Oatmeal: My First Taste of Solid Food

Well, calling it "solid" would be pretty misleading.  It was more like watery mush with specks of slightly-less-watery mush.  Sounds yummy, doesn't it?

On Sunday we gave Adam his first taste of something other than breastmilk.  Actually that's not true, in his first month he pounded back the formula to get over his jaundice but since then it's been nothin' but mama-milk.  I thought I was going to put off solids for as long as possible now that breasfeeding is finally easy but I was actually excited to give him his first bite.  His close eyeing of me eating my meals over the past two weeks and his desire to grab things off the plate made me think he was ready for solids, even though the pediatrician said I could wait until he was 6 months.  Close enough, right?

I was pretty exhausted in the morning after Saturday's BBQ and the thought of running out to the grocery store just to pick up some rice cereal didn't appeal to me.  I had already used up all the bananas for the last banana-walnut loaf, and the avocados had gone into the salad from Saturday.  Oh well, what else could we try?  I Googled a few sites and read good things about starting babies off with oatmeal so that's what we did.

I read that steel cut or regular oatmeal would be good, just not the instant kind. Luckily we have the regular rolled oats on hand (10-15 min on stovetop or 4-5 min in microwave) so I ground up 1/4 cup in the Magic Bullet to create a powder and then cooked that in a small pot with 3/4 cups of water.  The result was pretty similar to oatmeal that I would eat, and a bit lumpier than I had expected after grinding down the oats.

While I was preparing the oatmeal Adam woke up and wanted to see what was going on. Mike didn't even get a shirt on him yet!

"Whatcha makin' mama?"

I added a few teaspoons of breastmilk to thin out the oatmeal and then we sat Adam in the Bumbo for his first meal.  Mike held his hands out of the way since he kept wanting to grab the spoon and ram it down his throat - yikes!  I took a bit of video from his first few bites but it was a bit tricky with the camera in one hand and spoon in the other. I couldn't even manage to get much oatmeal onto the spoon with just the one hand but I did manage to get some pretty cute footage of the little guy.  

Yesterday was Day Two of solids and I heated up some of the extra oatmeal left over in the fridge from Sunday.  This time after I added the breastmilk I blended the whole thing in the Magic Bullet once more and the consistency was much better. No lumps!  I think that's the way to go, although I will experiment with a few different ways to cook/store the oatmeal in larger batches for convenience's sake. 

What's going to be next - avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes?  Tune in to find out :)

Rhubarb Pistachio Ginger Crisp

Doesn't reading the title just make your mouth water?  I love this dessert that my mother-in-law introduced us to about two months ago. It's de-licious!  Plus it's easy to make - a definitely plus for a newbie baker like me.

You start off with chopped rhubarb.  I bought almost the entire stock at Loblaws in order to bake these two crisps for the barbecue we had on Saturday. Little did I know people were bringing other desserts and one would have been enough! Oh well, having one in the freezer for another date is fine by me :)

After chopping the rhubarb add some flour, granulated sugar, and chopped crystalized ginger.  Lookin' good already.

Next you make the topping which is comprised of flour, brown sugar, rolled oats, ground ginger, salt, pistachios, and BUTTER.  I know, I said the "B" word.  And once you start baking you are acutely aware of all the naughty ingredients that make desserts as tasty as they are.  I cut the butter into small cubes so it would be easier for me to mix  together by hand since I currently lack some essential baking tools.

It's not quite as bad as it looks! Okay, maybe it is...but so tasty!

I wasn't able to find shelled pistachios at the store so guess what fun task Mike "volunteered" for?

I wanted the pistachios partly crushed so I threw them into a heavy-duty Ziploc bag and got our little hammer from the basement.  It had never occurred to me to take out the Magic Bullet we received as a gift from my mother-in-law! I guess it's because I only used that for the first time this weekend when I made sauces and dips for the bbq (extremely handy, by the way).

Ummm...every baker uses a hammer, right guys?

Finally you assemble the topping over the rhubarb and Voila!

Ready for the oven :)

Here's the full recipe for all those salivating readers who are already half-way to the grocery store for rhubarb and pistachios:

Rhubarb Pistachio Ginger Crisp

750 g rhubarb, cut in 1-inch lengths (this is roughly 6 cups chopped up)
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp chopped crystallized ginger (I used more!)
2 tbsp butter

Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour  (I replaced half with whole-wheat flour)
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup brown sugar
¼ tsp ground ginger
½ shelled pistachios, halved
¾ cup butter, cubed  (eek! I used a bit less)
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350degF.
2. Combine rhubarb, granulated sugar, flour, and crystallized ginger in a 10 x 8 inch baking dish. Dot with   butter.
3. Prepare topping by combining flour, oats, brown sugar, ground ginger, pistachios, and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle over rhubarb.
4. Bake for 40 min or until juices are bubbling and crumble is golden.

Hello Summer, Farewell Penners (for now)

This past Saturday we hosted a barbecue to welcome in the summer (hooray!) and also get together with our dear friends one last time before they moved back to Ottawa (*tear).  Last month we had new patio stones put in and planted some nice flowers in the garden that have since begun to blossom so it was a good time to have friends over.  The forecast, however, was threatening stormy weather and we did not want to have our bbq derailed.  

During the morning and early afternoon it rained, then turned sunny, then thunderstormed (wait, the forecast was correct??)  I was starting to get bummed out about the weather but luck ended up on our side and the evening was just perfect. Ok, a bit on the humid side but it was dry enough to sit outside and overcast enough so that no one got a sunburn :)  

Whoops, did we forget the chairs? Luckily we got some from our neighbours :)

The guests of honour

Caleb enjoying his birthday cake

Adam was pretty mellow in the evening

Another outfit?? What a drooly baby.

I love this photo of Brigitte and Delia

Good food and good friends...the best way to start off the summer.  Brigitte, I wish you guys weren't leaving  so soon but I'm grateful we got to spend the past six months together on maternity leave.  Enjoy PEI this summer, and enjoy Ottawa as your home.  See you soon and miss you dearly until then!

Feed a Cold and Starve a Fever? Or Vice Versa?

Who knows.  All I know is that in the past ten days Adam and I have gotten both and it didn't stop me from cooking up a storm.  In my last post I wrote that Adam picked up some sort of viral thing which derailed my plans of attending a fancy party two Fridays ago.  Well just when he was getting over his fever last weekend, that was when my throat started to hurt.  On top of that Mike was leaving for Portland for 5 days on business so I had to suck it up.  I decided then to prepare various comfort foods that could be easily heated up for dinner during the week while Mike was away.  I spent most of the afternoon and evening last Sunday in the kitchen making lasagna, Hunter Chicken Stew, and banana-walnut-chocolate chip muffins. Mmm.

beef lasagna with spinach and ricotta cheese

Hunter Chicken Stew

Banana-walnut-chocolate chip muffins

Then on Wednesday Adam and I had a play-date sleepover at Brigitte's house and it was so much fun.  The babies, despite both being sick with separate ailments, were actually really cheerful and had a few awesome naps giving Brigitte and I time to try out a few new recipes. We made a "Contilentil Soup" from her Looneyspoons cookbook and a rhubarb pistachio ginger crisp from a recipe my mother-in-law gave me.  

Even grocery shopping was fun since we had both babies in the same shopping cart and they were happy to just look at everything around them in the aisles.  All the other women at the store were cooing and smiling at our babies and part of me wondered whether they thought we were lesbian parents out with our blond and mixed babies.  

The sleepover definitely helped the week pass by quickly and before we knew it Mike was back from Portland.  If Mike had just gotten home an hour earlier he would have seen Adam roll over for the first time from his back to his tummy.  I was so excited I started clapping and Adam had no clue what had just happened.  I was of course less than excited when he woke us up several times last night screaming because he had rolled half-way onto his tummy, got stuck in face-plant position, and panicked.  Silly baby.  It was happening so often we eventually brought him into bed with us to keep him from rolling.  The middle of the night is no time to practice new skills, sweet pea.  Let's see how tonight goes. Both Adam and I now have colds and probably the best remedy to bet on is rest.