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madelinekelly at 09:45pm on 14/02/2014 under tree
madelinekelly at 09:45pm on 14/02/2014 under treeWillow has started the baby-led weaning journey. So far she's tried roast lamb, boiled ham, broccoli, naan bread, satsuma, pineapple, fried apple, pear, yoghurt, passionfruit, banana, cucumber, carrot, mash, various pasta meals, curry, drop scones, and lots more. She's being very adventurous and enthusiasic about the whole thing. It's great to see her little feet twitching around with excitement when she's in her high-chair, and her babbling gets very loud and almost giddy-sounding. We've started signing too -- there's a notable response to the "more" sign so I think she's realised we're communicating with her. It's all wonderful, basically. I feel very lucky to have had 2 brave eaters. River still, when she's not tired and grouchy, has no problem trying new foods.
And, continuing the food theme, we had a LOT of courgettes from the allotment last year (five plants is four too many for our family, apparently) and quite a few ended up turning into marrows. Several of those marrows have been sat in a trug in our kitchen since last October. I thought they were keeping well but an unpleasant smell began to make its presence felt last week. Examination of the trug revealed that one sad marrow has transformed into black stinking goo.
So I turned one marrow into four jars of "sunshine jam" (marrow and ginger, really), which we all love. One marrow became a chocolate cake, complete with chocolate icing. One became a chocolate orange cake (by adding zest and juice of a satsuma to the original recipe). And tonight I made a chocolate peanut butter cake and a chocolate mint cake. They smell good, so I'm hoping they'll be edible. The marrow makes the cake lovely and moist without affecting the flavour at all. It's like magic!
And that's all the marrows used up, at last. I suppose I should feel ashamed that it took marrow disaster to motivate me to deal with the rest of them. But there just isn't any time to do the things that aren't essential. (I've been wanting to make that sunshine jam for months but something else more urgent always needs doing.) More examples: we only cleaned out the undersink cupboard in the kitchen (which hadn't been cleaned for over a year) because there was a leak. And I only tidied and cleaned the kitchen windowsill (a notorious "hotspot" for junk) because I noticed black mould behind the spider-plant pot. I don't like living like this -- always two steps behind where we ought to be.
I know everyone says this, but by gum it's hard having a baby and a small child.
Hard, and also wonderful.
And, continuing the food theme, we had a LOT of courgettes from the allotment last year (five plants is four too many for our family, apparently) and quite a few ended up turning into marrows. Several of those marrows have been sat in a trug in our kitchen since last October. I thought they were keeping well but an unpleasant smell began to make its presence felt last week. Examination of the trug revealed that one sad marrow has transformed into black stinking goo.
So I turned one marrow into four jars of "sunshine jam" (marrow and ginger, really), which we all love. One marrow became a chocolate cake, complete with chocolate icing. One became a chocolate orange cake (by adding zest and juice of a satsuma to the original recipe). And tonight I made a chocolate peanut butter cake and a chocolate mint cake. They smell good, so I'm hoping they'll be edible. The marrow makes the cake lovely and moist without affecting the flavour at all. It's like magic!
And that's all the marrows used up, at last. I suppose I should feel ashamed that it took marrow disaster to motivate me to deal with the rest of them. But there just isn't any time to do the things that aren't essential. (I've been wanting to make that sunshine jam for months but something else more urgent always needs doing.) More examples: we only cleaned out the undersink cupboard in the kitchen (which hadn't been cleaned for over a year) because there was a leak. And I only tidied and cleaned the kitchen windowsill (a notorious "hotspot" for junk) because I noticed black mould behind the spider-plant pot. I don't like living like this -- always two steps behind where we ought to be.
I know everyone says this, but by gum it's hard having a baby and a small child.
Hard, and also wonderful.