Baby Food: Puree Pickiness

Baby W is officially addicted to Baby Mum-mums. These are rice wafers that melt in your mouth--kind of like a giant puff. Not many people know about these and I didn't until Central Market crammed them down my throat by putting large displays of them throughout the store. THANK YOU Central Market for introducing us to our new friend, Mum-mums. But then they mysteriously ran out and did not replace them for a month--right as W was ramping up on her solids. She politely declined purees and anything she could not hold in her hand. She was intrigued by puffs and "baby Cheerios" (as E likes to call them) but could not figure out how to open her fist to get them in her mouth. Then the meal would quickly be over. After a week of dipping these Mum-mums in pee puree and applesauce or other baby food, we are now back onto normal spoon feeding like a normal baby who is not so headstrong as to refuse anything she can't do herself.

Unfortunately, the ramping up on solids has interfered with our errand-running. So it's already Thursday and I haven't seen a grocery store yet this week. Adding baby meals into the schedule has caused several issues in addition the lack of adult-worthy food in the house including but not limited to her brother climbing into his chair when I'm feeding her and demanding his dinner. Mind you, this is an hour or two before his normal dinner time. Yes that's right, I'm serving THREE dinners at this house. One from a jar for baby, one from the freezer for the toddler, and then something from the stove for mommy and daddy. It's getting a bit absurd but hopefully we'll adjust and consolidate very soon.

Last night we attempted to have E eat with us later. This resulted in the normal demand-my-dinner-when-baby-is-in-highchair around 6. I honored the request with some lovely pasta and broccoli which was not even touched. Then Daddy took him to Chipotle to pick up dinner for all of us and he ate some quesadilla and beans with us around his normal bedtime. We're also pushing that back on account of the singing and talking we hear emanating from his room hours after his 7:30 bedtime. So, schedules to the wind! And we'll see what happens.

Chicken Stock

Fall weather has arrived! That accompanied by many germs and bugs jumping on our family has prompted a good ol' home remedy--chicken soup. This is a good thing to prep during naps and then let simmer all afternoon to be ready for dinner. Super easy to get the meat out for soup and save a step.

Chicken Stock

2 onions, quartered

1 turnip, quartered

1 head garlic, halved

4 carrots, unpeeled and cut in large chunks

2 celer, cut large, can use leaves

small bunch thyme

small bunch parsley

1 tsp whole peppercorns

1 chicken, 3-4 lbs cut in half

Throw it all in a big pot and cover with cold water (approx 2 1/2 quarts?). Cover and bring to a simmer slowly on low heat and cook 1- 1 1/2 hours until chicken is done. REmove chicken to rimmed baking sheet and let cool until you can pull the meat away from bones.

When cool, remove chicken meat from bones and place in a med bowl/gladware. Add a few spoonfuls of stock to keep moist and refrigerate until you make soup. Return bones to stock and continue to cook for 3-4 hours.

Strain stock into a large bowl and compost all the discard (minus chick bones). Skim fat from top as it cools. Place in ice bath to cool before refrigerating if you're not making soup.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

1 c wild rice blend

2 c water

1 tbsp butter

2 quarts chicken stock

4+ carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, diced small

1 onion, diced

1 turnip, diced

1 potato, diced

1 C frozen peas

1 tbsp parsley

2 tbsp+ salt

pepper

Prepare rice as directed (it takes 50 minutes so do it first while you chop and prepare the rest).

Wipe out stock pot and add 1 tsp canola oil. Sweat onion and celery. Add carrot and turnip cook 5 min. Add stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer 10 min, add potato. Simmer 15 min. Cube chicken. Add chick, peas, and parsley and simmer 5-10 more until peas are cooked.

Rice is a wild card here. It could soak up all your broth if you add it too early so just mix it in when you're ready to serve. If it does soak up your goodness, just add more stock and adjust seasonings. For leftovers, store rice separately.

Croque Madame

A simple name for a serious sandwich. No really, it's kind of difficult because there are too many balls in the air at once. But doesn't it look so pretty and so French?

Since every Friday is steak night around here, this is a wonderful way to have a quick Monday dinner with leftover Bechamel. The other ingredients are key and if you miss one, then it becomes just an egg sandwich. If you're going to have a side (broiled asparagus above), make it a quick salad or something you can do ahead because this is very hands-on prep.

Bechamel (see below)

Deli Ham (De Becca Black Forest)

French bread

Gruyere or Emmenthaler

Dijon

Eggs

Batali's Bechamel

5 tbsp butter

4 tbsp flour

4 C milk (whole is great, but I usually use a combo of half and half with 2 % since that's usually on hand)

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

pepper

Melt butter, wisk in flour. Cook until flour no longer smells raw. Meanwhile, heat milk in microwave. Turn heat off on roux when adding milk. Temper with a little at first and then add the rest. Add seasonings and cook 10 min until thickened.

Croque Madame

Heat broiler. Slice bread. Melt butter in large pan. Coat bread in melted butter and toast, adding more butter before you flip it. Remove toast to rimmed baking sheet and top with bechamel, 2 slices of ham and gruyere.

Heat nonstick skillet for eggs. Melt 1-2 tbsp butter and fry eggs over easy.

Put sandwiches under broiler to melt cheese. Remove and top with sunny eggs. Serve immediately.

Phew. It goes really fast so you have to think one step ahead. Also, there's no short cutting. Tried to do a simpler version for breakfast and it was no where near as good.