Gross Stew

Adam said, "Geeze, did you make enough stew for two people?" He was very relieved when I told him it was not stew, but chicken stock in the making. Because it looked kind of gross with chicken bits and veggie scraps floating around.

I loosely followed this recipe which I had run across a while ago. I started saving chicken carcasses and scraps from carrots, celery, and onions. I also had a leek in the fridge to use up. It came together with minimal effort. The worst of course being cleaning the pot afterwards, only because of it's awkward large size.

I had been saving yogurt containers for storing stock in the freezer, so this is very much a tightwad endeavor.

I have big plans for this broth! Especially since the weather is cooling off, it will be soup city! This week we'll have butternut soup or risotto or both.

Stay tuned!!!

Long Time. No Cooking.

So this motherhood business leaves me with little time for cooking, grocery shopping, researching recipe ideas, or a lot of other things for that matter.

But I'm about to step it up a bit. For once cooking is required as Ellie is about ready for solids! That means cooking for baby!

My baby food mill is arriving from www.cottonbabies.com today. (Free shipping)! And brown rice is simmering on the stove as I type.

All baby stuff is surrounded in polarizing opinions and advice. It's been a figurative swamp to wade through. Lots of information on breastfeeding insists to wait 6 months and then in the same paragraph say, "watch your baby, not the calendar." That being said I didn't just blindly proceed to starting rice cereal at 4 months but waited for her to let me know she's ready. Now I can't eat without her grabbing for my plate or drink without her trying to yank my glass and smear her mouth on it. So she's at least ready to experiment with some rice cereal and sippy cups.

In other food news I've been cooking on a more regular basis, but nothing sexy enough to post on a blog. I've been a boring, busy mom dumping a small fryer chicken, onion, celery, and potatoes into a crock pot every week. I even bought Adam some Budget Gourmet and Chunky Soups for his lunches (a step up from fast food?).

What is the special occasion for the update out of the blue? NAPS! Ellie is napping like a champ! The good news is I have some more time to get important things done like update facebook and drink hot tea. The bad news is that she's such a light sleeper it's hard to get anything done in the kitchen while she naps.

Coming up: general unsolicited advice to new moms and moms to be in a blog entry so I don't have to bug anyone directly. Lists of baby & nursing mom must-haves. And more pictures of my kid!

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Edit: 6-29-11

Don't feed solids to your baby before the age of 6 months. I didn't read the best baby book ever, Baby Led Weaning, until Ellie was 8 months old or so. Anyway, save yourself a lot of time and effort, do BLW!