

With this information, I’ve decided to transplant the beans sometime early May and see what happens. Until then, I’ll try to get them to train up something flexible.

I’ll also sow some beans directly outside at the end of May to make sure I get beans sometime this summer. In the end, I have nothing to lose (except a couple of plants) if my experiment doesn’t work out.

Lazy Gardener Reward: Salsify in Spring

Two Autumns ago, I didn’t get around to digging up the black salsify before Winter covered the garden with a blanket of snow. I was pleasantly surprised last Spring to discover that it had overwintered beautifully – even through Ottawa’s cold winter.

After digging up the deep-reaching black roots, David prepared the salsify in a simple pan-fry and it was delicious. Tender, sweet, subtle, creamy. I’d say the winter even improved its texture and flavour.

Last Fall, we were lazy again… and rewarded again with a healthy harvest of black salsify this spring. What a way to maximise the garden! At the end of the season, we’re busy eating the chard and kale. By spring, we’re so happy to eat something different and fresh, even if it’s only one meal.

Preparing black salsify is a bit of a pain, because of its sticky sap. Usually we peel it, immerse it immediately in lemon water, then boil it until tender in some vegetable stock. Finally we pan fry it with a generous amount of butter, a couple of springs of thyme and season it with salt and pepper.

I just read though that it can be boiled first and then peeled. We’ll have to try that method next spring!

Local Bakery-Inspired Date and Cranberry Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

I’m a fan of date squares, but often I find them too sweet. When I tried the cranberry-date squares from 3 Tarts, a bakery in my neighbourhood, I thought “what a smart combination!”

Those squares became the inspiration for these muffins. The dates give them a rich flavour (and minimize the sugar required) while the cranberries offer a pleasantly tart contrast to the dates’ natural sweetness. The oatmeal streusel topping provides some nice crunchy texture.

My mouth is watering as I write this. Time for a muffin!

Recipe: Date and Cranberry Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

Dry:

1 1/2 cups flour (I use 3/4 cup regular spelt flour and 3/4 cup whole spelt flour)

1/2 cup oatmeal (large flake/old-fashioned kind)

1/4 cup ground flax seed

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup diced dates (raisin-sized dice)
1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen)

Wet:
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)
1/2 cup date puree (see ingredients below)
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Date Puree:
1 cup whole pitted dates, roughly chopped
1/2 cup water

Oatmeal Streusel Topping:
1 cup oatmeal (large flake/old-fashioned kind)
1/4 brown sugar
1/4 flour
2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line/grease 12 muffin cups.

Date Puree: Combine chopped dates and water in a saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat until dates are softened. Puree with an immersion blender, a food processor or food mill. Should yield 1/2 cup (no worries if it’s a little more or a little less).

Oatmeal Streusel Topping: Mix oatmeal, brown sugar and flour in a bowl. Add butter and, with your hands, rub all ingredients together until combined. Set aside.

Muffins: In a bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients (except for cranberries) in a second bowl. The chopped dates will tend to stick together. With your fingers separate them once they are in the flour mixture; coating each piece with the flour mixture will prevent them from sticking together.  Add cranberries and toss to combine and coat the cranberries with flour.

Pour wet ingredients into dry, and blend until flour mixture is just moistened.

Fill muffin cups. Cover each muffin with some of the streusel topping, pressing it lightly into the batter. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and tester comes out clean.

Orange Celebration Cake – You’ve Come a Long Way Baby (and Mommy and Daddy)

Celebrating Baby's 6-month milestone with Orange Celebration Cake. Oops, forgot to light the candle! Chalk another one up to mommy brain.

Usually I pay no attention to half-birthdays, but I think a baby’s first year is different. The 6-month milestone is worthy of celebration for both Baby – even though she won’t get to eat any cake – and the new parents – who will happily eat Baby’s piece.

Baby has come a long way: from practically helpless to a bright baby ready to discover anything within reach and a bit beyond. At birth, her main (and most amazing) skill was knowing where and how to get food. Today she is sitting quite well on her own (with an occasional topple), grabbing objects accurately and passing them from hand to hand, communicating in her own way with a range of sounds, and starting to explore solid food. She’s gone from 3.9 kg and 52 cm out of the womb to approx. 9 kg and 71 cm in six months!

Meanwhile, the new parents have survived the first six months relatively well. We’ve tackled the steep learning curve, adapted our lives, overcome a lack of sleep (not to say we don’t still suffer from it), created strong (and stronger) bonds, laughed and cried. Of course these things are all ongoing, but it’s a lot all at once at the beginning. I think we can be proud of how we’ve managed. We certainly enjoy the company of our happy, thriving baby!

The moment has come to broaden the focus of this blog. I realize that being a mother is an important part of who I am and influences the way I look at things. Motherhood is giving me a new angle from which to experience, and write about, the activities I enjoy.

I’ve decided to rename my blog “Thrive” to better reflect this broader focus (without changing the URL for now). I want my family and me to thrive through healthy, happy eating and togetherness in the kitchen, in the garden and wherever life may take us. I aim for my garden to thrive and provide us with fresh foods we can feel good about eating.

All that to say: I’m baking cake to celebrate!

Orange Celebration Cake is one of my favourites. I have no idea where the recipe came from, just that it was part of my mom’s collection and has been in mine for at least 15 years. Its bright and refreshing flavor and naturally sunshiny colour is particularly appropriate for this time of year.

Recipe: Orange Celebration Cake (Orange Cake with Orange Curd Filling)

Baking this cake perks me right up. The aroma that pervades the house while it’s baking (and after) is wonderful and warming. It really sets the mood for celebration! I recommend making this cake the day before you plan to serve it, so the orange aroma has the time to “open up.” Quantities in weight – scale required!

150 g butter
zest of 2 oranges, preferably untreated or organic otherwise washed with a mild soap
175 g sugar
3 eggs
300 g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
250 mL orange juice

Orange Curd Filling:
125 g sugar
5 tbsp flour
500 mL orange juice
4 egg yolks
50 g butter

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In large bowl, cream butter. Add sugar and orange zest. Continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time.

Mix in flour mixture and orange juice, alternating between the two: flour – orange juice – flour – orange juice – flour. Be careful not to overmix.

Pour batter into cake pan. Bake 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool before removing from pan. Slice cake in half horizontally. Prepare filling.

Orange Curd Filling:

Combine flour and sugar in a saucepan. Whisk in orange juice making sure there are no lumps. Mix in egg yolks. Start heating mixture over medium-low. Add butter once the mixture has warmed up a bit. Continue heating while whisking continuously until the mixture thickens to the consistency of runny jam.

The four layers of orange curd filling, each one set separately, are visible before replacing the top half of the cake.

Carefully pour one quarter of the orange curd onto the bottom half of the cake and spread to close to the edge. Allow to set slightly (a couple of minutes). Repeat until all the filling is on the bottom half of the cake. Allow to cool and set completely (approx. 30 minutes) before placing the other half of the cake on top. Filling the cake in four steps will prevent the orange curd from oozing out when you replace the top half of the cake and let you make a generously filled cake.