I bought Baby some baby food that involved grapes. She loved it. I decided that grapes were something I could make, so I bought some delicious organic grapes.
Then I realized that I would need to peel all those teeny tiny little grapes.
A few days passed before I remembered the food mill.
You don't need a whole new kitchen of cutesy baby accessories to make baby food. I'm all for using tools you already have or can use later, like a mini Cuisinart food processor, or little freezer containers that can hold snacks and dressing later on. That said, we bought a $10 Kid Co. baby food mill to use during our move and at the beach. It was much easier to carry the food mill (which comes with a travel case and does not need to be plugged in) than it was to bring the food processor along. It is the only thing I haven't thought of an "afterlife" for, but for $10, and assuming we have another kid at some point, it is well worth it.
Then I discovered something about the food mill that made it my new favorite thing. Skins can't get through the food mill. Long gone are the days of crushing blueberries through a sieve! Grapes do not need to be peeled! I can just run them through the mill and presto chango, they are skinless mush!
I ran about 1/2 a cup of red, sweet, organic grapes through the mill. I discovered that if you squeeze the grapes slightly (to crack the skin) before putting them through, they press much faster.
Here's the problem with grapes: they turn into soup. To counteract Grape Soup, I milled up a medium banana (which whirrs into slime) and made a goopy concoction that my baby absolutely loves. I think I'll mix it into some baby oats before serving it to her.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Eye Round Roast, Revisited
Once again, I found myself in the grocery store wondering what was for dinner. I was going to make pasta figoli with cheesy toasts for dipping. However, Dan had a big interview today, and I wanted to make a Dan meal (meat and potatoes) versus a Karla dish (Italian, involving pasta and beans or pasta and sauce).
I picked up some sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets before heading to the meat counter. I know that when you buy beef cuts, they say 1/2 lb per person (when really, a serving is 4 oz.) because the meat will shrink as the water and fat leave it. Still, when I asked the man for enough eye of round roast to serve 4 hungry people and he handed me what, when wrapped, was the size of my 6-month-old, I was a little shocked. (He actually gave me 2.79 lbs of beef. It was a bit much. Good thing it makes for tasty leftovers.)
Now, armed with the goods to make a meal the whole family will enjoy (no onions, no tomato sauce, no seafood...), I headed back to marinade the beef.
Eye of round is great to marinade overnight, but I am not a planner. I have several print-outs and on-line accounts designed to help people plan out a week of meals in advance, all failed. I tend to work better under the "go to the store, stand in the middle and put it all together based on what is fresh, local, organic, and on sale, in that order if possible." method.
I didn't have overnight, but I had 4 hours, so I used them wisely. I made an acidic marinade, let the meat come to room temperature before cooking it, and used convection bake, prolonging the time it could sit in the marinade before needing to go into the oven.
Eye of Round Roast Last Minute Marinade
(this would be good even if you could only sit it in the marinade for the 30 minutes it takes for the beef to come to room temperature)
As with all marinades, measurements are approximate. I just dump and go.
1/2 cup red wine
4 TBS balsamic vinegar
1.5 tsp basil
some thyme, oregano, and savory
1 bay leaf, broken up
2 TBS low sodium soy sauce
salt & pepper
Put into a plastic container, so shaking is easy. Shake the container every time you go by. I tend to put whatever I'm marinating in a container that barely contains the meat, so that I don't need to use a ton of marinade.
Root veggies are under appreciated this time of year. They are in season, but most people associate them with winter because the keep well. I say eat them all year round.
To feed 5 hungry people (because Baby ate enough to count as one), I made 3 sweet potatoes, a bunch of carrots - maybe 6? - and 6 beets. Peel and cut into big chunks, then put into a roasting pan one layer deep. It is better to use two pans than stack them all up.
Dress with the following:
thyme
maple syrup
olive oil
balsamic
pepper
Preheat the oven to 450. Put the beef into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to 350 degrees and roast for another 30 minutes on convect for a medium to medium rare (pink in the middle, no red) or 35 minutes for non-convection heat. Let the meat sit for at least 10 minutes and up to 20 minutes before carving. Then cut into circles as thin as you possibly can.
I put 1 cup of the veggies into the Cuisinart with 3 TBS of water and blended for two servings of baby food. It comes out BRIGHT pink, so you may want to undress your baby if you like the outfit she is wearing. Beets stain. I also cut her off about two adult bites of beef and whirred that to a pulp, mixed them, and Baby ate it ALL.
Enjoy!
I picked up some sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets before heading to the meat counter. I know that when you buy beef cuts, they say 1/2 lb per person (when really, a serving is 4 oz.) because the meat will shrink as the water and fat leave it. Still, when I asked the man for enough eye of round roast to serve 4 hungry people and he handed me what, when wrapped, was the size of my 6-month-old, I was a little shocked. (He actually gave me 2.79 lbs of beef. It was a bit much. Good thing it makes for tasty leftovers.)
Now, armed with the goods to make a meal the whole family will enjoy (no onions, no tomato sauce, no seafood...), I headed back to marinade the beef.
Eye of round is great to marinade overnight, but I am not a planner. I have several print-outs and on-line accounts designed to help people plan out a week of meals in advance, all failed. I tend to work better under the "go to the store, stand in the middle and put it all together based on what is fresh, local, organic, and on sale, in that order if possible." method.
I didn't have overnight, but I had 4 hours, so I used them wisely. I made an acidic marinade, let the meat come to room temperature before cooking it, and used convection bake, prolonging the time it could sit in the marinade before needing to go into the oven.
Eye of Round Roast Last Minute Marinade
(this would be good even if you could only sit it in the marinade for the 30 minutes it takes for the beef to come to room temperature)
As with all marinades, measurements are approximate. I just dump and go.
1/2 cup red wine
4 TBS balsamic vinegar
1.5 tsp basil
some thyme, oregano, and savory
1 bay leaf, broken up
2 TBS low sodium soy sauce
salt & pepper
Put into a plastic container, so shaking is easy. Shake the container every time you go by. I tend to put whatever I'm marinating in a container that barely contains the meat, so that I don't need to use a ton of marinade.
Root veggies are under appreciated this time of year. They are in season, but most people associate them with winter because the keep well. I say eat them all year round.
To feed 5 hungry people (because Baby ate enough to count as one), I made 3 sweet potatoes, a bunch of carrots - maybe 6? - and 6 beets. Peel and cut into big chunks, then put into a roasting pan one layer deep. It is better to use two pans than stack them all up.
Dress with the following:
thyme
maple syrup
olive oil
balsamic
pepper
Preheat the oven to 450. Put the beef into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to 350 degrees and roast for another 30 minutes on convect for a medium to medium rare (pink in the middle, no red) or 35 minutes for non-convection heat. Let the meat sit for at least 10 minutes and up to 20 minutes before carving. Then cut into circles as thin as you possibly can.
I put 1 cup of the veggies into the Cuisinart with 3 TBS of water and blended for two servings of baby food. It comes out BRIGHT pink, so you may want to undress your baby if you like the outfit she is wearing. Beets stain. I also cut her off about two adult bites of beef and whirred that to a pulp, mixed them, and Baby ate it ALL.
Enjoy!
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