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.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Don't underestimate the importance of white wine in this recipe. It's flavor is really highlighted after a long simmer. I've tried this with whole milk and 2% but this time used heavy cream. Of course, this time it was most similar to restaurant bolognese that we've had. I bet if I used a higher fat beef, it would be remarkably greasy like restaurant ones. I prefer this version. If you use lighter milk, the dish seems more vegetal and summer-y. This was the stick to your ribs version.

I do not recommend using the food processor for the veggies to cut down prep time. It ends up watery and it's difficult to judge the reduction of the milk and wine.

This has always been a favorite dish for my toddler 1)because it's spaghetti and 2) the sweetness of the wine and veggies. I think of it as healthy because of all the veg, but the cream probably counteracts that.

Spaghetti Bolognese

5 tbsp butter
1-2 carrots, minced
1-2 celery stalks, minced
1 onion, minced
1/2 lb ground veal
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1 c heavy cream
1 c good white wine
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes in puree (Cento is good)
S+P
Parmesan

Melt butter in large heavy bottomed pot. Add all veg and sweat about 3 min. Add meat and cook until no longer pink, breaking it up with a spoon as it cooks. Add cream and cook until the milk has evaporated (clear fat will remain). This take about 15-20 min. Add wine and cook until wine evaporates (10-15 min). Add tomatoes. Simmer for about 3 hrs on low low low. My books recommend a flame tamer if you have more than a few bubbles coming to the surface. Homemade flame tamer didn't work so I just turned the heat on and off a few times. I still have yet to find this flame tamer in 2 different grocery stores. Must try William Sonoma, I guess.

Pineapple Upside Down Challenge

Assumptions going into the challenge that I have now thrown out the window: Pineapple Rings are requisite for this cake
Maraschino Cherries will make it taste like cherries
Cast Iron always sticks when not seasoned


The winner: Cooks Illustrated
Family Cookbook recipe

Although this one was not as attractive, the cake was much moister and the topping gooey-er. Had I followed their advice on using chunks of pineapple instead of rings, I might have avoided the center sinking. This was my first attempt ever at this cake and it was fairly simple and straight forward.

I resorted to this recipe rather than the all-powerful Best Recipe because I wanted to save a pot and knew I was making two cakes. The first time I made the topping for Best Recipe (follows) I threw it away because it seemed so wrong. I consulted this recipe and it had a completely different approach. Now I know that if the pan is too cool when you put in the topping, you will get crunchy praline-type chunks in it and they are not pretty. Although my nephews did sort of fight over who would get the big chunks. So seeing that the Best Recipe may not be all that and being limited by the number of eggs in the fridge, I proceeded the rest of the way with the cake part of this one.

The loser: Best Recipe

This one was more complicated by far. It involved whipping egg whites, 3 large bowls, and corn meal. I can say that the biggest drawback was the cornmeal. What were they thinking? At only 3 tbsp, you can definitely tell it's in there and not in a good way.

The coolest trick about this recipe was that it's made in a cast iron skillet. I was very skeptical about using mine since it is far from seasoned and only a year old. But it came out without sticking and made beautifully flared sides on the cake. The whole cake was much drier. Could that be because I over whipped my egg whites? I forgot to put sugar in them until they were already soft peaks so it got stiffer than I'd hoped for.

Baby Food Adventures Begin

My baby started solids a few weeks ago on her 5 month birthday. Because rice cereal is so blah, we went for some super ripe banana. She appreciated the freshly mashed version on a spoon, but much prefers to grab it and gnaw on it like a big kid. She's also a huge fan of baby Mum Mums and screams when they break or when they're gone. So far we've attempted lots of fruits because no one sells stage 1 vegetables and I ain't pureeing and straining anything that much. Once she gets to chunkier textures, we'll break out the Annabel Karmel recipes that I made for her brother. It's only fair since he got quite the gourmet baby food.

Gerber Organic and Earth's Best are our Stage 1 staples but they are a bit limited in their selection. Sprout Organics (by my fav Tyler Florence) look and taste delicious but the quantity is too big for her right now. We'll be living off of them in MN next week though since they're easily portable and not in glass jars.

A side note: Big brother ate some raw carrots wrapped in ham and dipped in honey mustard. He's been a tad picky about vegetables lately (beans being the only ones he'll eat) so I was so psyched that he liked raw carrots. Thank you to Piper from school who has been eating them for a year and who he always talks about.

Wasabi Pea Crusted Tuna Steaks

This is a fast and pretty dish. The wasabi part is mostly about color and crunch so I'm still working on a way to make the flavor come through a bit more.

Yes these tuna steaks are huge, but you have to realize that we're a meat and potato family and we never have trouble wolfing down fish. Aren't the colors pretty (despite my awfully out of focus camera)?

Tuna Steaks
2 tuna steaks 1"+ thick (if you use one big one, don't cut it before cooking)
1/4 C wasabi peas
2 tbsp black sesame seeds
2 tbsb sesame seeds
2-3 tbsp panko bread crumbs (if you don't have panko, just skip the bread crumbs and use more sesame seeds)
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
s+p
Special sauce (below)

Leave tuna in fridge until you have everything else ready. If it comes to room temp, you'll risk overcooking it which is like eating a $30 can of tuna.

Crush peas in Cuisinart or gently in a Ziploc. They'll tear the bag easily so use a heavy skillet instead of a mallet to crush them.

Make special sauce.

Combine crushed peas with both sesame seeds and panko on a plate. S+P the tuna steaks on both sides. Press into crust mixture, making sure to get the edges.

Heat oil in a 12" nonstick skillet on med high for several minutes to ensure a good sear when the tuna hits the pan. Add tuna and cook on each side 1-2 minutes. Set a timer! when they're done, remove immediately from pan to stop cooking.

Special Sauce
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C soy sauce
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp grated fresh ginger (optional)

Put all ingredients in small sauce pan and simmer for 10 minutes or until desired thickness. So easy and goes well on everything.