Christmas has come early to the house of Jinx this year.  I don’t know exactly where it all started but I think it was when my Sister-in-law Katie said something on Facebook about putting up her tree already and it kind of snowballed from there.  I mentioned to to Waldo and he said that it was a great idea to put the tree up now, that way we’d get more time to enjoy it.  I told my Mother-in-law what we were planning and she loved the idea.  Now we have our tree up in our family room, my MIL has her tree up in the livingroom and Katie has all of her other decorations up (her house looks great) and her tree will be up any day now.

The tree was just the beginning though.  I’ve already spent one afternoon baking and gifted our new next door neighbor a lovely box full of Holiday Cheer.

I made two different cookies and rice crispy treats all with a mint theme.  Here are my chocolate chip cookies with a hint of mint.  I cut up Andes Mints for these.  I also made Triple Chocolate and mint Crinkle cookies.  I added chopped up Candy Cane Kisses and Andes Mints to the crinkle cookies. I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of those. And now I can’t even find the recipe online. I got it from last December’s Food Network Magazine and it is amazing.

These are the chopped up Candy Cane Kisses that I put on top of the rice crispy treats.  I loved them.  Waldo informed me he’d rather have semi-sweet chocolate then white minty chocolate. All the sudden I have no idea who he is anymore.

Lily got to enjoy a little cookie after her lunch and she thought it was the greatest thing EVER.

Here are my finished packages. One to my Sister-in-law Katie and her family and the other two to neighbors.  We tried to give the neighbor’s theirs tonight, but only one of them was home.  We might be forced to eat the other box,  you know I can’t give away 3 day old treats, it would do. Forced I say.

Hey you can see the Triple Chocolate and Mint Crinkle Cookies in the box, they are covered in powered sugar. Yay I did sort of get a picture of them.

Happy Early Holidays Everyone!  Enjoy!

All of these pictures were taken with my phone in less then stellar light. Sorry.

While these aren’t totally random, they are all from my phone.

We’ve been to the zoo in Boise twice since moving here and both times we got Lily some popcorn. She loved it, but we hated that it was full of crap so we decided to buy an air popper. I found one at a thrift store for $5.99 and it’s been sitting in a box since that day. We bought some organic popping corn at the food Co-op, so now it was just a matter of deciding that I was adventurous enough to try making it. Today I decided was that day.

Lil's checking it out.

I read that you can put 1/2 cup of popcorn in the chamber and that makes about 18 cups of popped corn.  I didn’t want nearly that much so I used the little butter cup that comes with the machine filled most of the way full and was happy with the bowl full of popcorn we got.  It was still too much, but not as bad as 18 cups.

The little kearnels are heating up and dancing around.

Lily wasn’t a fan of the machine’s noise, I tried and tried to get a picture of her with her hands over her ears, but didn’t manage it.

The corn is starting to fly.

Once it started popping it went very fast.

POP, POP, POP

I started to panic that my bowl was going to overflow, but luckily it was just perfect.

The blur is Lily trying to hold in her excitment.

Which one should she try?

This was her fourth or fifth handful.

She loved it and kept stuffing pieces in my mouth because she just had to share the yumm.   She ran upstairs to tell her Daddy all about it too.  I think the Popcorn was a huge success and using the air popper was crazy easy.

p.s.  Lily tinkled in the potty this morning.  YAY!

I saw part of a episode of Grill It! with Bobby Flay where he was making some grilled potato wedges and both Waldo and I said almost at the same time that we had to make those.  They looked so good and sounded really easy to make.  I was surprised to find out that they were in fact very easy to make, if you don’t burn your oil.

Parboiling taters

My finshed wedges

Grilled Potato Wedges with Hot Garlic and Red Chili

adapted from Bobby Flay’s Grilled Potato Wedges with Hot Garlic, Red Chili, Parmesan and Parsley

• 4 russet potatoes, scrubbed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup canola oil Sunflower oil
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (which I totally forgot to add)

Put the potatoes in a pot of cold water, add some kosher salt and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer slowly till soft but firm (about 40 minutes).  The potatoes must be cooked through and fork tender, but still holding their shape. Drain and set aside to cool slightly, then cut each potato lengthwise into 8 wedges.

I carefully covered the wedged (which were on a cookie sheet) with some sunflower oil, salt and pepper, then I wiggled them around to coat all the sides. Grill until golden brown and cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan until it begins to shimmer, this is very important, shimmer not simmer.  Do not try to simmer the oil, it doesn’t go well. Remove from the heat and immediately add the garlic and red chili flakes and let sit for 1 minute. Season the oil with salt and pepper, to taste, and drizzle over the potatoes. Sprinkle with the cheese (if you don’t forget) and serve immediately.

***

I wish I would have had the parsley that the original recipe called for, but I forgot to grab it at the store. I think it might have added a nice herby flavor.  And I really wish I hadn’t forgotten about the cheese, but you know what, I didn’t notice anything was missing until I saw the cheese on the counter after I was done eating.  Next time I’ll add the cheese for sure.

I am not a fan of mushrooms. I will eat them sliced very thin in our salads, but I don’t want to eat them pretty much any other way.  Waldo however loves mushrooms, he eats them with steak (well he did before he went pescetarian), on pizza, on just about anything he can.

I read in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian that people that convert to vegetarianism have to change the way they think about meals.  Meat eaters have a meal that centers around a main dish (meat usually) and then a side dish or two.  Vegetarians usually eat what amounts to a bunch of sides and that is how its suppose to be.  These grilled mushrooms made a great side to add to Waldo’s plate.

Waldo loved, Loved, LOVED these mushrooms.  They were easy to make and he said it was like eating meat.  He never believed people when they said that mushroom cooked the right way could taste like meat, but he believes it now.  He said that at first he tasted a really good steak and the rest of the bites were pork.  He is a big fan now and says that these mushrooms need to be on our weekly menu.

Speaking of weekly menus we have a very boring selection of food options, this is mainly my fault as I’m the pickiest person you will likely ever meet.  We have about 8 dishes that we rotate through, so our dinners are pretty routine.  I’d like to add options and broaden our menus.  I want eating to be healthy and really enjoyable.  My goal for the next few months is to get a wider array of food options for my family.  If anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

We made 2 shiiitakes and 1 cremini. I cut the sauce amount in half and it was still a little more then I needed, but not by much. I didn’t get a picture of the finished mushrooms because Waldo was enjoying them too much to let me at them.

Mushrooms waiting their turn

Grilled Mushrooms

adapted from How to cook everything vegetarian by Mark Bittman

1/3 cup EVOO

1 tablespoon minced shallot, scallion, onion or garlic (I used a little shallot and garlic)

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, if available (I only had dried thyme and Waldo was fine with that)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 large portobello mushrooms, trimmed and cut in half right down the middle; or 12 to 16 cremini, trimmed and cut in half or left whole; or 12 to 16 shiitakes, stems removed, caps left whole or cut in half

Chopped parsley for garnish (I left this out because I forgot parsley at the store)

Heat the grill until quite hot and put the rack about 4 inches away from the hear source.  Mix the EVOO, shallot/garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Brush the mushrooms all over with about half the mixture.

Grill or broil the mushrooms with the top of their caps away from the heat until they begin to brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Brush with the remaining oil and turn. Grill until tender and nicely browned all over, 5 t 10 minutes more. Garnish and serve hot, warm or at room temp.

We eat salad at least a couple of times a week and we have a standard format for them.  They are always the same: cut up romaine, baby spinach, shredded carrot, sliced mushroom, broccoli, avocado, occasionally hard boiled eggs.  Waldo uses a Parmesan ranch dressing and olives.  I add hemp seeds and 1000 island dressing.  We have both wanted to try different dressings, but I’m picky and have been putting off finding something new.  We haven’t gotten tired of the salad yet, and frankly we are both surprised by that.  Oh well.

So I was going through How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and found a good simple vinaigrette.  I couldn’t wait to try it.  Like I said on the pasta sauce post Mark Bittman makes good base recipes with a lot of variations listed.  We loved the vinaigrette and can’t wait to try some different versions.

I made some changes to fit our likes, but it’s a really good base recipe.  I’ll add my changes at the end.

Vinaigrette

adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

1/2 cup good EVOO

3 tablespoons of a good wine vinegar, plus some to taste

salt and pepper

1 large shallot cut into chunks (optional)

**

Put the EVOO and vinegar in the cup of a immersion blender and spin.  It should get creamy in about 30 seconds or so.  Add salt and pepper and taste.  Adjust with more seasoning and 1 teaspoon of vinegar at a time if necessary.

Add shallot and blend again.  Taste again and serve.

Waldo and I both loved it and I really appreciate that Bittman give a lot of variations for most of the recipes. I can’t wait to try some vinaigrette versions.

**************

I used:

Sherry vinegar which Bittman recommends and I agree with.

1/2 large shallot

Followup:

A few days after trying this vinaigrette we tried it again with a teaspoon of mustard as was suggested in the variations and we hated it.  Hated. It.

Like I said in my last mobile random post, we celebrated 6 weeks of vegetarian eating by me and pescetarian eating by Waldo with a pepperoni and half ham pizza at Round Table.  It was so good.  Eating vegetarian for me isn’t hard because I’ve never liked eating meat very much; I’d eat chicken at restaurants and turkey sandwich for lunch and bacon occasionally, but the one that kills me is pepperoni.  I live on pizza, it is pretty much my favorite thing ever, but I hardly want it with just cheese.  I have started to add minced garlic, red and green bell peppers on it and it’s getting back up to the top of my food list.  Eating vegetarian for Waldo is a little harder.  He loves meat.  So why would he do it?  For me and Lily mostly.  Because I don’t like eating meat, I have made Lily a vegetarian. Waldo has always backed me up on this, but he wouldn’t say no if one day I said we would give her meat.  Lil has never made any indication that she wants any of the meat that’s eaten around her.  Waldo still felt like a hypocrite eating meat when we didn’t feed it to Lily, so he’s trying vegetarianism out and I’m along for the ride.  Waldo has decided that he will still eat fish and if he’s at say a bar-b-q he can eat meat.  This worked into me getting a pepperoni pizza the other day, it was amazing.

To help make this new food lifestyle have a fighting chance I needed some new recipes.  I had been asking around and was recommended How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.I got it last week and love it.  It’s full of pretty useful general kitchen and food information and something like 2000 recipes.  Waldo and I made bet if I’d ever make any of the recipes.  So far I’ve made a pretty good vinaigrette and a really good fast and easy pasta sauce.

3 table spoons EVOO

1 24- to 32- oz can of whole tomatoes~drained and chopped

salt and pepper

1 medium onion chopped

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a 10 or 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat.  When it’s hot add the onion.  Cook till soft about 3 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and the salt and pepper. Cook stirring occasionally for about 10 to 15 minutes till the tomatoes sort of burst and the sauce comes together.

Add Parmesan cheese and serve.

***

I added about 2 tsp of sherry vinegar ,some garlic powder and the liquid from the tomatoes.

When the sauce was done I put it all in a blender and pureed it.  Taste and season accordingly. I added a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water.  It helped loosen the sauce up but added body or something fancy sounding.

This is a great base sauce.  It reminds me a lot of my pizza sauce (I’ll post that one day, you will thank me), but it was fast and easy.

Next time I’ll add more herbs.  And Garlic!

Sorry that there aren’t any pictures.  We were too busy eating it to remember to take any.

I had read that yogurt made a great lunch for babies but it had to be the plain kind. The flavored ones were just candy. So when we were grocery shopping this past Sunday we bought one little container of plain.

I sat Lily in her chair, dished some yogurt into a small bowl and something made me go back for the camera. I set the self-timer and figured I might get a cute look on her face when she tried this new food. Boy was I glad I did. I spooned the first bite in and then prayed that I actually got the shot.

Priceless!

I set the timer again but I assumed the face was a one time thing.

Boy I was wrong.

At this point I was ready to give up on the yogurt but she grabbed the bowl and tried to drink it. I missed this face but let me tell you it was just as good. I gave her a couple of more bites but every time she made the same disgusted face. I figured if I hated something that much I wouldn’t want to eat it so I put the dish in the sink, Lily screamed her little heart out over this however. I gave her some cut up apple and all was right in the world again.

I am so glad we only bought the one container.

I was asked recently about homemade baby food. My response was that I love making it and it is so simple. I know that their are a number of resources on the internet on how to make baby food, this is my take. I use wholesomebabyfood.com as a starting point, it has great lists of what to feed and when and recipes.

I have found that Lily is a lover of all things squash.  This is how I do acorn squash.

Most acorn squash are greenish but this one happens to be orange.  It looks very much like an odd shaped pumpkin.

I scrub it clean and then cut it in half lengthwise. I swear to you cutting this thing open was the hardest part of the whole thing. I had no idea how tough it was.

I then scraped out the seeds. Since making this one I have bought a set of grapefruit spoons at Target. (I couldn’t find them on the Target website. Those things are a life saver.

Then they went into a pan, flesh side down with an inch or two of water.

I cooked them at 400° for about 1 hour.

The flesh was nice and soft and the skin was a little browned.

I scraped all the meat into my little food processor and gave it a whirl. You might need to add some water to get it to puree nicely. I try not to add too much water at this point though. From here on out it is very much like making sweet potatoes.

Once its cooled I spooned it into an ice cube tray, wrapped with plastic wrap and froze it overnight.

I make butternut squash just like this too.

I have a different method of heating these up then most people that I’ve read. We have a microwave but we never use it.

In the morning I take out a couple of food cubes and put them in the fridge in the cup I use to feed Lily. They are usually mostly defrosted by the time I feed her dinner, although this method still works if I forget to take them out, it just takes longer.  Lily only eats solids at dinner, the rest of the day she nurses.

When I’m ready to feed her I turn the water kettle on and put the food cup in a bowl. Once the water has boiled I fill the bowl with water and if the food needs to be thinned I add some of the hot water to it. I stir the food every so often and it heats it up in about 3-5 minutes.

I try to always keep some frozen green beans and peas around for the days I forget to take cubes out. That way I just cook the beans and peas according to the package directions, throw them in the food processor and then feed Lily.

As you can see this takes a few more minuted then opening a jar but I love the whole process of making my daughter’s food. And she loves eating it.

This Saturday was full of firsts for my little Lily.  I think my favorite was that she didn’t get upset and scream in the car during our weekly shopping trip, of course when we went out again later in the day there was a whole didn’t vibe in the car but I won’t dwell on that.  She didn’t cry at all, that is what I want to remember.  She had her first sip of water and it was from a “cup” which was another first and that went right along with her fist medicine.  Lily is teething (people following me on Twitter may have heard something about this) and its killing me her so I bought some Hyland’s Teething Tablets and dissolved a couple in a tiny “cup” with a tiny bit of water.  She drank that down just like a big girl.  I was so proud of her.  I have no idea if the teething tablets helped at all because her crankiness comes and goes so quickly it gives me whiplash but I like to think that it did help.

Another first for Lil was sweet potatoes.  Its the first non-rice cereal solid-ish food that she’s eaten and she liked it.  She was really unsure at first and I think that was partly my fault.  I didn’t mix any water, breast milk or formula into it, I just left it the consistency and texture it was right out of the food processor.  So it was a little thick and totally a different flavor/texture from the rice cereal she was used to so I wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t too sure at first, but she got over it very quickly.

I was so shocked at how easy the sweet potato was to make for her.  I bought 1 medium sized organic sweet potato (I should have taken a picture of it) and I followed to the directions that I got off of wholesomebabyfood.com.  But to make it sound more like my idea I will tell you what I did and add in the few pictures I managed to take.

I washed and scrubbed the sweet potato, then punched a bunch of holes in it (I love to get aggression out this way), then wrapped it in tin foil and tossed it in a 425 degree oven.  That is hotter then the website suggests but our oven seems to not run as hot as it should.  After 30 minutes Waldo flipped the potato over and after an hour total I took it out.  I left it wrapped to cool off for probably another hour.  Honestly I forgot about it so I have no idea how long it sat there but probably no longer then 90 minutes.

So I unwrapped it and sliced it in half length way and then peeled the skin off.  It was still a little hot but the skin just slipped right off.** I think cut it into large chunks and tossed it in the food processor.  I have a tiny processor and it was just perfect for this size sweet potato.  I then smushed the life out of the tuber.

I let it cool off a little more and then put some in a cup for Lily. Like I said before I didn’t add any liquid to it and I should have. I’ve been giving it to her all week with water added, its much better. She really liked it once she got over the new taste and texture.

When she was done she cleaned herself off.

After the smushed potato in the processor was all cooled I grabbed a clean ice cube tray and filled it up. Did you know that one ice cube is just over one ounce. I didn’t know that till I had Lily. The things our kids teach us.

Oh yea I wrapped it in clingfilm and then I stuck it in the freezer. The next day I wacked it on the counter and the frozen cubes of sweet potato fell out onto a paper towel.  Now they reside in my freezer in a zip lock bag and I take one out in the morning so it can thaw for dinner. It works out wonderfully.

Lily’s next new food will be avocado. I had to search around for an organic one or she would have had it before the sweet potato.

**I think this was from leaving it in the foil while it cooled.  It was easy peasy what ever the cause.