1st Birthday Party Planning - first steps

It's amazing how quickly these things arrive. We're already planning her first birthday party. These are a really big deal in Hawaii with many parents throwing a party that's bigger than their wedding. We're not going that route, but it's still important to me for the party to be well planned, fun, and cute. It's also important to us that we start the tradition of a non-Christmas theme so her birthday stays separate and special.

Really, we're throwing 2 parties. The first in Hawaii for family & friends there, and another, later, at home. I found some really nice printable themed party supplies from Paper and Cake. They supply you with pdfs of various things like invitations, cupcake wrappers, signs, and decorations. You can customize, print, cut, and assemble them as you need. I'm transforming the Under the Sea Baby Shower package into a First Birthday for Hawaii, admittedly only possible on the invitations since I have more advanced design software than most people.

This is the test of the favor box with Halloween candy for scale. It's perfect since her favorite toy is this stuffed octopus she drags around by the tentacles. I'm going to add her name and birthday to personalize it. The invitations and envelopes are done and mostly sent. We're still deciding the menu and children's favors. And almost everything still needs printing, cutting, scoring, folding, and gluing. Oh my.

15th Century English/French Style Matched Scrolls

I finally made my first foray back into scribal things since G. was born.

Our good friends on Maui received their SCA peerages on the same day recently. Given the logistics of flying with a 10 month old baby, the cost of airline tickets, and our plans to be in Honolulu in December, we decided only J. would go.

Maui is part of the Kingdom of Caid, which does not give out original award scrolls to people without a name and arms registered with the SCA College of Heralds. Unfortunately, neither of our friends fell into this category. So I decided to create small, quick, "promissory" scrolls for them to receive on the day of the award with a more typical peerage scroll to be made once they get things registered.

The very loose inspiration was Newberry MS 166, a genealogy of the kings of England and France from 1465. Basically, I took the style of calligraphy and the bar with devices down the center from it. I added the symbol of the order to the bottom of each, a pelican for the Pelican and a white belt for the Chivalry.

For K's scroll, the central bar is in her color of purple with the symbols of her service awards, alternating with more symbols of the order, placed on top. For E's scroll, the central bar is red, the color of his squire's belt, with the arms of the knights in his SCA lineage leading down to the white belt.

Each scroll is done on 5" x 7" pergamenata paper. These were some of the quickest scrolls I have ever done, about 3 hours each, not including research and thought. Given the limited time I have right now with the Baby-Who-Will-Not-Nap, it was something of a miracle they were finished at all!

CSA Week 7 - Ratatouille

No lettuce this week! That almost never happens.

arugula - salad
tomatoes - salad and sandwiches
potatoes - cellar
cucumbers - salad
corn - grilled
yellow squash - Ratatouille
zucchini - Ratatouille
eggplant - Ratatouille
chard - sauteed with garlic
blueberries - on yogurt & cereal

Ratatouille

Another group over for dinner this week so, again, I made a veggie side by tossing a bunch of things we got into a pot. There was only one tomato left so I used sauce instead.

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
3 medium eggplant, chopped
2 medium zucchini, chopped
2 medium yellow squash, chopped
1/2 cup chopped roasted red and yellow bell peppers
1 cup garlic and herb pasta sauce
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a large pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion. Cook until onion starts to soften. Add eggplant and squash, cook until they just begin to soften. Stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer until vegetables are soft and the dish has the consistency you like.

CSA Week 6 - Calabacitas & Baby Food

Peppers have started. I tend to choose hot peppers over green bell peppers.

lettuce - salad
tomatoes - salad
cucumbers - salad
potatoes - Grilled Salt & Vinegar Potatoes (101cookbooks.com)
corn - grilled and Calabacitas
yellow squash - Calabacitas
zucchini - Calabacitas and baby food
hot peppers (poblano and yellow) - Calabacitas
chard - sauteed with garlic
blueberries - on yogurt & cereal

For the baby food, I cubed and microwaved the zucchini. Half was pureed alone and half was pureed with microwaved frozen peas. I also made some baby rice which was a bit of an oops. I grabbed the brown sweet rice by mistake and didn't notice until it was pulverized and cooking on the stove. As the texture started to turn into mochi I started to worry. Fortunately, without pounding it is just sticky, not totally adhered together. Some good mashing/stirring with fork into the zucchini-pea mixture and it was only a bit like weird mochi. She liked it, though. She also like beets and pear with the rice. Shouldn't be a surprise my daughter likes mochi any way she can get it!

I modified the Grilled Salt & Vinegar Potatoes by using half white vinegar and half water to simmer the potatoes. These potatoes took much longer to cook than the recipe suggests, more like 15 minutes than 5. Turned out great.

Calabacitas

We had a good sized group of people over for dinner this week. For a veggie side, I tossed all the summer squash, corn, and peppers we had left into one dish.

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium yellow squash, chopped
2 medium zucchini, chopped
2 medium Poblano peppers, roasted and chopped
1 small hot yellow pepper, minced
kernels from 3 ears corn
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a large pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion. Cook until onion starts to soften. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until everything is softened to taste.

CSA Week 5 - Muffins, Roasted Squash, Cucumber Salad

Corn, potatoes and tomatoes have started!

lettuce - salad
tomatoes - salad
potatoes - put in cellar
corn - grilled
zucchini - Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
yellow squash - Roasted Squash with Parmesan Panko
cucumbers - Cucumber, Black Bean & Pineapple Salad
green beans - Szechuan style (Sam Choy Woks the Wok)
blueberries - breakfast

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I had been wanting a cupcake all week but knew if I got one at the grocery store I would be disappointed. So I made these which are somewhere in between a muffin and cupcake, letting me feel better about eating them!

340 g shredded zucchini (12 oz, about 2 cups)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 teaspoon instant coffee
130 g all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
120 g whole wheat pastry flour (about 1 cup)
44 g unsweetened cocoa (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 12 muffin cups.

Combine zucchini and salt in a colander and let drain for 30 minutes. Squeeze out liquid. Stir in yogurt and instant coffee.

Whisk together flours, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each to combine. Beat in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture alternately with zucchini mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, stirring after each addition just to combine. Scoop into prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a rack.

Roasted Summer Squash with Parmesan-Panko Topping
Tasty, fast, and uses a lot of squash.

2 medium summer squash, sliced in 1/4 inch rounds
1/2 small onion, sliced thin
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup panko
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a baking dish, toss squash and onion with olive oil and thyme to coat. In a small bowl, combine panko and parmesan. Sprinkle over squash. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Cucumber, Black Bean and Pineapple Salad

2 medium cucumbers, diced, seeds removed if large (about 2 cups)
1 cup diced pineapple
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed well
1 small avocado, diced
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Gently toss together all ingredients in a large bowl.

CSA week 4 - ravioli salad

Nothing new in the box this week and not a lot of creativity. We had several days with temperatures in the 90-100 range and so much humidity you could see the air. That really does not inspire cooking.

lettuce - salad
arugula - salad
cucumber - salad
chard - simple saute with garlic & red pepper
kale - Chicken, Kale & Potatoes (Food & Wine, online)
zucchini - Zucchini Bread (The Best Light Recipe by Cook's Illustrated - modified this week)
yellow squash & zucchini - Ravioli Salad
blueberries - on cereal & yogurt

This time I made a couple changes to the zucchini bread and it turned out well:
reduced sugar to 3/4 cup (was 1 cup)
replaced cake flour with whole wheat pastry flour
omitted the lemon juice but added lemon zest

Ravioli Salad

When I found out we were getting a heat wave, I decided to make some meals in advance that could be eaten cold on those days it's too hot to cook. Pasta salad with some of the veggies and some kind of protein sounded perfect but there wasn't much meat or cheese in the house. Digging through the pantry, I found these little dried ravioli from Trader Joe's, left over from last summer when my sensitive stomach could only tolerate cheese ravioli, fruit, and crackers.

These particular ravioli tasted terrible when eaten in typical ravioli fashion so they sat in the cabinet all this time. But I thought they might work in a salad with lots of other flavors, where they weren't the star. It turned out great! The salty, kind of parmesan-like taste, really complemented the veggies.

3 medium summer squash, diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 medium carrot, grated
1 small sweet onion, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar, divided
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 Tablespoon dried basil (or 1/4 cup fresh)
1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 Tablespoon fresh)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 cups mini ravioli, cooked, drained and cooled
1/2 cup grated parmesan

In a large bowl, gently mix together the squash, tomatoes, carrots, onion, salt and 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar. Let sit for 20 - 30 minutes.

Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, olive oil, mustard, garlic, herbs, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Add the dressing, ravioli, and parmesan to the marinated vegetables. Gently mix to combine well.

CSA week 3 - beet green ravioli, squash carbonara, kale & hot pepper vinegar

Week 3 pick up was actually July 11 since our CSA skips the 4th of July. You can tell more things are starting to be ready to eat. We got:

lettuce - salad
cucumbers - Easy Refrigerator Pickles (Cooking Light, August 2007)
arugula - scrambled tofu with arugula, tomato & sweet chili sauce
kale - Sauteed Kale with Hot Pepper Vinegar (with a fresh ham roast from the meat CSA)
beet greens - Ravioli with Beet Greens
beets - baby food
zucchini - Zucchini Bread (The Best Light Recipe by Cook's Illustrated)
yellow squash - Squash Carbonara
blueberries - washed : )

For the baby food, I just steamed the beets then pureed them with enough apple juice to get them to a fairly fine texture. She tried them with bananas and avocado and seemed to like it but not love it.

The pickle and zucchini bread recipes are my favorites, I go back to them every year. This bread uses an entire pound of zucchini in one loaf and isn't too sweet - you actually taste zucchini. I do add a little lemon zest if I have it around.

Sauteed Kale with Hot Pepper Vinegar

1 cup white vinegar
1-2 small hot chile peppers, sliced into thin rings
1 Tablespoon oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 large bunch kale, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water

Combine vinegar and peppers in a small pot. Heat until the vinegar comes to simmer. Let stand for at least 30 minutes. The vinegar can be stored in the refrigerator for a few weeks.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion, cook until the onion starts to turn translucent. Stir in the kale and salt. Cook until the kale starts to wilt. Add the water, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. Serve with the hot pepper vinegar on the side for people to add to taste.

Ravioli with Beet Greens

1/2 pound cheese ravioli
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon red chile pepper flakes
1 large bunch beet greens, chopped
1/2 cup grated parmesan

Cook and drain the ravioli.

While the ravioli cooks, heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and pepper flakes, cook for 1 minute. Stir in the beet greens, cook until wilted. Add the drained ravioli to the pan, stirring gently to combine. Remove from heat and stir in the parmesan. Add salt to taste. The parmesan will give quite a bit of saltiness by itself so you may not need any.

Squash Carbonara

I saw a show where Jamie Oliver made a zucchini carbonara but used cream which I don't think should be in carbonara. But I thought it was a great idea for using a lot of summer squash, so came up with this. The hard part is not scrambling the eggs.

4 ounces rotini or ziti
2 slices thick bacon, chopped
2 medium yellow squash, cut into pieces about the size of the pasta
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1/2 Tablespoon fresh)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup grated parmesan

Cook the pasta. When you get it in the boiling water, start cooking the bacon.

In a large pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy. Add the squash, thyme and pepper, cook until the squash is starting to get tender. Remove from heat.

Hopefully, the pasta is done about now. Working quickly, drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup cooking water. Add the pasta to the squash. Add the hot water to the egg slowly, beating the whole time (temper the egg, don't scramble it), then pour into the pan with the squash, stirring to make it all creamy. Stir in the cheese.

CSA week 2

I am so behind on this! Week 2 pick up was June 27. Here's what we got:

lettuce - salad
chard - Carmelized Onion, Chard, & Fontina Strata (Cooking Light, July 2007)
kale - baby food and Chicken, Kale & Potatoes (Food & Wine, online)
snap peas - steamed (with grilled chicken from the meat CSA and rice)
strawberries - as is

The Chicken, Kale & Potatoes were roasted in a single pan just with some onions, olive oil, and seasoning. It was amazing! Used bone-in, skin-on thighs.

For baby food, the kale was simmered in just enough water to cover for 20 minutes then pureed. She really likes it mixed with sweet potatoes.

CSA Week 1 - chard pasta, kale & smoked turkey braise

This year I'm going to try keeping a record of what we did with our weekly CSA box of produce. Week 1 included:

lettuce - salad
chard - Lemony Chard & Sausage Pasta
kale - Braised Kale & Smoked Turkey
spinach - Teriyaki Mushroom, Spinach, and Chicken Salad (Cooking Light, September 2010)
strawberries - why would you do anything to these?

Lemony Chard & Sausage Pasta

2 teaspoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
1 large bunch chard, chopped
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 links cooked chicken sausage with pesto & sun-dried tomato, chopped
>zest & juice of 1 small lemon
4 ounces cooked rotini or other pasta
2 ounces crumbled feta

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, cook for 30 seconds. Add the chard and salt, cook just until the chard starts to wilt. Stir in the sausage, lemon zest, and juice. Stir in the pasta, cook until heated through. Turn off heat and stir in the feta.



Braised Kale & Smoked Turkey

2 teaspoons oil
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 small hot chile peppers, chopped (careful with the heat)
1 large smoked turkey leg, meat removed and chopped
1 large bunch kale, chopped
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chicken broth<
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon maple syrup

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion, cook until the onion starts turning translucent. Stir in the chili pepper, smoked turkey, kale and salt. Cook until the kale starts to wilt. Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, until the kale is tender. Stir in vinegar and maple syrup.

Lunch inspired by baby

I never thought that making baby food would cause me to discover fantastic new flavor combinations. Right now we're trying sweet potato & avocado. It tastes quite good, though G. still isn't sure about it so there's a fair amount of leftovers. So for a quick lunch using whatever was in the house, I came up with this:

2 Tablespoons mashed, cooked sweet potato
2 Tablespoons mashed avocado
2 Tablespoons garlic hummus
2 Tablespoons shredded cheese blend
3/4 cup broccoli slaw

Just mix everything together and eat out of a bowl or in a sandwich, pita, or wrap.

Butternut "Brownies" - Finding Food with Baby, part 2

I needed to bake something sweet but not too unhealthy, if only to stop me from eating Oreos. J brought them home because I could eat them and we finished them way too fast. I don't even like them that much! But what to bake that is dairy and soy* free?

I'm already gotten comfortable with dairy-free baking since there are a number of dairy-free people in my life. It's really not that difficult. Problem is, most of my dairy substitutions involve soy: soy milk, soy yogurt, Earth Balance Buttery Spread, and tofu. I've switched to almond milk and seen coconut yogurt but haven't tried it. Oil and lard can be used as butter substitutes but behave quite differently. I've heard of margarine without soy but couldn't find it**. So I decided to try coconut oil. (Still haven't come up with a tofu substitute)

Coconut oil is solid to something like 75-80°F and is supposed to work more like butter than other oils. The flavor also shouldn't be noticeable in most baked goods; it wasn't noticeable in this.

There was a lot of roasted butternut squash in the fridge and I wanted something with a fudge/brownie texture, not a cake texture. The spices were chosen to let the butternut taste like butternut, not pumpkin. It's not too sweet and works as either dessert or breakfast. The flavor develops and is even better the next day.

Fudgy Butternut "Brownies"

190 g flour (about 1-1/2 cups)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon star anise

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
74 g coconut oil (about 1/3 cup)
150 g brown sugar (about 3/4 cup)
42 g honey (about 2 Tablespoons)
2 large eggs
425 g butternut squash puree (15 ounces, about 1-3/4 cups)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" square pan.

In a bowl, whisk together flour and spices. In a separate large bowl, cream together coconut oil and sugar. Beat in honey. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in butternut squash puree. Stir in flour mixture just until combined. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until tester comes out mostly clean. Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

* soy lecithin and soybean oil are okay
** just found stick margarine without forbidden soy

Oat Bars - Finding Food with Baby, part 1

Ever since G. was born 3 months ago things like cooking have become quite limited. We're lucky to have some amazing friends who have fed us some fantastic home cooked food including pot roast,  chicken tagine, and more. We've also discovered a decent Thai restaurant that delivers and has lots of options with vegetables. This vegetable thing is important. We find ourselves seriously lacking in that area when I'm not grocery shopping regularly and it's the wrong time of year for the CSA boxes full of produce.

And just when we started to get good at feeding ourselves again, there's a new catch - the doctor suggested trying G. on a dairy and soy protein free diet in an effort to help her terrible reflux since medication wasn't helping enough. This means I am on a dairy and soy protein free diet, too. Have you noticed how many foods include soy proteins? Most marinades. Most vegan or dairy free foods. And every single readily available granola bar.

I need easy to grab, nutritious snacks that can be eaten while holding a crying baby (reflux makes her hurt and cry) so the lack of granola bars hit me hard. Especially since cheese is out and hard boiled eggs need peeling. Fortunately, I already had this oat bar recipe worked out. We always liked these but they are now a staple in our house!

Feel free to use any combination of dried fruit & nut bits. Just make sure to chop up anything large, like apricots or apples. Good combinations are cranberries & peanuts or apples & candied ginger. Chocolate chips & coconut turn this into something more dessert-like.

Oat Bars

2 cups regular oats
70 g flour (about 1/2 cup)
28 g ground flaxseed (about 1/4 cup)
50 g brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
6 Tablespoons applesauce, unsweetened
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg
1-1/2 cups bits (dried fruit & nuts)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch square pan or line with parchment paper.

Combine oats, flour, flaxseed, sugar, salt & cinnamon. Whisk together honey, applesauce, oil & egg. Add to dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Stir in bits. Spread in pan.

Bake 30 minutes. Cool. Cut into 16 pieces