Tough little cookies

June 6, 2014

Our daughter Daria will be 9 months old tomorrow!  Where does the time go?

I recently started reading Karen Le Billon's new book, "Getting to Yum" and found a fabulous recipe for homemade teething biscuits.  I followed the recipe but made a few "Polish" modifications, using 7-grain baby cereal instead of oat cereal and applesauce (homemade from local, baked Ligol apples-skins on, of course) instead of banana, which I did not have on hand.  So here are my modifications on the recipe:

Teething Biscuits, Polish Style

1 cup all-purpose flour (you can use wheat, whole wheat or gluten-free oat)
1 cup dry baby cereal (oat is recommended)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
about 1 cup of applesauce, pureed sweet potato or very ripe banana
a little water

Preheat your oven to 450 F
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the spices, flour and baby cereal until well combined.  Stir in the butter and then add in enough fruit puree or mashed banana to bring the dough together. If the dough is still too dry, add in a little water until it comes together.

Lightly flour a clean work surface and bring the dough into a ball.  Roll them out to your desired thickness and use a small circular cutter to make round biscuits.  I used the cap from a bottle of baby food as a cutter and they are the perfect size for her little hands.

Place the rounds on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and bake for 7-10 minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Mine were a little chewy on the inside but Daria didn't mind.
Store in an air-tight container for up to a week.  You could probably stash a few in the freezer for a chilly teething treat.

Daria seems to like them quite a lot! I've gotten her some teething biscuits here in Poland but they dissolve really fast (probably to reduce the chances of choking*)  and they don't seem to satisfy her need to gnaw on something tasty. These are the perfect "tough little cookies." Other favorites include steamed carrot or sweet potato sticks chilled or frozen.  A couple of weeks ago she annihilated some steamed broccoli "trees", smothered in butter. Yum!

We are still waiting for that first tooth to emerge. She has good days and bad days when it comes to teething discomfort and willingness to eat solids. Some days she gobbles everything in sight and other days she refuses everything but a bottle or breast.  Perhaps this too shall pass.

So if you've got a little 'zombie' baby in the house munching away on everything in sight, give these biscuits a try.

*Always monitor your baby when they are gnawing on teething biscuits, as they can pose a choking hazard!

Baby Leek Soup

February 28, 2014

Well, this blog has been neglected since I started getting paid to blog for other people. This is a slow week and the baby is napping so I figured that I should catch up on things.

My Mom, baby Daria's "Grammie", said the other day that she wished that she could be here to enjoy mealtimes with us and to cook for little Daria. So, I will make a blog food log for her this week. I'm going to share my recipes as well as strategy for introducing foods to Daria.

A little history:
- Daria will be 6 months old in one week. Time flies!
- To date, Daria has been introduced to: sweet potato, potato, zucchini, carrot, banana, apple (baked), avocado, green peas, cauliflower, sugar pumpkin, and butternut squash. Daria has not started any grains yet, as we are following our Polish pediatrician's recommendation of not starting grains until after 6 months of age.

So, tonight we are having a potato leek soup as our 'first course' to share with Daria and then we are having 'Fisherman's Eggs' as our main.

I think in order to cook from scratch you need to keep it simple and enjoy the process. I love to cook and it is a very relaxing process for me but....this can be VERY difficult with a baby, so PLAN AHEAD and STICK TO THE PLAN.

Always incorporate something that you want your baby to try (that is age appropriate) into each meal that you cook.

Baby's Stock
To make 'baby's stock' - this will go into the soup everyone will eat.
Making stock at home is way cheaper than buying the stuff in the box and you can control how much sodium goes into it. I read that babies should not have salted food until they're older, and too much can overwork their wee little kidneys. So if you make it yourself, you can control the salt and what actually goes into it.
Incorporate veggies that your baby has already tried plus a new one into the stock.
This week the new thing is leek.

4 cups of water
The light green portion of the leek, cleaned. Save the white part for your soup. Discard the dark, woody part. If you've never cleaned a leek, go here and pay attention. It is easy and won't take a million years.
1/4 sweet potato, skin on and scrubbed well
1 large carrot, peeled

Put everything together into a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn onto low and let simmer for 1 hour while you change diapers, do laundry, take a nap, stalk on Facebook, whatever. Or you could go ahead and prep your potatoes and then resume whatever it is you other SAHMs do. Remove the veggies (don't throw them out! - mash them up with a little baby stock- I use an immersion blender- and freeze them into a 'vegetable medly' in an ice cube tray for your baby.)  Having something like this is handy for nights when you order Chinese takeout or go out for a kebab.

At the SAME TIME you are making your stock, go ahead and cook the potatoes.
Wash and scrub your 5 new potatoes and cut them into the same sized chunks. Don't peel them, their skins are nice and soft and full of nutrition. You won't know they're there in the soup.
Put them in a pot, cover in cold water.
Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat, uncover, and let them boil until they're tender.  Check on them in-between folding diapers or teeny-tiny socks.  Drain and set aside or put them in the fridge. Heck you can do this a day or two in advance if you're doing a marathon weekend cook-a-thon.

Two of your pots are now working for you. Now its time to put your oven to work too. Preheat to 350 F.
Cook 4 strips of bacon on a baking sheet. When they are crispy, remove them and drain on paper towels. 2 strips are for tonight, 2 are for tomorrow.

The Potato Leek Soup

1 leek (only the white part), chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
your 5 cooked potatoes, skin on
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped fine (or 1/2 teaspoon powdered)
your 4 cups of the baby's stock
4 tablespoons sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 strip of bacon per person

Sweat, baby sweat

Everybody in the pool

Blend

I want to make you silky smooth

In a soup pot, cook the leek in the olive oil on medium heat. The leeks need to 'sweat', ie. become soft and fragrant but NOT browned or caramelized. If you get too much color on them it will change the flavor of the soup. If they are burned, start over.  Add in the cooked potatoes on low heat and the baby's stock.
Grab your immersion blender, and blend it all together until smooth.  Add in the rosemary to taste and blend well.
Remove enough for your baby at this point. I recommend enough for 2-3 feedings.
On low heat, add in the sour cream to the blended soup in the pot.  Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve warm or cold with crumbled bacon on top.

Enjoy with your baby! This makes 2-4 servings depending on how greedy you are. We will be having leftovers for lunch tomorrow. That's why I cooked 4 slices of bacon.

I'm not going to bore you with how to make Fisherman's Eggs. Just click on the link.  I used a shallot instead of a white onion and Italian seasoning since I was out of parsley. They sound gross but are really, really good. You Paleo kids should jump all over this one.