Salade Niçoise

I'm obsessed! I made the same recipe as before, except that I used white wine vinegar in the dressing instead of red just for kicks. The dressing tasted a bit milder, that's all. Same tasty salade!

A smoked salmon bagel brunch

My brother visited this month and we did a smoked salmon bagel brunch with all the trimmings. (Thanks for the inspiration, K and O!). This brunch was so fun to shop for because I got to visit all my favourite local independent grocers. I bought Montreal-style sesame bagels from Kettleman's and smoked salmon from LaPointe Fish. We had them with cream cheese and capers. I also bought some colourful olives and marinated mushrooms from La Bottega. Rounding out the table was a bowl of fresh raspberries and Strub's pickles, and also two big wedges of cheese — a medium gouda and Cambozola. We lingered for a couple of hours catching up and discovered that the babies also like smoked salmon. Fourteen months old and they're already foodies!

Butternut squash and sage pasta for babies

I've made this recipe twice for the babies. The first time they loved it. The second time one did but the other only ate the pasta. One out of two isn't bad! I'll keep offering it because it's tasty and nutritious and makes a great lunch with some fruit or chicken on the side.

Butternut squash and sage pasta for babies
(inspired by a similar recipe in Annabel Karmel's First Meals)

900 g cubed butternut squash (I use a ready-to-steam President's Choice package similar to the one pictured below)
1 Tbsp fresh sage, finely sliced
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup ditalini rigati pasta
a handful of grated cheese (optional)

Put a pot of salted water on the boil for the pasta. Cook the pasta according to package directions, about 12 minutes. Reserve half a cup of pasta water before you drain the pasta and set it aside.

Steam the butternut squash in the microwave according to package directions. Mash the squash with four or five tablespoons of the pasta water.

In a medium-hot frying pan, melt the butter and cook the sliced sage together for two or three minutes. Add the butternut squash and mix together until combined. Add the cooked pasta and if needed, up to a quarter cup of the pasta water to loosen up the squashy sauce. Serve with a sprinkling of grated cheese if you want.

Good pasta shapes for babies

I have a tip for all the moms out there feeding older babies past the mushy stage of life.

I've tried offering mine big pastas, such as shells or rotini cut in half, but they'll have none of it. Little people like little pastas, and mine like these two kinds in particular — stelline (little stars, pictured left) and ditalini rigati (grooved beads, on the right). I buy them at La Bottega, an Italian grocer in Ottawa.

I add them to diced boiled veggies, diced meat and cheese sauce to make a complete meal.

They love them. The only drawback is you tend to find little stars all over the place for a few days afterwards. These of course are the pieces that have been tossed overboard during the meal. I'm sure you moms know what that's all about!

Cheese sauce

Homemade baby foods. From top to bottom they are squash and sage pasta, chicken with peas and red pepper in cheese sauce, and carrots and broccoli in cheese sauce.

Lately the only way I can get the twins to eat vegetables is to smother them in cheese sauce! This post is all about the cheese sauce, but here's how I use it. Once you have cheese sauce, add finely diced boiled vegetables and a finely diced cooked meat, such as pork tenderloin or chicken breast. Mix together with the cheese sauce. Voila — baby food. 

Cheese sauce
(recipe given to me by a friend)

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour 

1/8 tsp dry mustard

1 cup milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Slowly melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour and mustard powder.  Cook this for a minute or two while stirring, until smooth. Slowly add the milk, whisking out any lumpy bits after each pour until smooth and combined.  Gently cook over medium heat until the mixture has thickened.  Take off the heat and gradually add in the cheese, stirring until smooth.  Stir in the Worcestershire sauce. Freeze in quarter cup measures for later use. 

Chicken stock

Seasonings for chicken stock

I made a batch of chicken stock using bones from ready-made grocery-store rotisserie chickens. This is a favourite sequence of meals of late that all start with a rotisserie chicken: a quarter-chicken dinner with fries and Swiss Chalet dipping sauce from a packet. I love eating this in front of the TV on Friday nights! Then I freeze all the bones and make chicken stock when I've got a decent amount. I pick the meat off the bones and save them for chicken soup or for making a baby food casserole, and then I use the chicken stock to make French onion soup.

Baby's first cod casserole

Our babies are finally done with purees! Hooray! Now we can move on to real recipes (although still in mushy form, but that's okay). One-year-old babies can officially join in on family meals, but I find I'm still cooking their food separately because they like everything well cooked and still quasi-mushy. No tender-crisp veggies here, thank you very much!

I made this cod casserole with cheese sauce, peas, broccoli and cauliflower. In three separate pots I poached fish, made cheese sauce and boiled vegetables, then assembled everything together at the end. It's a bit of an effort, but so worth it. First of all, they ate it (always a triumph) and they got three dinners each out of this batch, so I didn't have to cook again for the next couple of days.

Since the babies discovered fruits, veggies have been poo-pooed something serious. But cheese sauce does the trick! They loved this dish.

Baby's first cod casserole

cod, one fillet
1/2 cup frozen peas
one head broccoli
half a head of cauliflower

cheese sauce
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp butter

court bouillon (poaching liquid for cod)
4 cups water
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 onion, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
2 thyme sprigs
2 parsley sprigs
8 whole black peppercorns

To poach the fish, put all the ingredients for the poaching liquid in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 15 minutes uncovered. Add the fish and simmer for 10 more minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Remove the fish from the liquid and break into bite-sized pieces. You can strain the poaching liquid and freeze it for the next time you poach fish.

To boil the veggies, bring a pot of water to a boil. Chop the broccoli and cauliflower into baby bite-sized pieces and simmer for 20 minutes until soft. Add the frozen peas during the last five minutes of cooking time. Drain the vegetables and set aside.

To make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Stir in the flour and cook it, while stirring, for a couple of minutes. Whisk in the milk and whisk away any lumps of flour. Bring slowly to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheddar cheese.

Combine the veggies with the flaked fish and cheese sauce. Serve immediately and refrigerate the rest for future meals.