Parrot Parfait

Since using the Deceptively Delicious cookbook, I started hiding vegetable purées in food at will. David seemed to love carrot purée with applesauce, and as a anti-veg man that was great. Now, in making baby food I took the carrot + apple purée combination a step further. By changing the base from apple to pear purée, I created what I've decided to call, 'Parrot Sauce'.

Parrot Sauce

3-4 pears mostly peeled and cored
2 apples mostly peeled and cored
5-7 carrots mostly peeled

Bake in 2 inches of water in a small ditch oven or covered baking dish at 350. I'm not entirely sure about baking time, so check periodically for 1 hour.

Let cook and then purée and pour into empty applesauce jar.

The nice thing about Parrot Sauce is that everyone in the family can enjoy it. Top with plain yogurt and granola and you'll be eating the same thing I do most mornings. If you're looking to make your own granola, first of all good for you, I'd recommend my friend Hana's blog Sweet Mama Zog for recipes - I believe this is her maple granola featured in the photo. 

Sweet & spicy vegetable soup

This soup is tasty and according to the friend that shared it with me, no points on weight watchers! Even Tripp agrees, it's delicious.

You'll need:

About 3 cups V8
1 large can crushed tomatoes
3/4 of 1 box of beef stock
1 can spicy chili beans
1/2 c. brown sugar
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

1 head of cabbage rough chopped
2 cups kale chopped
1 onion chopped
4 stalks celery rough chopped
1 cup chopped carrots

In a soup pan or Dutch oven, sauté onion, celery and carrot for 5 minutes in olive oil then add in all remaining vegetables. Add beef stock and cook down about 5 min, add everything else and cook till soft.

Spiced Roasted Chicken

This recipe is from a dear friend who made spiced roasted chicken for me when I really needed a hand.

You'll need:

1 whole chicken
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375.

Melt the butter and mix in honey & spices together and spread over chicken in a roasting pan. Cover with foil and bake for 1-1.5 hrs. Check on chicken every 20-30 minutes and spoon sauce over top.

This dish pairs well with Mediterranean sides. With leftovers, add starchy veggies to the pan and roast again adding chicken stock and additional turmeric, cinnamon & honey as needed. As seen in photo.

Snowy day reindeer photo shoot

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but Judah's jammies are so delightful! Thank you Mimi & Grandpa G!

January slipping by

2013 is coming and going to quickly. Judah just pasted the 6 month mark and his milestones are consuming so much time! I will have to record in detail soon so as to keep the details from slipping by like this month is.

Updating the desktop wallpaper from August to January from Smashing Magazine this morning... oy! I think when time slows down I should try to enter the contest for one of these.

Definitely sporting this one sans calendar so I can forget about
updating until the Summer

Christmas 2012, check!

Grandmama's Porch

This year, we spent 5 days and 4 nights at Grandmama Grant's in Jackson, MS. Leaving at 6pm on Friday night, we arrived at 6:45am on Saturday morning. Tripp did all the driving and I did all the reaching-into-the-backseat-to-give-a-child-something-they-wanted & keeping-the-driver-awake & texting-family-updates as well as snoozing here and there. Tripp decided to try 5 hour energy after a recommendation from a coworker and it was successful!

A special part of this Christmas was a spontaneous visit from Jacky & Cayte! It worked out that they were able to come to Grandmama's house late Friday night and stay through Sunday morning. We have missed their presence greatly at Christmas and were so thankful for the brief but precious time. We are all praying that next Christmas our families, as well as new baby Olyvia who will be 10 months by next Christmas, will enjoy time together again. There's one little person in particular who would like to see his best friend Jacky as much as possible. That's David and he just adores his uncle Jacky. Oh yeah, and this trip, David decided that their dog Zoey was fun to take on walks in the backyard.

Oh the backyard! From Saturday morning on, David was at the back window begging to be let out into the backyard to romp around. Tripp was getting tired of chasing David around, but thanks to cousin Grant, he made it out pretty much all Saturday. David must have known it was going to DOWNPOUR for a large remainder of the trip. Christmas day on, it was like sheets of water coming down - which triggered stories of some flood in Jackson where the water was up to Grandmama's cabinets. I was tempted to hit the road early.

Beginning late Sunday afternoon, Aunt Seale (not my aunt, David's aunt), Grandpa G and Mimi came over to start our Grant family Christmas time. It was wonderful to catch up and good to pass an energetic David and snugly off to grandparents. We celebrated Christmas and opened gifts with them that evening and like usual, the giving was more than generous. My family abides by lists for about 50% of gifting. The Grant family not only abides by the list but finds really neat companion gifts that shows so much thoughtfulness. For example, I asked for gray socks because when I walk around our apt in my white socks they turn gray from dirt. From Grandpa G and Mimi not only did I get gray/black awesome athletic socks, I also got mega thermal tall cozy socks. For Judah, I asked for playtex sippy cups. Not only did they give him a blue/red playtex sippy cup, they found an AMAZING stainless steele thermal sippy cup that keeps cold for up to 6 hrs. David is 'trying out' that gift right now and it's great! All this to say, thank you so much Grandpa G and Mimi for always showing love to our family through the language of thoughtful gifts. We're thankful for you!

After Sunday, the MS Christmas finished off with frisbee games in the front yard, families opening gifts, lots of comfort holiday food, COFFEE and more COFFEE, breakfast casserole, tetris, cable TV (thank you Jacky!!), chats with Grandmama & Perkins family, and feeding Judah...

Before I close this entry, I've just got to record my experience of feeding a 5 month old in a house of 15+ people. One of the most fun parts about staying at Grandmama's house is the morning to late night family time. Every room has a welcoming relative or 10 and a place to plop and chat. Follow me now to 2am. Judah has decided to wake EVERY night at this sleepy hour and I feel the best solution is to feed him and put him back down as quietly as possible. Due to the possibility of nightwaking we took preventative measures of also not waking up David by having Judah sleepover in Grandmama's room, bless her! So each night, around 2am I responded to Judah's cry by scooping him up and walking to some open seat in the house to feed him. At the height of house guests, I couldn't find my glasses and ended up bumping into Aunt Olivia on the couch. She was sweet and offered to turn the light on, but I preferred darkness to conceal my feeding Judah and try to keep us all sleepy. Thankfully, Judah always went back down quietly and quickly, but I tell you these night adventures will be unforgettable.