Adventures in Making My Own Baby Food

I've heard from a lot of my patient's parents that making your own baby food is simple and cheap.  After confirming this with Pinterest, I figured that if I'm comfortable enough in the kitchen to cook for Tom and I most nights, I shouldn't be afraid of cooking for Benjamin.  I'm not sure why I thought making my own baby food would be difficult.  Maybe because I didn't own any of the official "tools" like a Baby Bullet, food steamer, or storage system.

When we visited Ohio a few weeks ago we went apple picking, and brought home quite an impressive bounty.  Unlike the apple farms in New York that require we keep all the apples types (breeds?) separate, this orchard charged a flat fee per bag and so we came home a large assortment of apples, and honestly I couldn't pick one type from another, but they were all delicious.  I'd been eating them for a week or so before I realized that they were going to go bad before I finished them off.  Benji was just shy of 6 months old and had done pretty well with trying rice cereal a few times, so I decided to turn our apples into a puree from him.

I found and quickly fell in love with the Wholesome Homemade Baby Food website.  After looking over the basics, I decided I could easily make my own baby food using a combination of the stove, an immersion blender, ice cube trays, and freezer bags.  I decided that the process for making apples seemed extraordinarily easy, so it was a good starting point.

First Foods: Apples
Makes approximately 9 ounces (make as much as you want!)

2 large sweet apples (I have absolutely no idea what kind I used, I don't even think they were the same)
Tap water
That's it!

Peel and cut apples
Place into a small sauté pan, or pot, your choice
Add water, just enough to barely cover the apples
Simmer over medium low heat until apples are soft
Strain, retaining water for thinning purposes, and place in blending mechanism of your choice.  (I used the mini-blender that came as an attachment for my immersion blender)
Puree, then add water 1-2 Tbsp at a time until reaching your desired thickness
Pour into clean ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer overnight
Thaw 1 cube as needed in the refrigerator before feeding.  Store remaining cubes in freezer bag, labeled with the contents and date.

I purposely choose to use tap water for my baby foods.  When Benji drinks water, or water flavored with a splash of juice, it is also tap water, not bottled.  Where we live, tap water contains fluoride along with other minute quantities of various minerals.  You can also thin purees with breast milk, formula, or juice if desired.

He LOVED the apples.  We stuck with feeding him 1 cube (about 1 ounce) daily for 3 days before introducing his next food, sweet potatoes.  Waiting 3-4 days after introducing any new food is important to confirm that the baby doesn't have an allergy, which may take a few days to show itself.  I can't believe our boy is old enough for solids, makes me so excited and so sad at the same time.  I'd love to freeze time!

Catching Up.... 2 Years Later

No excuses here.  My optimistic goal of blogging quickly disappeared once I entered a busy full time job as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in the fall of 2011.  I absolutely loved my job, my coworkers, and my patients over the last few years, but life changes have come along, and for now I am thrilled with my (temporary) new role as a stay at home mom.  I hope to use this new found free time (during naps at least) to restart blogging about day to day life, cooking a new recipe here and there, and working on some fun DIY projects. But mostly, I expect this blog will evolve to keep family and friends updated on our son Benjamin.

To catch up any rogue readers out there (I know, I know, a whole 10 posts later and here I am thinking someone might actual read this stuff - ha!).  

1. Full time PNP since August 2011 until the end of July.  Worked with a phenomenal and unique group of people at a small private practice and I miss working terribly.  I love spending all day every day with Benji, but I am fortunate to love the career I have chosen and I look forward to starting work again, hopefully one day soon.
2. We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary with our annual "honeymoon" vacation, this time to Punta Cana.
3. Benjamin Thomas was born April 7th.  He stole our hearts instantly and thus far we have been blessed with a happy, healthy (after a few frustrating months fighting jaundice), and easy baby.
4. We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary at home.  This is the first year we haven't had the opportunity to take a trip, so we'll have to make up for it next year.
5. Tom accepted a new role that allows us geographic flexibility!  While Skaneateles is beautiful, we unfortunately never came to click with the community here.  There are very very few people our age and we simply don't identify with such a small town.  We have chosen to move to Chicago and we are anxiously awaiting the sale of our current house so that we can start the next chapter of our lives.  Because Tom needs to travel like crazy right now, I left my job to prepare for our move.  I simply was not able to juggle daycare drop off/pick up every day on top of taking care of the house (keeping it in flawless condition for showings), taking care of the dogs, and maintaining the day to day errands and chores.
6. Tom turned 30 years old!  This really just happened and we celebrated with a trip to Niagara Falls.  Figured if we don't see it now while we live so close, we may not have the opportunity to see it for a long time.  Tom had to work in Ohio on a Monday, and Michigan the next Tuesday, so we decided to drive out there together and make a road trip adventure out of it.  We were able to get to Niagara Falls late Tuesday night and explore the area Wednesday morning before finally returning home.

Benji is now nearly 6 months old.  Even reading that sentence back shocks me a little bit.  I can't believe he's getting so big so fast.  He's so amazing and every day does something new (and adorable). He's just days away from being confident about sitting on his own, and is starting to eat rice cereal a few nights a week for "dinner".  I'm just starting to introduce some basic baby sign language, so we'll see how that goes over the next few months.  

It's Fall in NY

We moved to Skaneateles last December, which means we started our life here in the worst of weather, and have now been able to enjoy a beautiful summer... but this past week marked the first day of fall and New York seems obligated to act the part. The trees are starting to show some color, which makes me both excited and nervous (snow is now in sight).

I'm determined to enjoy fall in New York though. We've never lived anywhere that promised such beautiful scenery, and I like the smell of wood fireplaces burning somewhere nearby. Note: we tried a "test fire" last week when it was down to about 50 degrees at night and seriously regretted it as our house heated up to about 80 degrees inside, so all future fires need to wait for consistently colder temperatures. We tried to partake in the maple syrup festivals of the spring, but got detoured viewing waterfalls in Ithaca, and we tried to go strawberry picking in the summer, but the local farm was picked out far too quickly. So I put my foot down about going apple picking in the fall. I scouted out the best apple farm, Beak & Skiff, which happened to have a distillery and cider mill too... so the promise of apple vodka and hard cider tasting + apple picking got Tom on board for the adventure.

The parking lot should have been our first clue, it was overrun with children hyped up on carmel apples. The lines themselves were longer than the "hay ride" behind a tractor to the rows of ripe Gala and Macintosh apples, but in the end it was worth it. Obviously it made sense to join in on the carmel apple eating while we waited for our tractor to arrive.

We couldn't find one of the coveted ladders to climb up to the best apples, so the first 30 minutes of our picking experience consisted of trying to come up with creative ways to get to the good apples, which included "toss an apple at another apple", "shake the tree and see what falls", and the good old basic "jump". None of which were at all successful by the way.

Have you read the recent news story about the moose in Sweden who got drunk off of fermenting apples and got caught up in a tree? We may not have been eating fermenting apples, but somehow after about an hour of apple picking we got a bit goofy and had enough fun laughing at ourselves that people nearby may have that we'd been sampling the hard cider. Tom left one hanging apple with a bite out of it, I tried to hide in the branches that started 4 feet above the ground, and trying to run around rows of apples without stepping on rotting ones results in a crazy dance like movement.

Eventually we did locate a ladder, and took home around 16 pounds of fruit. Ironically, Tom doesn't really like apples, but I've enjoyed at least one a day for breakfast, as well as finding new recipes to bake and cook them in. I'd love to hear about more recipes if anyone has some.... I think I've only got about a week left before I need to start worrying about them rotting!

Time Management

Hm... clearly my ambitions at maintaining a blog while beginning a new job may have been a bit high. But I'm not giving up yet, just vowing to improve my time management skills. I started my job with a 3 day work week (due to my employer's vacation), followed by a 4 day work week (due to the holiday), and this week completed my first 5 day week - phew. I'm still technically orienting so I don't yet share on call duties or newborn nursery duties at the hospital, so eventually there will be some weeks that are 7 day weeks, but for now I feel like I've gotten into a good routine. I won't lie though, after the first week I was a bit exhausted...

Molly was sympathetically tired too...

But I soon learned how to move a little faster in the morning, buying me a precious extra 15 minutes in the morning for sleep. Amazing what that few minutes can do to my morning attitude (I'm seriously not a morning person). Sadly I haven't yet figured out how to make time at the end of the day for projects around the house and my to-do list keeps growing in the meantime. Hopefully by the end of the month I figure out how to enjoy my evenings while still being productive and get back on track.

I did cook a nice homemade meal for Tom on his birthday last week. We celebrated with a few friends at a happy hour, then stayed in the next night for an at home date night. Tom loves veal, so I checked out the new Fennell Market just down the street specializing in gourmet meats, cheeses, fish, and some pre-made sides. I actually got really excited about some asian marinaded ahi on skewers to sear and eat like kabobs, but was able to stay on track and pick out a few veal chops for us. I've never cooked veal, but found an easy enough recipe for searing it on the stove then finishing in the oven, and paired it with a creamy garlic sauce, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, and mini-gnocchi with a butternut squash sauce (store bought, but would love to attempt making this from scratch). I probably overcooked the veal by one minute, but it was still delicious and we finished the meal with Tom's annual "birthday cake" of pumpkin pie.

Sorry for the quality of the photos, these were all snapped with my cell phone camera.

Working Woman

I started my new career as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner this week, and man does it feel good to be back at work and earning a paycheck after focusing on grad school for the past 3 years. Now it's going to be a challenge to stay committed to this little blog project I started, but I already knew that was coming. It was a great first 3-day week and my energy right now is focused on getting comfortable in my new role, so no big projects this week.

We did however make a great new enchilada recipe I'll share. I don't tend to be exact with my measurements when it comes to recipes like this, so go ahead and experiment too.

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

Makes 4 enchiladas (4 servings)

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2-3 cloves minced garlic

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch(ish) cubes

15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained

4 ounce can of diced green chilies

1/3 cup salsa (choose your spice level, we chose habenero hot and loved it)

2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro (I probably used more, just grabbed a big handful)

4 flour tortillas (8 inch works best)

1 can enchilada sauce

1 & 1/3 cups shredded cheese (we combined cheddar and pepper jack)

Large dollop of sour cream

Sides (think spanish rice, guacamole, etc.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute 2 minutes.

Add chicken and saute 5-8 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.

Stir in the black beans, green chilies, and salsa. Simmer about 5 minutes until the sauce reduces and thickens.

Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro and a large dollop of sour cream.

Arrange the tortillas on a flat surface, topping each with 1/4 of the filling.

Roll into enchiladas and place in a non-stick (or sprayed) baking dish, seam side down.

Top with enchilada sauce (enough to cover the enchiladas lightly), and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Serve with whatever sides you choose.

Ok, I forgot to take pictures of this one (again). They were really good and we ate them two days in a row, although leftovers looked a bit messy. This was a very easy weeknight meal and we've tried multiple enchilada recipes before, but this is the first one we've thought worth saving. Totally hit the spot for that Mexican food I'm always craving but can never find so far from Southern California.

I just called to say I love you.

I'm still new to the idea of "going antiquing". I grew up in California, and somehow the idea of antiques wasn't one that got people excited. Our homes were all new(ish), modern, edgy, or beach casual, and while we may have admired things that looked like antiques, they were in all likelihood Pottery Barn quality antique. I'm sure I saw antique stores here and there growing up, but to be honest I can't recall any memories of them.

In contrast, living in a 161 year old house, antiques are now screaming out for us to find them and use them as decor. So a few weekends ago we went on an antique-driven road trip across the finger lakes. Our final destination was the "Bloomfield Antique Mile" just southeast of Rochester. We figured we'd hit a few stores on the way and enjoy the scenic drive along the top of the finger lake chain. We got to take a 5 minute detour to drive by the NY Wine and Culinary Center, which got me all sorts of excited about going back to take cooking classes and celebrate special occasions.

We started at the Auburn Flea Market/Antique Co-op. We did our best to pick through the piles of junk on the flea market side, but it was so overwhelming and felt like a hoarders house of broken, useless items that we both felt a little sick after walking around for 20 minutes. There were a few possibly promising items, but it wasn't worth standing in a pile of trash to make decisions about them. The Co-op however was organized and full of fantastic finds. In particular, an old water heater in great shape caught our eye. It was industrial yet funky looking and would certainly be an interesting piece of "art". It was even affordable at $30, but neither of us could think of exactly where it would belong in the house, so we moved on.

By the time we got to Bloomfield I had visions of finally finding my dream antique. I've been in search for an old Singer sewing table for awhile now (I plan to have a granite top cut to place over it and make it into a console table of sorts), and with the antique mile promising thousands of antiques I felt sure I'd finally find my table in good condition. Sadly, while we debated about two different sewing tables, neither had the exact right price, or was in good enough condition to bring home... so my search continues.

What we did take home were a few small items totaling $11. My find.... these old key hole plates with a pretty patina-like look to them. The pair was $5 and while we already have these on some of the interior doors in the house, my plan for this set will be as wall art. I plan to place large hooks in the door knob holes that will hold coats, purses, umbrellas, or whatever else hangs on a hook, so that they are functional but also pretty. I've always been confused by how to create wall art, so our homes have always been full of (ok, overloaded with) personal pictures, but touches like this help me get closer to my vision of mixing the two together.

Tom's find.... a 9 inch tall wooden telephone booth. Maybe not terribly "antique", but we've oddly been looking for a small telephone booth for our shelves for awhile so I was pretty excited that we scored this for $6. Upon checking out we noticed a crank on the bottom of the booth - surprise music box! We cranked it up.... and nothing. Not until we got home and opened the little door on the front did it start playing music. The best part, it plays "I just called to say I love you"... so sweet and unexpected.

Tasty Thai Chicken

At the request of a friend, today's post will be short and sweet, but feature a very popular recipe of Tom's - smoked Thai chicken. Well, actually I'm leaving out the smoked chicken part, because the whole world hasn't jumped on the smoker bandwagon with us yet (but really, you should).... so if there are any requests for the brine recipe or smoking techniques leave a comment and I'll update this post. We of course do brine a whole chicken overnight then smoke it for about 4 hours the next day and pull it before mixing in this amazing Thai sauce from Tom's favorite cookbook.

Thai Sweet and Spicy Garlic Sauce

Makes about 1 cup (we always double it!)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup water

6 garlic cloves, peeled and grated

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon dried crushed red-pepper flakes

Combine the sugar, vinegar, water, garlic, and salt in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking continuously.

Reduce heat to low and simmer the sauce until it has thickened to the consistency of runny syrup (20-25 minutes).

Remove from heat.

Stir in the dried crushed red pepper flakes.

Let the sauce stand at room temperature for 1 hour before serving to allow the flavors to meld.

Store, refrigerated, for up to two days.

Yes, you have to prepare this ahead of time to get the best flavor, so it's not a throw together last minute kind of recipe. But, the beauty of the sauce is that you could really use this for a variety of foods. Would probably be all sorts of fantastic over stir fry, drizzled over a rice side dish, with both chicken and shrimp, and I'd even venture to say I'd happily eat an asian salad using a touch of this as dressing.

Sadly, no picture today... we tend to finish this one off quickly every time we make it.