Tawashi!

Old readers - don't look at the date! I've been gone, I had another child - she was literally interrupting this whole project. So authentic.
I'm not even going to start with an update just... here's a post.  Enjoy.

ANYWAY, I have been very slowly but surely stressing out more each day about the state of the planet. Looking at posts on Up-cycle Cloth Collective on Facebook has been an absolute balm.  It's full of proactive, kind, generous and creative people, true hope makers. 10/10 highly recommend.

The Tawashi video there looked instantly easy and inspiring - socks cut into rings, looped onto a make-shift loom and woven into a wash cloth!
One thoughtful person wondered about making tawashis with a strip of fabric, rather than socks, and I decided to give it a go.  In hindsight, she might've been asking what fabric to use when her socks are all knitted and her household is quite close to zero waste already, but I blindly barrelled on regardless coz what else are sleep-deprived good intentions for.

I chose a square cake tin for the loom frame because it's the only square thing I have with any strength. Five pegs each way.

I had this size 2 turtleneck stretch-cotton thing my youngest had graffitied with fabric paint. I cut a continuous strip from the hem and just eye-balled the cut-line an even distance from the edge the whole time, about 5cm (2") wide.

The red peg in the opposite corner was the turn from one direction to another and not one of the five pegs for each side.

Ran out of fabric!
I cut from the armpits, down the sleeve seam, and through the cuff. To make another strip, I cut from the chest towards the cuff, chucked a U-turn right before the cuff and let that be more strip, cut all the way back up the sleeve, across the back, towards the other cuff and just kept going until I couldn't get the width any more. Now it's just a turtle neck with triangles over the shoulder seams.

I overlapped the new strip with the previous strip's tail. Here it is with that thick seam sticking out before being woven in along with the tail.  All dandy.

Needed more blue pegs.

Lot's more. Look at that uneven scrunching. That's slap and dash.

Here is the red peg holding the start and tail.
I started tying it off beside that peg. I took the first loop off the peg and, working away from the tails, threaded the next loop into it, tying it off like a crochet cast-off.

At the pivot corner I twisted that loop, which probably wasn't necessary but I felt like it would give some structure and fill out the corner of the weave.

The tail was fed into the second last loop and tied off quite whateverly.

And now I think this will be a bath washer.  Though really it'd do better to be bigger and made into a bath matt!

It's hodgepodge and uneven, but duzzen madda a smaller version would do the trick too.

First thing's first though; that fabric left a blue fuzz on things so it's into the wash before use. That'll be the true test before we see how well a second watch actually cleans it after use.

D208: Simple & complicated

Well, its not terribly creative but it is made.

Bub now has a small stash of chicken and leek risotto in the freezer.  Luckily she seemed quite happy with it for the next day's lunch.  It is exactly what it sounds like:

One finely diced leek, softened with a bit of oil in a saucepan, about 200g of chicken mince added and cooked, about two handfuls of arborio rice heated through and then about 2¹/₄ cups of water, added a half cup at a time, and stirred through until the rice is tender.  I added some thyme, rosemary and a smidge of dill and salt.

Two trays went in together - the tall ones are from the top rack :)

These are the spicy pumpkin muffins I've made before. 

I had a little extra pumpkin so decided to increase the recipe in proportion and, although it was only an extra fifth of stuff, I added a second egg.  

I know egg binds and acts as an emulsifier, and I've definitely had brownies that have had a yucky egg flavour, but otherwise I wasn't too sure what it would do.  Nothing disastrous, it would seem.  This time...

D181-4: Pastie Rolls

No, it didn't take me four days to make these.  The first three days were spent working on my secret.

But today saw the invention of Pastie Rolls! 

These are an effort to sneak vegetables into Bub's diet.  She's been slow to take on carrot and zucchini, and even potato is a bit hit & miss.  She likes meat though, and always has our pastries when we're out so I'm hoping she'll take to these.  I have ended up with an awful lot though - about 40 - so I might share them with a friend!

I am completely confident, sure and convinced that the likes of these have never ever been seen in any other place on the face of the earth in the history of cooking ever forever and ever after, amen.  I must surely be the first to have put these ingredients together in such a way, yes?  I'd better write it down then, ay.

These are for my Bub, who has few teeth, so I've grated the vegetables. I'd prefer to finely dice them to make it more 'Pastie'-like.

Pastie Rolls

Need:

Score into thirds

• 1kg puff pastry (6 square sheets)
• 500g beef mince (ground beef)
• 2 medium potatoes 
• 2 carrots
• 1 zucchini
• About 4 tbsp plain flour, in a saucer or plate
• About 2 tbsp of milk, aside
• Some water with a pastry brush

This takes about 20mins to prepare, 20-25mins per tray, plus construction time.

To make: 

Grated veggies

1. Heat your oven to 220°C (430°F).
2. Grate your unpeeled veggies (not the stalks) and squeeze out as much of the juice as you can.
   (If you prefer to finely dice your veggies, squeezing out the liquid isn't necessary.)
3. Thoroughly mix the grated veggies with the meat. (Using hands works well.)
4. Use a sharp knife to score or cut your pastry into three even strips.
5. Collect a small handful of the filling and squeeze out excess liquid again.
   Form it into a roll about as thick as your thumb (or my thumb - about half an inch across).
   
6. Roll this in the flour and place on a strip of pastry, near the edge.  Do this three or four more times until you've a long roll of filling going down the length of a strip of pastry.
7. Brush the opposite edge of the pastry with water.
8. Use the backing plastic to curl the pastry into a tube, rolling it closed and using the wet edge to seal the tube.
9. Cut the roll into lengths as you please.
10. Place on a tray covered with grease proof paper. Arrange the roll so that the overlapping pastry is underneath.  Glaze with milk, and put in the oven.
11. After 10mins, drop the heat to 190°C (375°F) and cook for a further 10-15mins.

One strip rolled, cut into thirds and upside-down!

Cutting the pastries into thirds makes 18 rolls.  If you cut these into:

~ Halves, you'll have 36 Pastie rolls;

~ Thirds, you'll have 54 Pastie rolls; and

~ Quarters, you'll have 72 Pastie rolls and should open a shop.

Yum! and Yum says Bub! Hurrah!

D180: WET WEATHER GEAR!

A little jump here - I've been working on my secret project so shall clock the days but here's not much to say for them. 

Thursday, however, was eventful!

It was raining gently, with no wind, and I was desperate to get out... But no wet weather gear for bub meant I was hesitant.  How dodgy would it look if I cut a few holes in a garbage bag?... Would someone call the Welfare dept on me? (In our area, quite possibly!) 

Then I remembered I had some waterproof fabric from another debunked project... CRAFTARAMA!! Snip, snip! Fold, trace, snip! Knot, twang! Trim, stick, restick, test, restick... And TADA! CAFE AND PARK AHOY!! Stay tuned for a tutorial. 

Yeah it's a bit big...

 

 

Still a bit big... But better...

 

Off we go!!! (She wouldn't let me put the bonnet back on her.)

 To the cafe!

I didn't get any pics of us at the park, but it was lovely.  Down the back of the oval we found some logs and looked behind bark to check out the bugs and slugs, poked the dirt with some sticks, pointed at all the birds who we're out to scavenge after the rain.... It was grand!

D176: Neat feet

One of the great things, if not the great thing, about these booties is their simplicity.  It's a big T shape crossed over and sewn.  Badabing, that's it.  And as sweet as the symmetry is, feet just ain't symmetrical in the same way.  I mean they are symmetrical, just to each other and not in themselves.

Consequently, I've pitched these just a bit too small for Bub, and I think they'd work best on a foot about a centimeter shorter.  Which is no biggie, but there you go.  

Some excellent friends of ours had the good foresight to have their first girl about 364 days after ours, so all our handmedowns will be seasonally appropriate!  It may seem silly, but knowing their little girl may get some wear out of these come next June is enough to make it worthwhile for me! 

Here I am trying to get the placement of the elastic and button right.  I thought I'd centre it, initially, but the foot shape doesn't suit it so I'm trying to figure out which way and how much to adjust and create some balance.

I decided to thread elastic all the way around, rather than just on either side, or even using a yarn or elastic loop (too fiddly).  Green is not my first choice for button colour, but the set-in shank is.  I thought a regular eye-hole button would be awkward and bulky with the elastic and a regular long-shank button would be uncomfortable when crawling.

I'm currently trialling the elastic being threaded below the cuff at the back, to counterbalance the roominess in the corners.  Anyway, still a bit of remaining trial & error that bub hopefully has the patience for!

Pattern to come, hopefully soon!

D172-3: Designing trial & error

I'm trying to create a table runner with the left over pieces from a previous project.

Current design

The design is built from a squashed diamond shape made from a motif in the fabric.  This motif, together with the shape of the fabric scraps, has determined the size of the whole thing, in a way.

Design idea doodle...

There's some plain-coloured contrast fabric remaining too and I hope to use the pattern fabric as two patterns - parts with birds and parts with just flowers - and sort of get three 'patterns' but I still wish I had another pattern to contrast...

This doodle is my ideal, but it has fat lines and I need something specific.  I was thinking I'd be able to create a leaf shape from the negative space made from tiling the motif piece, which didn't quite work out. The motif shape doesn't have the right kind of symmetry or depth in the curves and, thanks to the scraps, it's not that flexible.

Yesterday's effort, trialling negative space shapes

At the moment, I'm working on splitting the motif shape to create that sweeping line in the doodle, the one that breaks it into three levels, and then extending the design to capture the full motif at least twice.

I might end up paper-piecing this project (here's a how-to), which I haven't done before but I'm willing to try!

D168: Mandarin Jam

I bought a pack of 'school' mandarins - the type that are good for school lunches because they're low on pips and easy to peel.  Well, I should've returned this pack coz they were more like large cumquats. Bleh.

Once I had 10 left I wanted to try this Mandarin Jam recipe from Erica Makes of Mildura.  Her instructions are terribly simple, which was lovely for my shabby short term memory.  I still put the sugar in too soon but it didn't matter in the end.  And, you'd think for a recipe that's pretty much "peel, cook till soft, add sugar, cook till gooey" it would be so quick and easy. Well, it should've been but these mandarins were rubbish to peel. They were tight, thin skinned and left masses of pith on the segments. Took half an hour and two buckled thumbnails. 

In 'things I changed': the recipe doesn't mention chopping the segments, but I cut them all in half.  I wish I'd cut them into smaller pieces - the sort of size I'd like to have on my toast.

At the 20min mark I did a gel test by pouring a tsp of the jam onto a chilled plate.  If it wrinkles when you tilt the plate it's ready, and I didn't get that till a little over 25mins of gentle bubbling.  I was also getting concerned about the colour and smell.  All the fruit had become translucent and it had a gorgeous glassy golden-orange look about it, but it also felt very close to singeing. I think some flavours can be complimented with a bit of burning, but not this.  I probably could've taken it off the heat at the second gel test, around 20mins, and it still would've set to a reasonable consistency.

Anyway, right now I don't care if it doesn't have a perfect mandarin taste - I certainly wasn't starting with a perfect product - it looks gorgeous!

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Next day brekky test:

It's reeeeally well set!  But still yum, like spreadable jelly babies!

D165 & 166: Sashes!

I'm making some curtain tie backs, which I'm calling sashes, for my MIL.  It's with the fabric left over from some cushion covers and will be used on two baywindow curtains and one larger curtain.
These are a work in progress from my own pattern.

So far, I've made a shape that works for both the shorter curtains and the long one, cut out and joined the fabric and cut out the calico backing.

I wanted the pattern to be the right way up, which was tricky with the way the remaining fabric was shaped.  To avoid any upside-down birds, this required making the sash into a front and back rather than cutting on the fold.  So there's a seam in the middle, which will hopefully be rather unremarkable, and I'm hoping it adds to the strength of the sash and helps to keep its shape.  

I considered interfacing but once that creases (which is not unlikely) or comes away it's not very helpful at all.  I also didn't want to do any quilting, so didn't use any batting.

I plan to work the loops from the top edge of the sash so that the upper edge takes all the weight.  Hopefully this will keep it from bunching up while it's holding the curtain.

D159-161: Slow goings

I know linen stitch is slow to work because of the weaving between rows, but for some reason I'm extra slow these days.  Maybe it's that Bub has been coming down with a cold, so by the time she's settled and things are done there's not much time left for knitting.  Anyway...

Here's how my experiment looks now:

Now, fingers crossed while I weigh this and hope what remains on the ball is at least as heavy, so that I can make two booties...

Nnnnope. What I've knitted is 18g, and what remains is 9g.  Booo!  

So, do I go buy more wool? (I was trying to use up these left-overs!) Or do I run with just doing a single bootie as a prototype? Ugh.

D155: Linen stitch wonderings

A bit of trial-&-error on the horizon; giving something new a bash... 

D152: Little Awesomenesses

For Bub's birthday party cake I used Nigella Lawson's Awesome Vanilla Cake recipe.

Tonight I tried out my idea for a chocolate cupcake variation.  The CTAW chocolate variation for butter cake is done by substituting 2tbsp of flour for cocoa.  This being quite a large recipe, I substituted 3tbsp of the plain flour with cocoa.  

After 25 mins at 180°C/350°F the skewer came out clean. 

I filled the cupcake patties a skinny cm short of the rim and got 24 from one batch.

I shall ice them in the morning when they've cooled and use a milk/butter frosting :D

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Ed note: I couldn't wait...

That there is two batches of glacé icing with some cocoa and shaved dark chocolate added.  Oh yeah!

D143: Well, well, well... if it isn't the old alphabet...

I've had it in mind to make bikkies of ones, exclamation marks and the letters of Bub's name for her first birthday, and ice them too, of course.  A few weeks ago I bought some Fred & Friends Letter Pressed Cookie Cutters and Letter Pressed Numbers.  The cutters and the boxes were full of promise and I was delightedly keen to go.  

Tomorrow were seeing our family for Bub's birthday, so I'm doing a test run for next weekend when we see Hubs family and aaaaaall our friends (well, many of them).  I'd like for the biscuits to be the party favour, but I'll skip it altogether if they don't come up to scratch.

Below are some tips for working with this product.  

TLDR? Roll out the dough, and cut and stamp the biscuits before chilling. Stamp the biscuits deeply, chill them for a full 30mins, bake till browned (for me, 12mins).

I'm familiar with the CTAW biscuit recipe (which rises quite a bit) so decided to try the one recommended with the stamps.  Here it is, somewhat summarised.  I had to make changes anyway, so am taking liberties with the presentation*:

Fred's Favourite Sugar Cookies*

• 1 cup (250g) butter
• 1 sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups flour

1. Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy
2. Add egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly
3. Sift together dry ingredients
4. Add dry ingredient to mixture in two batches. Ensure it's thoroughly mixed.
5. Split sought in two and roll out each between two sheets of parchment or grease proof paper. 
6. Chill for 30mins.
7. Use stamps to cut and impress dough.
8. Bake for 8-10 mins, or until biscuits are browned around the edges.

Steps 5 - 7 are where I had concerns.

The stamps have rounded edges and are not that sharp. Even if I was to create a rectangular shape, and even if I could perfectly tessellate the stamps into that rectangle, there would still be off-cuts at the corners and under the stamp edge.

I wasn't sure of the purpose of the chilling.  Was it a binding/resting step? Or was it to control the spread and rise of the biscuits?  If so, that progress would be lost when the offcuts were kneaded, re-rolled and cut again.

So, I experimented. I rolled, cut and pressed all my biscuits and lay them on parchment in three batches.

The first batch was not chilled.  Also, I was still learning how deeply to press the stamps.

It was doing the 1 when I realised how much deeper I should be pressing.

The second batch were well pressed and chilled for 10mins.

See the slight bulge on the sides? That's how hard you press.

The last batch was well pressed, chilled for the full 30mins, and baked 12mins.

Finally, she figures it out.  Hope these ones are crunchy too.

So there you have it!  Press well, chill well, bake well.
I wonder if chilling the CTAW bikkie recipe would have the same effect...

In other news, I won't have my sewing project ready for my family's gathering.  If you've been reading for the last few days you've probably figured out that I've been sewing a birthday bunting for Bub.  I'm really pleased with how its going, but I've only done three letters of 18 and some flags.  This makes me a quite sad really, but I should spend the morning making a second thing for the arvo tea and icing these bikkies (more practise for next week). I won't have time to sew on the rest of the letters, the rest of the flags and sew the bunting together.  I don't know where the day went :(

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*It's worth mentioning, the recipe on the Letters box was wrong.  It listed "1 egg" twice and didn't list flour at all.  If I hadn't bought the Numbers box - with a recipe that was the same in every other way - I couldn't have used their recipe.  Admittedly, this did not bode well for the quality of the product, but Bub slept for 7hrs in a row last night so optimism lined the day.

D117: Putting the luck in 'pot luck'

Fennel, Chicken & Veggie risotto

I've led a pretty sheltered life in the world of food.  Life on the farm was mostly meat-and-three-veg.  Italian was spag bol; Indian was kedgeree; Chinese was fried rice.   This is not me complaining - I made spag and fried rice myself.  And I loved Mum's cooking.  Every single meal, in my memory, was a comfort meal.  From the crumbed lamb cutlets and roasts to the fish fingers, egg bread not to mention the desserts. 

Have I not mentioned this before?  Well, if I had to choose I think my favourite would be crepes, which we had with syrup and with lemon & sugar.  I would have seven: three with each topping, one rolled and cut, one cut flat and one rolled and eaten with fingers, plus one that way I felt like today. Self-saucing chocolate pudding was good too. And chocolate steamed pudding, or college pudding, or upside-down pineapple cake, or chocolate cake, or a crumble, or golden syrup dumplings, or baked apples, or apple sponge, or lemon delicious... and if, somehow, a hot desert wasn't on the cards, there was always a bottled fruit in the pantry to go with ice-cream.  Or we could make ice-cream sandwiches with wafers and Milo.  Or have bananas and ice-cream... I'm telling you, life was grand.  Mum is awesome.

Anyway, I digress.
Here's what I was trying to get to today...  What the hell do you do with fennel?!

So, I was going to go into great detail about my slow adaption to a regular food delivery service and how our household shopping habits have had to adjust.  I'll cut to the chase though and admit that today, after our third delivery this morning*, we went to the supermarket to buy meats and a few more fruits for the week.  I wish I'd been able to get these from the delivery, but the fruit and veggies arrive after Thursday's order closes, so when I don't know what's coming I'm not sure how to prepare.  Maybe, one day, we'll be one of those households that always has some chicken and beef in the freezer, just in case.  At the moment though, our fresh food is bought as needed.

Last week, our Aussie Farmers Direct Couples box included half a red cabbage. This is starting to look a bit forlorn in the fridge's bottom drawer, as I've not yet  found a use for it.  (Yeah, live up to your name now, Crisper.)
This week we got apples, bananas, mandarins, oranges (which Bub has just cottoned onto), a Chinese wombok cabbage, another bag of carrots, another bag of potatoes, celery, coriander, red onions, lettuce, tomatoes and a fennel.  The potatoes are fine; I'm planning chips with those now that I know Bub will eat them.   The carrots and onions will keep, and the fruit is easily taken up with purees, brekkies and desserts.  But the rest?  Hmmm... I really didn't want another abandoned veggie in the fridge!

So this is what I came up with: Risotto!

Need**:

• 1 onion (any colour), diced
• 1 fennel bulb, grated or minced
• 300g chicken mince
• 3 small carrots, diced
• Half a wombok cabbage, sliced or shredded
• 1/2 cup of baby peas
• 1 1/5 cup aborio rice
• 1.5L chicken stock
• A lemon

To make:

1. Fry the onion and fennel in a large frying pan till soft, add minced chicken and stir till cooked.
2. Add carrot and cabbage.  
3. Add rice and stir till that all wet.
4. Add 1L of the stock and stir till its absorbed.
5. Add peas.
6. Add one cup of liquid at a time, stirring till each is absorbed.  Stop adding liquid when the rice is cooked.
7. Serve with a slice of lemon.

I almost added dill, but I'm even less familiar with that flavour and didn't want to find out it was a bad idea on a big pan of made food.  Of course, you should season your meal as you like.

As soon as the box arrived, after I'd looked at the contents with Bub and said "Last one of these I think!", I started searching with "fennel cabbage recipe".  Amongst all the coleslaw recipes, I saw someone had written something like "Don't be put off by the fragrance of the fennel, it lessens on cooking."  Thank goodness, because I found it quite aniseedy when chopping and I wasn't a fan at all.  But this?  This I'd have again.  Good thing too, coz there's about 6 serves of it!

Maybe we will do another Couples box though... We'll see what's left come Tuesday! :)


*So, quick note: AFD deliver fruit & veg on Wednesday only.  Diary, bakery things, meat, deli, meals, pasta, and all the rest are delivered on Monday and Thursday.  Monday's order closes Sat @1pm, but the other two are 1pm the day prior.

**This risotto is cheese free.  We can't do cheese at the moment with Bub's tummy, but I'm not sure it would work with this recipe anyway.  The creaminess is still there thanks to the frequent stirring of the aborio rice.

D115: Today I learned...

Today I learned that you really do need room-temperature eggs when making madeleines. Beating the eggs could take 3mins, apparently*, but if the eggs are cold you have to beat them until they warm up. That's when they start to thicken and 'ribbon' off the beaters. I kinda knew this before but now I think it'll stick. I think next time I'll even think to take the eggs out well before I start baking.

Today I learned that my continental style knit stitches aren't as slow as I thought.

I also learned that as gorgeous as this yarn is, it's not my favourite ever.  The best thing about it would be the range of colours, especially for a baby yarn. Shepherd does a lovely range of 4ply baby yarns too, but for a lightly thicker range these are delightful. It is, however, easy to spear this yarn as you go. I wonder how it will wear in the long run.

Right, off to tray-up this batter! I'm soon to learn if Maple Syrup Madeleines are a good idea!

*Suppose it depends on the room.

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Ed's note:

Oh yes indeedy-doody Sharon, maple syrup is a very subtle yet very pleasing flavour.

D110: She'll be apples...

I can't decide whether apples or lemons are the best fruit.

Lemons are so versatile - sponges, stir fries, a lemon transcends the boundaries. It's sparks and tilts the flavour of a meal, it's a garnish and a foundation flavour, and they last and last...

Apples, though, go with meats and pastries and are in the jam in jam doughnuts, and there's a gazillions varieties of them, and you can eat them fresh*... Yeah, it's apples.

While fruit is notoriously sweet, it is often also sneakily tart and in a way my adult palette has missed.  When I made apple and plum puree Bub hit an especially sour spoonful once and, I kid you not, turned her head to the side, straightened her little legs and smacked the table three times.  Although paralysed with laughter, I did have the presence of mind to retain that plums are sharp.

Once I started paying attention, I realised that Granny Smiths, too, would be quite sharp for babies so I initially chose an eating apple because they often have a mild flavour.  I love Fuji apples, so I got those in case I was too disorganised to actually make the purées.  (Or is that really organised...?)

3 medium Granny Smiths, 2 brown pears & 1 medium banana = 1 doz. heaped tbsp

Bub is a fan of apple, pear and banana purée and today I had the presence of mind to document my effort, not just in photos but in quantities.  I've tried different types this time: brown pears instead of green, Granny Smiths instead of Fujis, just to work some variety into a somewhat reliable food.

Then I used some mild Golden Delicious and added some frozen berries - a few each of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.  Two small apples and some berries do not yield very much, and now I know.  A part of me thinks I'm kidding myself with this one, flavour-wise.  Did I not just explain how babies notice sharp flavours more than adults.. and I'm using raspberries? Really?

Nevertheless, I don't want to start not making things because I'm presuming Bub's tastes.  Who's to know what her preferences are like one day to the next?  Maybe she's old enough for some tartness.  Her interest in food waxes and wanes and preferences come and go without rhythm.  So as much as I feel foolish for not being right about what she likes (coz I'm supposed to have some sort of telepathy about that, obvs) I still want to try lots of different things, rejection be damned.  

Two Golden Delicious and half doz berries = not much.

This cooking thing is beginning to feel like a metaphor for the grief of parenting - all this effort, with no possibility of gratitude, some likelihood of pleasure and every chance of rejection.  For me, knowing that Bub will refuse things she doesn't like means I have to manage my emotions about it all.  I go to a bit of effort to imagine or choose and make all these things especially for this little person, with no guarantee whatsoever that it will be liked, hoping for her best response, which is a frequently opened mouth, some impatience, maybe some kicking.  So I have to find this middle ground of being thoughtful, maybe creative, but not invested.  (These are the minutiae of mental health for some mums.)  

And yet, sometimes I can't help but get a little bit excited about new foods.  For instance, I couldn't wait for her to try the little shepherd's pies I made.  I'd really like her to enjoy beef and potato, two feature ingredients in my diet.  I even cut one in half, so I wouldn't feel too bad if she rejected it.  It took three pans to make, you see, and that's a lot of bother for me.   I even caught myself talking my heart down, "She prolly won't like it much, it is a very strong flavour, and she's got no teeth..." 
She inspected it a lot, and tried the potato... early days, early days.

So, if you haven't figured out that I overthink things, you've just been busted for scanning and not reading.   About once a week I exhaust myself and fall in a gentle heap with "You know what?  We'll just put what we're having in front of her and if she eats it she does, and if she doesn't she'll have a breastfeed. No biggie."  At some stage, that relaxation will become permanent, I hope, or Bub's eating habits will shift.  As they say, food is for fun before they are 1.  For FUN.  So I've got a little under 8 weeks to get it right.  (Good work brain, way to help.)

*Yes, I know, technically you can eat a lemon fresh, but you can also eat a book fresh, so, you know.

D95: Homey timin'

Today was one of bits and pieces, chores and errands.

Here is the fruit purée I made for Bub.  It's a little experimental, based on a favourite smoothie I used to have, and mostly strawberry & cantaloupe.
It needs yoghurt but I'm pretty sure that still gives Bub eczema, so I used banana and rice cereal as thickeners.
 The experimental part is that I'm freezing it to store but I don't want to warm it when defrosting. Warm cantaloupe? Gurrlegaga! You know how many chins that go with that sound, yes?  So the microwave skill level needed for this dessert is Expert.

I also tried to resurrect some failed baby food. We had two rejected items - potato & spinach and leek & cauliflower - but too much of both to chuck them out guilt-free.
I though fritters might work, with a bit of faffing around. A prototype batch with grated carrot and crushed chick peas wasn't too bad but they were rather flimsy. This batch used the rest of the chick peas, a grated zucchini and some cooked rice.  It sounded so good on paper, so effective.  Alas, the whole thing was very wet and the first batch stuck to the ('non-stick') pan.  I added flour to strengthen it and prepared more oil.  However, I had to tag with Hub to settle Bub and he just cooked the rest as is, in larger palm-sized patties.
The flavour was lovely. I decided not to take a photo... Nuf said.

In small-but-it-counts efforts, I sewed a few press studs onto this delightful flannelette wrap from an Ikea sheet set.  We've been using it to shield Bubs eyes from the night light ,which gently shines like the ever watchful eyes of an overly-affectionate radioactive puppy.  It's really very good, just surprisingly freakin bright.  In fact, once your eyes accustom to the dim, you can't even directly look at it without wincing.
So, after draping a flat nappy and a hanky over the night light*, these studs are to hold the wrap over the rail of the crib.

Hopefully I'll get some more lactation cookies done tonight.  And here I am blaming the night feeds for being tired. :|

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Look! Cookies!

Hey! Waddya know!  And I learned something today...  Raisins are pretty large and I've found that if they're in the centre of a cookie then it's way more likely to fall apart.  So when I want smaller cookies I use sultanas/currants only: Raisins are for big cookies.

*No need to freak out about fire safety:  It's a rubber-encased night-light and barely gets warm.  It's more likely to start a fire from burning my eyes.