Making Baby Food

After spending $80 today at Babies 'R Us on formula and baby food, I decided to try to make baby food.  I had been reading blogs and books on it, but I just had not taken the time to jump in and try.  I bought a small bag of sweet potatoes (the potatoes themselves were also very small).  Wow - it was easy.  I won't be buying baby food anymore unless I need to for convenience.  Another reason is that while I buy organic baby food, I cannot think that it is healthy for the baby to eat all jarred/boxed food.  He needs fresh food without any additives or preservatives. 

So, I poked holes all around the sweet potatoes with a fork and popped them in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Once they had cooled, I peeled off the skins, cut them in cubes, and threw them in the food processor.  I added enough water (used the Nursery water gallon jug) until I was comfortable with the consistency.  These 3 small sweet potatoes yielded three 4 ounce jars.  I boiled some Earth's Best baby food jars that I had saved to sterilize them and used a rubber spatula to put the sweet potatoes in.  I am going to buy some containers for the freezer.  For this week though, the baby will have sweet potatoes for dinner made by Mama!  Final result below

Can you hear me now?!

I love NPR.  I listen to it all the time in the car.  Some days I cannot get out of the car because of the story on the radio.  Today was one of those days.  Sarah Churman was on Dick Gordon's The Story.  She told the story of the first time that she could hear.  She then expanded on the first time she heard her little girls' voices.  (Since I cannot do this story justice, please listen to the full podcast at http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_013112_full_show.mp3/view.)  Sarah is 29 and has 2 little girls and a husband.  Her husband's mother paid for her to have an implant to give her the gift of hearing.  PLEASE SEE HER YOUTUBE VIDEO of the first time she heard sound at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA.  I cannot imagine a more appropriate "little things" focus for my blog.  The ability to hear is something that we all take for granted every day.  Over the last two years I have also had the privilege of being involved with a non-profit, Beginnings of North Carolina (www.ncbegin.org), that supports families of children that are deaf or hard of hearing.  If you have had a child, you know the test they do in the hospital at birth regarding their hearing.  For some families, they receive the report that their son or daughter may have hearing difficulties.  This non-profit supports those families to understand and deal with this news.  Today when I picked up Lowe from school, I didn't listen to the radio again.  I simply listened to the sound of the car, the sound of my body, and the sound of my baby's coos.  It was better than any song.

Learning to be OK with "incomplete"

Do you remember in school the option for a grade or remark "incomplete?"  I do, but I never received one.  Every day I make a "to do" list - both personally and professionally.  I have a template for the daily one at the office, and I have made personalized ones for every staff member. Every person is supposed to fill it out the day before to have for the first thing the next morning.  Yet every day I leave without getting through my list.  So, it builds...and builds. 

When I get home, the unopened mail, the dirty bottles, the wrinkled clothes, and the unanswered phone calls, etc. stare me down.  They too are "incomplete!"  These little things haunt me through the night and drive me nuts during the day.  Did parenthood bring along with it less hours in the day?  My focus this year is the little things, so I am going to have to learn to be OK with things being incomplete.  I can do all I can during the day but some things will just have to get left undone.  But you know what, guess what I DID do today - I chattered nonsense with Lowe this morning.  He woke up clapping.  Lets all take from that what we should - just for waking up for a new day, we should applaud ourselves.

Goals and Resolutions...

Since I can remember, I have set goals.  Big goals.  I aimed to publish a book someday.  I did by age 21.  I wanted to live in a big, urban environment.  I lived in Manhattan for 3 years.  I hoped to have a wonderful husband and child by 30.  I married Matt at 28 and had Lowe at 30 (neat fact - I had the baby 2 years after to the day that we came home from our honeymoon).  There are more but you get the gist.  Now I am focusing on smaller goals and attempting some resolutions. I think I appreciate the little things so much more after having a child.  Lowe learned how to clap this week and you would have thought he cured cancer or won the world series the way I yelled and screamed and nearly cried.  That's the great stuff for me now.  Just a little guy applauding himself for no reason at all. 

2012 Goals

-write a blog to inspire women both personally and professionally

-read 36 books

-read to Lowe every day

-have a date night with Matt once a week

-keep the freezer stocked with homemade meals

-save at least 15% of my income

-join a church

-run a 5K

-go to New York twice

-rehire a cleaning service

-keep my car clean and clutter free

-declutter my house

-organize home office

-organize every closet in my house

-banish negative thoughts immediately

-send one handwritten note a day (week days)

-spend at least 30 minutes a day giving Lowe my undivided attention

-put service above self

-adopt a family at Christmas

-go back to South Africa for a safari with Matt

-drink 8 glasses of water a day

So there - it's in writing and out there for all to see. 

Cooking my way into 2012, Part II

Matt had surgery on Friday, December 30th.  The day before I decided that since we would be limited in what we could do, I would cook all weekend and focus on house organizing.  We have mostly finished a house remodel, and I am anxious to begin organizing everything possible.  I am so tired of clutter and not being able to find things quickly.  Here is the menu for the weekend - rotisserie chicken with pea and truffle oil risotto, black cherry pork loin with braised red cabbage and roasted potatoes, homemade chili, and for New Year's Day the traditional collards and black eyed peas with Kielbasa sausage.

Black Cherry Pork Loin with Braised Red Cabbage
-2 small pork loins
-black cherry preserves
'-red wine
-red wine vinegar
-chicken stock
-one head of red cabbage
-small red potatoes
Place pork loins in a large crock pot and cover about 3/4 with chicken stock.  Finish covering meat with red wine and red wine vinegar (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of vinegar).  Slice the red cabbage and cover the top of the meat and cover with lid.  Cook about on medium 6 hours.   Dice potatoes with skin on and place on oiled baking sheet.  Dash salt and pepper and cook about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Once pork is ready, laddle some juice out in a mixing bowl and toss in some black cherry preserves.  Mix that up for a juice/sauce over your pork on your plate.

Cooking my way into 2012

Last year for a New Year's Resolution I decided to plan my meals on Sunday, grocery shop that day, and then use a service for weekly menu inspirations.  I chose papayahead.com and was immediately very glad that I did.  Over 2011 every week I received lots of recipes that Matt and I tried.  Some were fantastic, some OK, and some terrible - all in all it proved to be so much fun, a money-saver, and helped us to eat healthy.  The other kicker was that I was pregnant.  My exhaustion was extreme, so I had no energy to cook each night.  However, I did not want to compromise on my dedication to eat fresh produce with little to no packaged/processed foods and definitely would not begin eating fast food.  I mostly cooked meals that had only a few ingredients, used the same ingredients for a couple of different dishes during the week, and only took an average of 30 - 45 minutes from prep to table. 

One focus of this blog will be to share some of the recipes that I have found or that I have developed on my own.  As a warning, I am not big on precision in regards to recipes.  I just use my "gut."  If you need more specifics, comment or send me a private message and I will do my best to help.  Bon appetite!