Toddler Food - Turkey Spinach Meatballs

I'd like to note that all of these little food bites taste really quite good to adults, too. The only thing I'd change is to add a little bit of salt.

These meatballs are sort of a success. She likes them slightly warmed, broken into smaller pieces, and only from Mommy. I think part of the problem is she ran into a tough bit of cartilage early on and decided they are kind of suspect. Still, given she doesn't really like the texture of meat in general, these work well.

Turkey Spinach Meatballs
4 ounces ground dark meat turkey
1-1/2 tablespoons applesauce
1/4 cup frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained
1/2 tablespoon minced shallot

Using hands, combine all ingredient thoroughly. Shape into 1 to 2 tablepoon size balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Toddler Food - Pumpkin Tofu Bites

So we are past the baby food. But in typical toddler fashion we have food issues.

Number 1: She is awfully picky about biting into things and textures. I'll admit, I'm just as likely to tear off pieces of bread-type things rather than take bites, but she just hates to take a bite out of anything! Even teething biscuits aren't worthy of biting.

Number 2: Sometimes she just won't eat something she used to love. For weeks. Peas were a daily favorite for months. Now, if she sees a pea, it's all over. It reminds me of feeding my grandmother with dementia.

Fortunately, she seems to eat anything I make into nugget/croquette form. This has been a theme for the last month and I figure it's best to document all these recipes in case I want to make them again.

Pumpkin and tofu were always favorite foods so I started with that. She really seems to like these and they freeze very well.

Pumpkin Tofu Bites with Broccoli

10 ounces firm tofu, drained and minced

8 ounces pumpkin puree (about 3/4 cup)

5 ounces cooked brown rice (about 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup flour

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 ounce frozen broccoli, defrosted and minced (about 1/2 cup)

1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Combine the tofu and pumpkin, mash slightly. 

Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop in 1 Tablespoon balls on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400° F for 20 minutes.

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.