Fair Food

In spite of all the noise I make about organic, unprocessed, healthy food, I have a serious weakness for Street Fair food. I could eat funnel cake until I barf; and I think a fair without Italian Sausage is no kind of fair at all.

We visited the Greater Lauraville Fair today. C has been really off and on with her napping, and while a day with two kids and no nap is REALLY long, I am excited about not having to return home halfway through the day anymore. Some of my favorite people live in and around Lauraville, a neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore, and one of J's current obsessions lives there, so off we went.

C enjoyed the lemon sticks, J ate his weight in Kettle Korn, and I, of course, had an Italian Sausage with peppers and onions.

In fact, one of the reasons I am so hyper-controlling about food at my house is because I know I can't control it everywhere else. And I'm ok with that. If I know my family is eating well 75% of the time, I think we are doing pretty well. A drive through McDonald's ice cream now and then, or some nuggets at the zoo, or funnel cake, isn't the end of the world when it's not an everyday thing. And I am NEVER one to turn down food offered to me. I love anything I don't have to cook.

I try very, very hard to stay away from corn syrup, too (not just HFCS, but all corn syrup) for the same reasons we have restrictions on TV. No, it is not going to kill us if a little sneaks in. But it just isn't NECESSARY. Why chose the less healthy option if there's a better one out there?

I also totally get that I am part of the privileged middle class who can afford to choose organic most of the time; who has access to several well-stocked grocery stores, and not just a selection of fast food places and the over-priced corner store and their one moldy apple. I also know that I have the benefit of time to prepare food, which not everyone has. But I think we are all just trying to do the best we can with the resources and knowledge that we have. And today, that meant sausage and popcorn for lunch. And dinner.

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Manners

We don't go out to eat much. Between my husband's schedule, the diet restrictions, and the fact that almost anything I like to eat I can cook faster and better than in a restaurant, there's not a lot of motivation to head to a restaurant.

We live in a neighborhood with plenty of food choices. Lots of bar food, some Asian and Asian-inspired, and of course plenty of seafood. We could eat out every night for a month and not go to the same place twice.

But the main reason we don't go out is the nightmare my children become when seated (and I use that word lightly) in a restaurant. Just thinking about what it might be like makes me tired.

The 2 year old just wants to run at top speed in circles and zig zags all the time, everywhere she goes. She's also fond of physically pushing her brother all over the place, crashing them both into things. The six-year-old is patient enough, but he's got a 20 minute limit at a restaurant until he really wants to get up and walk around, or climb under the table. Add hunger and overstimulation to the list, and I don't really know why ANYONE goes out to eat with kids.

I feel like I'm missing some important piece of knowledge about how to make my kids sit down and be still for an hour and a half that every other parent knows. I know a few families who go out with their kids all the time, and the kids sit there and doodle and eat for like, 30 minutes straight. If my kids are at the table at home for ten minutes, I consider that a successful meal.

It's not even a case of the kids not being able to sit still, at least the older one. Today, he kept himself entertained with a maze book and a microscope outside his sister's music class for an hour, quiet as a mouse. He pays attention quite well in his classes and co-ops, so that's not a problem for us either.

At home, we eat dinner as a family whenever we are all there. Even when H is gone, I sit down and eat with the kids, so we have that "family dinner" experience almost every night. We do all the right things, like keeping the TV off, using real napkins and real dishes, have polite conversation, don't allow toys at the table, and generally enjoy each others company. But it's still really QUICK. We aren't in a hurry, but we all sort of eat and then move on. The kids take their own dishes to the counter and we move on to the next thing.

The set-up of the house contributes to this, I think. It's all one room downstairs, so if you want to go draw or read after dinner, we're all still together, chatting and playing. No one is scurrying off to the bedroom and hiding. No one is left alone to clean up.

I know someday I'd like to go out to dinner, all of us. But I'm not sure how to make the leap from the seven-minute dinner to a leisurely long meal with appetizers and entrees and desserts. And someone else doing the cooking and cleaning up. If you have a kid who can sit for a long time at the table, what's your secret?

Thanks for reading,
Anne

PortSchooling

We're homeschoolers. Not the strict school-at-home type, not the completely unschooling type, but somewhere in between, like almost every other homeschooler I know.

Today has been an excellent example of how it works for us.

We woke fairly early, at 6:30 instead of the usual 8am. The weather forecast was set to AMAZING. A little cool, a little breezy, everyone in pants and sleeves.

After walking the dog, and returning her home, J, C and I went to the coffee shop where the kids shared a gluten-free muffin and I had a gigantic coffee. J said, "It's such a nice day, can we walk around our neighborhood?" The extreme heat and humidity of this summer had really put a damper on our favorite activity, and he was clearly excited to be outside without being miserable.

He asked to go see the "Fred Head," the giant hollow head of Frederick Douglas, on display outside of the Frederick Douglas Issac Meyers Maritime Park and Museum on the opposite end of the Point. On the way there, he asked, "Who was Frederick Douglas anyway?" So we talked about slavery, both historic and modern, about racism, and about how important it was to stand up for human rights.

The Maritime Park also has a shipbuilding shop, and we took a peek. We'd been inside a few years ago, but it's not toddler-friendly, so we'll go back when it's just the two of us sometime.

When went back home, kitted up with water and snacks, and went to Irvine Nature Center . The displays there are great for all ages, and the grounds are just beautiful. We built a fairy house, talked about snakes, and took lots of pictures in the woods, like of the PigTree above.

After lunch, J will go to a yoga class he attends twice a week at a local private school, and then we'll come home, and maybe throw in a worksheet for fun. Or not, considering C had a ten minute nap in the car and will probably be a screaming hellion by the time 5pm rolls around.

Not every day is as wonderful as this one, but if I had to say what a perfect day was for us, this would be it.

Thanks for reading,
Anne

Pizza -sort of

Alright, this is the second time I've tried a mix from this company that has turned into paste, not dough. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?
I made blueberry pie for Father's day, and instead of rolling out the pastry dough, it was so sticky that I had to sort of mash little chunks into the pie plate until it was all covered. It came out too thick, and even though we ate some, I don't think I'll be going that route again.

Tonight we tried the pizza/ french bread mix. I let in rise in the oven, following my neighbor's instructions of lots of pans of water and low heat. It is super hard to get anything to rise in my house at all, and I was pleased how well this worked. But when I took it out to put on the pan, it was all sticky again. I managed to mush out slightly larger discs, and pat them down, by covering my hands in rice flower. I put olive oil on the pan and Borsari seasoning on the prepared dough, whch was bland, bland, bland.
I used the Cabernet marinara my son likes on his pasta, made by Muir Glen. I use them because they're one of the very few companies I've found who have an organic sauce with no soybean oil. Then I only had Mexican mix shredded cheese, and no mozzarella in the house, so I added Parmesan to the cheese to Italian it up.

We were all starved, so we ate most of it, but again, the dough was just too thick. Thank goodness a good sauce and tons of cheese can cover for a dough fail.

I'll keep looking for a GF dough that feels like dough. My favorite part of making pizza with the kids is kneading, and there's none of that with this kind.

Not just beets

I love beets.

I love the way they feel, heavy and dull in my hands. Their dirty skin, all lumpy and coarse and hairy. I especially love how my hands stain when I peel them after they've roasted.

Beet-stained hands make my think of my mother-in-law, and the ease with which she cooks everything so well. I think before her, I hadn't ever eaten beets that weren't from a can, and I'd had no idea how good they could be. On top of just the cooking, her hands are always busy. Preparing food, working with the children, moving the family business forward, creating amazing works of art, and generally keeping everything flowing smoothly in her life and everyone else's around her.

I remember when I first started to ask her about food, she'd start her descriptions with, "Oh, it's so easy!" Then she'd rattle off the recipe, from memory, complete with quantities and cooking times and temps and variations. I'd get lost after the second step and grab a pen. Then I'd ask her to repeat it very slowly so I could write it down. Then I'd still have to call her when I was in the middle of things and get clarifications about what certain terms meant, like braising, or what a rolling boil actually meant.

A few years ago, I had a friend ask me about something I was cooking, and I started off by saying, "Oh, it's so easy!". Then I rattled off a fifteen-step recipe while my friend's eyes glazed over. That moment, I understood something about cooking, and maybe even more than that. You just have to do the thing you need to do. Eventually, everything will just be so easy if you do it long enough.

Without my mother-in-law, I wouldn't even know how much I liked beets. Or parsnips, or lamb, or whatever that magic salad dressing is that she makes. I'm grateful for what she's taught her son, what she's taught my son and daughter, and what she's taught me.

Taco Truck

Obviously, I don't cook EVERY meal, but I do try and make good decisions about where we get our take-out.

Around the corner from J's gymnastics is a Taco truck that I absolutely love. Peek through the window and you can see the fistfulls of fresh cilantro, the limes, and best of all, the stockpile of Coca Cola, Fanta and other carbonated beverages made with actual SUGAR and not corn syrup. They're imported from Mexico, where the government doesn't dump huge subsidies on corn, so they have no need to make up ways to shove corn in everything. They also come in glass bottles, which are biodegradable, and are only 355ml (12 ounces), so you're not guzzling a gigantic tub of Coke.

I usually only stop by for the soda, but James said he wanted tamales for lunch, and since he's so picky, of COURSE I said yes. We got two pork and two chicken. They were both delicious, although the kids thought the pork was a little too spicy.

And then for dinner we had crabs. Better eat them while they're still around.

Thanks for reading,
Anne

How To Cook

I've been talking about this off and on with a few friends lately, so I thought I'd share some of it here.

I didn't grow up in a home where food was important, other than just trying to have enough. Powdered milk and government cheese, and that awful black-and-white "Value Checked" box of cornflakes were standard. Fruit was so precious that it was ingrained in me to only eat one piece a day, a habit which I only broke about a year ago.
Although I'm sure I had favorite foods, I only recall eating as being a massive inconvenience. Mealtimes were stressful, and I don't remember eating many things I actually liked, much less looked forward to. It was mostly a problem of resources, but overall, I didn't really have a positive experience with food.

I didn't cook much more than pasta until I was in my early 20's. I think the first thing I baked was chocolate chip cookies, from the recipe on the Nestles package, and I was surprised at how much better they were than any packaged cookies I'd had. From there I branched off into pies and cakes. I'd always bring desserts to potlucks, telling people that while a chicken dish might be delicious, EVERYONE remembers cheesecake.

I didn't start seriously cooking until my son was a toddler. Being responsible for his nutrition really inspired me to cook more, and better foods. I read books about food, watched TV shows about it, and talked to people who cooked a lot. I learned to listen to my body and how it felt after eating certain foods, and not surprisingly, I preferred fruits, veggies and sea creatures to cheese, red meat, and bread.

So I started cooking. I made lots of dishes, lots of mistakes, and kept cooking. Just like with so many other things, if I just kept at it, it got easier.

One of the most common obstacles people have to cooking is time. I share Anthony Bourdain's aversion to the Rachael Ray style of cooking. I think he said something like, if you're buying chopped up onions, you're not cooking.
Oh wait, here it is...

"We KNOW she can’t cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So…what is she selling us? Really? She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. She’s a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that “Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!” Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, “Hell…I could do that. I ain’t gonna…but I could–if I wanted! Now where’s my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?” Where the saintly Julia Child sought to raise expectations, to enlighten us, make us better–teach us–and in fact, did, Rachael uses her strange and terrible powers to narcotize her public with her hypnotic mantra of Yummo and Evoo and Sammys. “You’re doing just fine. You don’t even have to chop an onion–you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing…Just sit there. Have another Triscuit..Sleep…sleep…” "

From a guest blog post on Michael Ruhlman's blog from Feb 8, 2007.
http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/02/guest_blogging_.html

I think if buying chopped up onions gets you in the kitchen instead of passing out the Lunchables, then that's great, but don't STAY there. You're only going to get better at it by doing it. That's kind of my mantra. For everything.

A meal that used to take me 2 hours to get on the table now only takes about 30 minutes. Practice, practice, and more practice is the way to go.

Start with a good, basic cookbook. I'm partial to Joy of Cooking, because it teaches you about the food, and uses ingredients and kitchen tools you probably already have.

Just keep cooking.

And thanks for reading.

Oh, I also like what Bourdain said about Paula Dean in the same blog post, mostly for the John Waters reference.

Plantains

There's a grocery store a few blocks from my home that carries lots of Hispanic food to meet the tastes of the primarily Latino neighbors. We don't go there often, but I always try something new when we do.

Last week, C insisted on plantains instead of bananas, so we picked up a few. I read about them in my Joy of Cooking, my all-time favorite cook book, and decided to wait until they were ripe enough to fry outside the peel.

A few days after the purchase, we made pancakes in the morning, using Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake and Baking Mix. Since there was already butter in the pan, I peeled a plantain, sliced it a few different ways, and fried it up. This was my first time eating them, and both C and I found them so delicious, I bought more at the store last week. I can't wait for them to ripen so I can eat them again!

Ten Minutes

Now that it's winter, I'm cooking again. I made a weird chicken stew the other day that was so unremarkable, I didn't eat it. It's hard to have interesting food on a budget. Everyone else liked it, but I think I am just sick to DEATH of chicken. I could live on sea creatures the rest of my life. Unfortunately, the mercury would probably shorten that somehow. Isn't there ANYTHING we can eat without worrying about it poisoning us?

J is doing well on his gluten-free diet, and has healed enough to actually have an appetite again. I got so used to not really having to feed him much that its taken a while to get back in the habit, but we're doing much better.

C is walking, and helping out, and a teency bit better in the car. She still outshines her brother in the sleep area, but being my child, is by no means one of those babies you read about. I keep meaning to nightwean, but she'll get sick, or a holiday pops up, or the dreaded 18-month developmental spurt/sleep regression that it keep getting pushed further away.

I nightweaned J when he was about 21 months. He had finally gotten all his teeth, and spontaneously slept 5 hour stretches on his own for several nights, so I figured he was ready. It only took three days, but he still woke up twice a night or so for another year. Blegh. I'm guessing I'll wait that long for C, also, since that's when the 18 month thing usually is over.

I promise the next post will be more coherent. And maybe even about food!
Thanks for reading,
Anne

Work Week

H was away this week, and I had all these grand plans of straightening up the house and whatnot. Guess how much of that actually happened? I did manage to recycle some unused books and clear off a table, but now the dining room table is a ll cluttered again.

If I haven't mentioned it before, we live in a tiny, 650 square foot house. It's great for having small children, because you are all in the same room all the time, and it's quick to clean up when you need. The biggest problem I have is having a place to put things while I clean other things. I'm constantly shifting stuff around. I told someone once it was like living in a rubik's cube.

Still no big cooking news, except I made a peanut-butter cake with chocolate peanut butter frosting. This was on Cooks.com The recipe is at the end. I decided to add chocolate chips to it, which worked out, and learned that next tie I should grease the pans, and make at least twice as much frosting. It was a practice cake for J's 5th birthday coming up, and boy am I glad it was only practice. Because I didn't grease the pan, it was basically a big pile of crumbs held together by frosting. But everyone ate it anyway.

By the way, a three layer cake is HUGE.

Thanks for reading!


CHOCOLATE - PEANUT BUTTER CAKE

3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 c. milk
3 eggs
1 1/3 c. unsalted roasted peanuts, finely chopped (optional)
Chocolate-peanut butter frosting
1 (6 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate morsels (optional)
2 to 4 tbsp. unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped (optional)

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Add butter, peanut butter, and milk; beat 2 minutes on medium speed of electric mixer. Add eggs; beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Fold in 1 1/3 cups chopped peanuts. Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9- inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean (do not over bake). Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove layers from pans, and cool completely.

Spread Chocolate-Peanut Butter Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake; chill 1 hour or until firm. Melt chocolate morsels in top of a double boiler over hot water. Drizzle around top edge and down sides of cake. Sprinkle 2 to 4 tablespoons chopped peanuts on top. Chill until ready to serve. Yield: one 3-layer cake.

CHOCOLATE - PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING:

1 (6 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1 1/3 c. creamy peanut butter

Melt chocolate morsels in top of a double boiler over hot water; set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a small mixing bowl; beat on medium speed of electric mixer until smooth. Add melted chocolate to peanut butter mixture; beat until smooth. Chill 15 minutes or until spreading consistency. Yield: enough frosting for one 3-layer cake.

Hot Stuff!

I had a birthday yesterday, and spent most of my child-free hours at bookstores. I picked up a cookbook on quick and easy Indian Food and a food memoir. I'm not really doing much cooking right now because it's summertime and I'd rather be at the playground in the afternoon with the kids than spending 90 minutes cooking. They would, too. I am looking forward to cooking new stuff more once the weather cools down.

Also, it's difficult right now because C is a very short napper, like either 2 30-minute naps or one 60 minute nap, and I don;t have a heck of a lot of time to do anything without her. She's finally at an age where I can give her food prep to do, like mixing and dumping and playing in the sink, I just haven't gotten back in the habit.

But other than that, things are good. J learned to swim this summer, although I'm still a little freaked out by it. Hes sort of abrupt in the water, and today he had to cry "help!" twice before i got to him because I'm so used to him yelling in the water that I sort of blocked it out. I still want to cry just thinking about it.

OK, bed. Thanks for reading.

My oh, my!

It HAS been a while, hasn't it?

Things are going well. J's most recent test for celiac (6 months ago) showed the gluten-free diet healed all the changes, so even though we have a normal diet this year, after February he'll be gluten-free forever.

I'm ok with it now, although it is a bit of a bummer for him that he can't go to birthday parties or pizza places and just eat whatever he wants.

C is 12 months now, and still an amazing child. She can't walk yet, but can stand without holding onto to something. She gets very angry when she isn't eating EXATLY what we are.

And she's waking up.
Nice to see you again!

Tanks for reading,
Anne

Cheese for everything

So, a while back I posted a cheese sauce recipe, but in my search for the perfect easy mac and cheese , I've discovered the obvious.

Take shredded cheese and mix it in hot noodles. Ta-da! Mac and cheese. I can't believe I've never thought of this before.

That's really it right now. I'm going to make some pasta. With gluten. Just for me.
Thanks for reading,
Anne

Little Updates

As our Year of Gluten Free Living draws to a close, I am getting increasingly paranoid that we haven't been gluten-free ENOUGH, and that some kind of microscopic crumbs that touch his food here and there will seriously skew the results. J will be having another upper endoscopy come February, and I just really want things to be definitive. I don't want my precious little boy to have to suffer through an ounce more of medical intervention than he absolutely means, especially because of some sort of failure on my part.

For example, we don't use a separate toaster for his bread. Over the year, he's probably had 6 bagels toasted in the coffee shop's toaster, too.

I'm also not hyper-vigilant about cross contamination as far as processing facilities. All the anecdotal research I've done on this said that you just have to find out what your tolerance is as far as gluten. The problem with that is, he's basically non-symptomatic. As I may have mentioned before, he's never had any GI symptoms related to gluten, and no behavioral symptoms either. The only way the possible celiac was discovered was through blood tests and biopsies sprouting from the bloody stool. And remember, it was a polyp which was causing the bloody stool, not celiac.

So let's all hope I don't screw it up for the boy.

Thanks for reading,
Anne

Feels like Fall

We've been having beautiful weather the past few days here in Baltimore, and so we spent most of the day outside today.

j has been playing that he's Batman ever since he got his cape in the mail. He finds the cape too cumbersome to wear all day, but I've been calling him Batman allweek, and he refers to me as "Mighty Mouse", as I am providing the voice for the superhero version of his imaginary friend, Mousey.

Mousey is a palentologist, rocket scientist, and every other wonderful thing J wants him to be. He's the perfect imaginary friend, as I'm not required to set a place at the table for him, and J doesn't blame things on him. Sometimes James plays with Mousey, sometimes he IS Mousey. He's very versatile.

C is mastering coordinating her hands. She fights with toys when she's sitting up, trying to get the best parts in her mouth. She's very focused and determined, as all babies this age agre. She also shows no signs of rolling over early, which I'm happy about. Once she starts getting mobile, things are going to get tricky.

So that's it for today. Thanks for reading.
-Anne

I Heart the Chart

Recently, I've pulled back from society in an effort to stop being so grumpy. We've been so busy that I felt like I was always in a hurry to go somewhere, or come home, or something like that, and I was snapping at J. A whole lot.

Luckily, my plan has worked, and things are going a lot smoother. C screams like she's burning to death every time we're in the car, so cutting back on driving has helped my attitude, too.

Today I made a chart for our day. We had one last year while we were overseas, and it was very beneficial for us. No times, just an order of events. J actually asked me about a week ago if we could have another chart, and since I feel like the insane chaos of the newborn stage has passed, I can at least attempt to put the rythym back in our days. Until she starts teething, of course.

On the cooking front, I decided that parsnips are not worth the effort. You have to take out the woody center in order to cook them, and it either takes forever, or you waste a whole bunch of the flesh. They're tasty, but I'll just stick to eating them at my mother-in-laws house. They taste better there anyway.

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

October at the beach

I took the kids to the beach today, taking advantage of the awesome wether. We met another family there and had a wonderful time.

The only bad thing is that C HATES the car. She's basically either screaming or sleeping when she's in it. I usually end up stopping at least once to double check that she's not hungry, poopy, or being blinded by the sun. Our best bet is to try and coordinate long drives with her sleeping times. Going somewhere close, however, just plain stinks.

J said, while we were leaving the beach, "I had fun at the beach, but this part isn't much fun." He meant the baby yelling herself purple. I agree.

J had gymnastics this afternoon, and he did really well staying with the group. He won't go on the trampoline, or the balance beam, but I've told him he had to stauy with the group. I am so proud of him. He's so charming and lovely and friendly. He's constany meeting new children and asking to go to their house and stuff. This keeps us very, very busy.

Ok, back to the debate. Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Howdy strangers

So, I had the baby. She is beautiful, and a joy, and I love her to peices.

I had a scheduled c-section July 11, and everything went really smoothly. All in all, a much easier start than with my son, and things have been pretty easy ever since.

I have not been cooking much inthe three months since her birth, as dinnertime coincides with baby fussy time. Also, H has been working most nights, and J never protests to a dinner of yogurt and bananas.

I learned that our best bet is to have the big, healthy meal in the early aftenoon, and that way we can stay late at the playground and just have a snack-type diner. It also helps that he's well fortified for all the social interaction.

J has really made huge leaps in the social area, easily maknjgn new friends and playing elaborate group games. Sometimes he's the leader, sometimes he's in the follower group, and he doesn't seem to mind switching back and forth.

So much has happened since the last time I posted, that I couldn't possibly list it all, so I'll just talk about today.
I made beets to take to the beach today.

Take 4 medium beets. Stick them in glass pan with an inch of water and cover with foil. Put them in a 375 oven for 90 minutes. Poke with fork. If they give easily, take them out. If not, give them another 30 minutes.

Let them cool a bit in a bowl on the counter, then slip the skins off. J likes this part, and today proceeded to paint his face in beet juice like war paint. Good thing, too, becasue there was some serious friction at the playground later.

Cut them into eights, and put half a chopped red onion, a tablespoon each of balsalmic vinegar, olive oil, sugar, and lemon juice, and stir. Sprinkle with dill and salt to taste. Good cold or at room temperature.

Don't be alarmed when you pee purple later. It's the beets.

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Sprouted squash

Sprouted squash
Originally uploaded by jumjum15

I have mentioned before my extreme love for roasted squash. I can only eat it pureed, however, or in soups, not chunks.

In case I didn't mention it, here's what you do.

Wash a whole squash. Stab it deeply five or six times. Very satisfying. Set it in a roasting pan that's only a little bigger than the squash, if you can, and cook for at least an hour at 375. Larger squash takes longer, and I think I once had to go 2 hours.

The nice thing is, if it's undercooked when you cut it open to check, you can just toss it back in the oven until it's done. This happens to me almost every time.

I bought this one and let it sit on the shelf about a week before I cooked it, and when I opened it up, I saw the seeds had sprouted. I called my Mother-in-law, ho would know about these things, and asked her if the sprouting would poison me and the boy. She said it probably was picked in the fall, and here we are 6 months later, so that's why it had sprouted. But no poison.

We did the usual scrape, fork-mash, drown in butter treatment, which is the best. I've also used olive oil, and occasionally maple syrup, but butter is best. Massive doses of iron and vitamin A, all good things.

I attribute butternut squash to my son's awesome non-anemic state. I swear all the other kids his age are anemic. He likes meats, too though, so maybe that's it.

So yeah, eat seasonally, or your food might look like it's infested with worms. Still tasty, though!

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Set the Table

set the table.jpg
Originally uploaded by jumjum15

I tried this about a month ago and it didn't take, so I'll try again.

J likes to (usually) set the table. Here is the diagram I made for him. Yes, I KNOW the fork is technically in the wrong spot, but when I made a new one, and tried to switch it, he wouldn't let it go. And really, it's about continuity with a three-year-old, isn't it?

I don't really believe in chores for kids this young, or really ever, in a normal "stars n the chart, stuff you have to do every day/week whatever" sense. We have sort of general household rules, where we clean up after ourselves, but almost always with help, and take care of our things, but there's never any real negative consequence. He just can't play with something new until whatever he's finished with gets put away. It's mostly about space, because if there's Legos everywhere, there's no ROOM for the castle! So he's really good about putting things away. Of course, there's exceptions for massive block structures and works in progress.

Anyway, I think children are far more capable than most people give them credit for. Up until very, very recently, my kid was the only one of his peer group who drank from a regular glass and used regular, although slightly smaller, silverware. He also eats only at the table, with a special "popcorn on the couch" exception, and takes his dishes to the counter when he's done. He's obsessive about using his napkin, although gets upset when all the cloth ones are dirty and has to use paper.

The table-setting began as a way to have him occupied while I was cooking, at those times he can't help due to splattering grease or tight time constraints. I felt he was old enough that he didn't need the TV anymore to keep him busy, and also he's always been a helpful guy.

Now, if he's playing in the yard or in the middle of some project, i don't stop him and make him set the table. The whole point is to help him improve his focus, which is phenomenal anyway, so stopping him in the middle of something to do a non-essential chore would be counter-productive.

So give your kid something useful to do! You might be surprised how capable they are.

As a bonus, it will be extra handy when his sister shows up in July. At which time, he'll of course cease to be helpful, and I'll be extra thankful for Little Bear again.

Thanks for reading,
-Anne