Pureed!

It feels like I have been pureeing for days! In an effort to take charge over my picky toddler's diet, I'm diving fully into the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, kindly given to me by my lovely sister. This is a departure for me, since I usually cook by...uh...guess and improvisation rather than by recipe (baking excluded), but I needed some inspiration and this book is providing it!

My kind husband was so good and fulfilled my birthday wish for an IMMENSE food processor. It is already much loved and well-used, and played perfect sous-chef in this pureeing project. Perhaps it even deserves a name? Art the Cuisinart? Art was tireless in whipping into submission butternut squash, broccoli, spinach, carrots, and sweet potatoes. I even pureed some cooked turkey--gross, I know, but he needs some protein and the only meat he will eat is chicken nuggets and elk (but just a few bites and simply for the novelty factor of eating what Daddy hunts).

Ever so stealthily, I have included these lovely purees in spaghetti, pita pizza, quesadillas, and tortilla roll-ups. It is working! He still averages 2-5 minutes of chewing per bite at each meal, but so does my Grammy and she's fit as a fiddle and about to turn 90, so it's gotta be a healthy habit! The best part is that we have even enjoyed a meal or two where we have ALL EATEN THE SAME THING! Someday I hope to ditch the practice of cooking separate kid and grown-up meals, and it can't hurt to sneak some extra nutrients into our grown-up diets.

The baked goods recipes look pretty good, too. In fact, today I enjoyed a lovely morning snack--a peanut butter/banana/carrot puree/whole wheat muffin. Yes, it sounds like crazy-person food, but both the kid and I find them delicious. I'm pretty sure that Grammy would, too.

Balancing

I feel blessed to have been raised by parents with an exceptional concept of work/life balance. Exceptional, because it was the exception. It was steady on work, heavy on life. We didn't have a lot, but boy we had A LOT! We learned about doing things well, but not doingdoingdoing all the time. We had chores and responsibility, but we also read a lot of books, spent a lot of time playing in the cow pasture, and were constantly creating.

This heritage is ingrained in me, and is part of my inspiration to shift to a different pace now that we have reached the parenting phase of life. I'm now working outside of the home only 2 days a week, and hope do so even less as/if our family expands, but the balance is perfect for now. Maybe it's not necessary...many moms have more kids than me and work full time. But it seems necessary for me and mine. I guess is what matters.

Once I had the idea that this schedule change would equal a spotless house and lots of completed projects. So far, though, it has meant more time to play with my kiddo, more dirty laundry from playing in the mud, more time spent putting together puzzles and playing "africa toys", and more projects left half finished because of a little boy begging "play with me, mom". Playing seems to be the theme.

My own Mom was 46 when she died. I was never blessed to meet my mother-in-law, who was also in her 40s when she died. Every day this reminds me that getting is less important than giving...giving time, experiences, tickles, snuggles, songs, kisses, horsey rides, all the good stuff. This post is more of a note-to-self than anything; something to remember when I feel left behind by the Joneses. This is the life I am choosing!

Piles

I hate piles. They are a sign of things unfinished: unread mail piles, unfolded clothes piles, unfiled paper piles, unorganized junk piles, unwashed clothes piles, things-to-be-taken-upstairs piles, unwashed dishes piles, things-to-give-away piles. They make life cluttered and create stress!

In 2011, I'm going to try to eliminate piles. Well, within reason! Obiously I will not run a load of laundry until I have accumulated a enough of a pile to make it worthwhile, but that takes all of 5 minutes so it won't be an obstacle. Why is this a worthwhile goal? Because I want to develop a new habit of dealing with things now rather than later--the physical piles, electronic piles, and other "unseeable" piles. I tend to set things aside to deal with later, usually because I tell myself "I don't have time for this right now". In truth, that is rarely the case. I DO have time to unload the dishwasher. What does it take? 5 minutes? I DO have time to throw in a load of laundry first thing in the morning. I DO have 2 seconds to pick up a pair of shoes. I DO have 2 minutes to return an email, write a thank-you card, or make a phone call. I have this awful, lazy habit of ignoring things, but these things don't go away, and I will have to deal with them eventually, so why not now?

Learning

Sometimes I get a little high on myself. I think "hey, I can garden and can and cook and do it all pretty well". And then my homemade pectin isn't pectin-y. And my homemade pickles match the textbook description of spoiled pickles that should not be eaten. And it freezes the night that I don't cover my tomatoes. And the only butternut squash that has survived the great squash bug infestation of 2010 (which I fully intended to harvest but my hands were full so I decided it could use a few more days on the vine) also freezes and is then discovered by the ever-expanding squash bug colony.

But I'm good with it. I'm learning things. Every flubbed attempt builds a little more character and expertise (as in What Not To DO expertise, which is really quite valuable). And guess what? My relish is SCRUMPTIOUS, my hubby and kid have downed gallons of homemade-pure-and-unsweetened grape juice within the last week, and there are plenty of edible things hanging out in the pantry and freezer waiting to grace our table this winter.

I'm sure the magpies will be ever so thankful for the spoiled pickles.

The Jungle

Every year I tell myself I will do better about this, and every year I forget. Staking/caging tomatoes is a trial for me! I know it's not that hard, but (like cleaning toilets) I dread it so much that I make it out to be a huge task and then I just avoid it!

Alas, this means that picking tomatoes requires hacking through a jungle. Do you know how frustrating it is to see a glimpse of ripe tomato goodnees peeking through the underbrush, yet not be able to get to it without a machete!? Some of my tomato plants have decided that standing up just isn't worth the battle and have decided to lay down on the job, meaning that my lovely ripe tomatoes are often wallowing in the dirt. Since they were all planted in 4-foot square raised beds, the chaos is at least manageable, but it is messy! And somewhere, hiding under all that, are a few straggling basil plants and at least one pepper plant. I know they're in there--I can smell 'em.

I'm pretty sure the mayhem, combined with my inattentiveness to the blossom end-rot problem, will adversely affect production, but I swear that I will do better next year! Meanwhile, does anyone have any ideas for a delicious way to put up eggplant? And let me mention in advance that pickled eggplant just does not sound yummy to me.