Sy and I were looking for something fun to do after Baby G went to bed last night. So we decided to make butter. I cleaned out a larger glass baby food jar, got out the heavy whipping cream and a pinch of salt and we were off. Just pour the cream somewhere between halfway and two thirds full, add a pinch of salt, screw on the lid, turn on some music and start shaking. Sy ran laps around the house shaking her jar to the music until she collapsed in a heap, begging me to take a turn. Pretty soon after some vigorous shaking on my part, the liquid started to thicken up. We made sure to open up the jar every few minutes to check our progress. The butter never gets super duper store-bought hard, but definitely spreadable! The leftover liquid is buttermilk, by the way. Sy added some purple sprinkles to it before we put it back in the fridge. I can’t wait to use it on our toast this morning.
My cousin told me that if you use a larger jar, you can add a (preferably clean) marble and it speeds up the process big time.
Have you seen this site yet? Still Tasty lets you know the (sometimes horrifying) shelf life of thousands of kitchen items. Who knew that soy sauce lasts two years in the fridge?
I also like the “Your Questions Answered” section. My favorite one: Can I eat pizza that I left out overnight? Answer: uh, no. I mean, how many of us did that in college? Did I say that out loud?
Thanks for the forward, Brandie!
I decided to do the House and Garden circa 1965 recipe (via Epicurious) for corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patrick’s Day today. I went to the store and they only had ten heads of cabbage left for they day. Who runs out of cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day??
Since we have no rainbows today and subsequently no pot of gold, I added a Guinness into the cooking liquid for good luck. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
I posted reader John’s question over at Ohdeedoh. Their readers had some advice! Thanks, Ohdeedoh.
Here’s a question from reader John and I have to admit I’m stumped, so I’m putting it to you, oh fabulous readers:
My wife and I bought an Evenflo high chair before my 2-year old daughter was born. It wasn’t top of the line, just your average everyday high chair, and it has held together remarkably. It has been used as a climbing device, drum set, bumper car, and pretend drawbridge - and sometimes my daughter even eats in it. My problem, though, is the pad. Again, it still works, it’s still attached, but the translucent cover that makes it easy to clean is long since gone. Torn off bit by bit, all that remains is the cloth part, which is now a bit grungy and hard to clean. Is there any place where I can get a replacement pad? I’ve checked Evenflo’s website and I find nothing. Outside of buying a new high chair, are there covers that you know of? Am I the only one with this problem?
Anyone have any brilliant ideas? Are there any readers who happen to run Etsy shops solely devoted to created groovy high chair replacement covers? Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.
As I have mentioned before, Sy is a huge fan of Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa. Roger got me the Back to Basics cookbook for Christmas. Garten’s cookbooks are beautifully done and the recipes are straightforward and easy to follow, even for cooking-challenged people like me. Sy loves to sit with me and flip through the pages, requesting that we make certain recipes.
The other day she really wanted to help make the meatball portion of the Italian wedding soup.
Neither of my kids eat much. I try to stick to the adage spelled out in Child of Mine; you can offer what and when, they decide if and how much. Baby G has the capability but he’s much too interested in the world to sit around and nurse all day, or even three minutes. Probably why I see him All Night Long. Sy’s just not that interested in eating. She’s always willing to try new foods, but if she doesn’t like it, enh. Next. I try not to worry, but when she’s sick, eating is the first thing to go. As soon as she is feeling better, I have to get inventive to get some meat back on her bones. Enter Baby G and his baby food! Who knew that Sy would want to eat every single jar that I pull out for G. Whatever kiddo, it’s often green and it’s calories in. So I went to Target and Babies R Us and stocked up on organic baby food (they have the best prices on the Earth’s Best organic brand) and we have ourselves a regular old feeding frenzy on our hands. For instance, this morning Baby G had oatmeal with carrots and Sy had four bites of her cereal and the rest of his carrots. I call it carrot soup, she calls it good grub.
When it comes to baby wipes, I say go Costco. I don’t even have a baby’s fanny to wipe anymore, but I keep a pack of good old Kirkland specials in each car, in my office, and in several spots in the house—mostly for hands—sometimes for floors or for keyboards in a pinch. And here’s a teacher’s secret: those wipes erase the dry-erase marker shadows from whiteboards! They’re the most economical, best packaged, and least-offensive smelling among the cheap wipes out there. And they’re sturdy enough to do the job.
But now that we have our basic needs covered, let’s talk about Dessert Wipes. No, I do not mean wipes for sticky chocolate-covered hands. And I do not mean wipes that you can eat. Wait, maybe I sort of do.
Ed. Note: I’ve been up since 2:00 a.m., so sorry for the lack of witty title. This review compliments of my pal AJ, mother of three!
Now that I am on my third child and have experienced a slice of every breastfeeding issue possible (sincerely) I actually have one little nugget to pass along. We have been through a hospital grade pump,18 months of pumping and storing breast milk between the first two kids and here we are at a lovely little helper, Sensible Lines Milk Trays. Instead of filling a 6 or 8 ounce bag with pumped milk, defrosting the entire stash and risking tossing some out (since you can’t re-freeze) this set of milk trays streamlines the process.
I mentioned my favorite baby gear product and Sy’s favorite toy, but I neglected to mention my favorite gadget of the year. It wasn’t even a fight. It was a hands down winner all the way - the miraculous Munchie Mug. Even though I only laid my hands on this item in November, it still holds the top slot. As you can see in my review, both Sy and I fell in love with this snack containment device immediately.
Why did it win top slot? It’s easy to clean, easy to use, not very expensive and BPA and phthalate-free. All that and it doesn’t make my kid crazy. Something that makes my life easier as well as hers gets bonus points in the GHM book.
So if you are looking for a better snack holder, go support this little company. You won’t regret it!
Ooh. I was just doing some reading over at The Soft Landing blog and saw that they are giving away an exclusive new Thinkbaby feeding set. Cool!
The Feeding Set Includes:
9oz/250ml Bento Box with air-tight, leak-proof lid
10oz/300ml Soup/Cereal Bowl with lid
10oz/300ml Low Profile Baby Bowl with lid
7oz/200ml Kids Cup with chunky handle
Contoured Spoon and Fork with easy grip handle
ZRecommends did a nice job reviewing the set, as usual.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I love that it is about gratitude, about appreciation, and about sharing. The only gifts involved are food related. I crave all courses of the Thanksgiving meal, and to be honest, the only time I did not enjoy Thanksgiving dinner was when I was invited to someone’s home where the stuffing had oysters and seconds were discouraged. So we’ll just try to forget about that.
As long as I can remember my family has served pear or apple tart for dessert, among other pies and See’s Candy. It used to be my father who put together this homemade masterpiece, but at some point I volunteered to take it on, and last year, my eldest daughter and I put together two: one for our family dinner and one for the resource center where we annually contribute desserts.
Here’s a great dessert to bring along or feature at your dinner. It can be made the night before and will sit out for the next day. It’s easy, particularly if you don’t make your own crust (my favorite: Trader Joe’s frozen crusts). Here’s a recipe, of sorts:
My friend AJ gave me this tip: have a pitcher of water, cups and snacks at your older child’s level so they can help themselves and then come sit next to you while you are feeding your babe. I got a $2.00 pitcher at Ikea and Sy is thrilled with her new drinking independence. When her friends come over, she asks them if she can pour them a glass of water. She’s pretty tidy, but even so, there’s usually a nice puddle pooling on her little red table when I go into the kitchen.
It’s the best time to get Halloween gear, everything is on sale!
I so want to get these pancake molds for Sy from Williams Sonoma. My mom makes a mean Mickey Mouse pancake, I wonder how she is at skeletons…
Sy is totally into watching the Food Network. Her favorite show is the Barefoot Contessa. She is a big fan of Ina’s desserts. Who isn’t? The woman uses at least a pound of butter in every episode. Yesterday we decided to make her chunky banana bran muffins. Yummo!
Of course we had to change stuff up due to Sy’s egg and walnut egg allergies, but they were still quite delish. Huh. Looking at the recipe, I realized I changed about half the ingredients. We used oat bran instead of wheat bran (I bought the wrong ingredient), I don’t care for molasses so I used an extra quarter cup of brown sugar. We didn’t have an orange, so we skipped that. I used Bob’s Red Mill brand egg replacer (I think I like this one better than the first one I reviewed) and one extra smashed up banana instead of eggs. We used a half cup of chocolate chips instead of raisins (loathe cooked raisins) and we opted out on the walnuts since Sy’s allergic to them. All those changes and we still made one tasty muffin.
See Ina’s recipe after the jump.
