Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Cooking with Emmy

Wait, don't run away! I'm not burning anything, I promise!

I've discovered my new favorite style of cooking...pureeing. Yep, I've started venturing into making my own baby food! (I must say, it is MUCH easier than cooking regular food!) Before I get into how easy this is, let me tell you a few of my past cooking mishaps:

-a recipe called for "refrigerated linguine"; naturally, I went to the grocery store, bought a box of linguine and stuck it in the fridge. My mom was over one day and we were trying to figure out what to make for dinner; I enthusiastically suggested this recipe and produce the box of linguine directly out of my refrigerator. Needless to say, my mom got a good laugh out of that one.

-While attemping to be all "Suzy Homemaker" during my maternity leave, I decide to make cupcakes just for fun. My cupcake pan only holds 12 cupcakes, but the box makes 24, so I just filled the little cupcake tins up as far as they would go and the leftover batter went into a small square cake pan. I was really proud of my quick thinking, until I pulled the product out of the oven, only to discover that they looked like cupcakes on steroids and had taken over the entire pan. Determined to make the most of it, I decided to go ahead and ice them (and my small cake) anyway, only no one ever told me that you should let stuff cool off before attempting to ice. My cake looked like someone let a rabid dog get a hold of it. :(

-And last, but not least, Brian & I had our friend Olivia over for dinner one night....while chatting away with her, I was putting some frozen twice-baked potatoes into the oven (you know, the kind that come pre-stuffed in a box, you just plop them onto a baking sheet?) when Brian interrupts our discussion to inform me that I was putting the potatoes on the sheet upside down. I was adamant that I was doing it right, for some reason, I thought for sure you put the skin side up! Brian then pointed out that if I did that, the cheese & stuffed part would bake onto the sheet and make a big, burned mess. Oops. (Liv was not surprised by this incident---she had Cooking Class with me in high school...my group always put me in charge of making the Kool-Aid to go along with the meal, I'm not sure why....)

So, back to my latest cooking adventure...you may be thinking to yourself, "If she can't even cook dinner for herself, why is she trying to cook for her baby?" I'll tell you why...baby food is expensive. It may not seem like it when you're looking at the individual cost, but add up what you're spending over time and it's quite a bit! We've been using Earth's Best and the cheapest I've found it is at Walmart (about .48 for the Stage 1 jar--he gets about 2 meals out of that) So instead of doing that, I started buying bags of frozen veggies (for about $1), steaming 1/2 bag, pureeing and freezing and viola, meals for the Jake Man! A 1/2 bag makes about 12-14 meals!! Much more cost-effective.

For any moms looking to venture into this (and clearly if I can do it, anyone can) I have been using www.wholesomebabyfood.com as a resource for many of my questions. So far I have stocked our freezer with peas, carrots, pears and bananas!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

LOL...I still get a kick out of that fridge linguine story! Good for you for making Jake's food. I thought that was fun (although I loved when she gave up purees) and never understood why everyone seems to think it's so hard and a pain. It is the easiest food in the world! I'd say Jake would someday thank you for it, but who am I kidding?! You get props from this mama though!

Jenn said...

Like Michelle, I LOVE the linguine story! :)
Glad you came around on the baby food. It is super easy! And I think it tastes much better than the jarred stuff. Butternut squash was Hudson's favorite when he was Jake's age - give it a try.

Anonymous said...

Can we say business plan?! You could so do it Emmy. :)

Anonymous said...

You crack me up!

KC said...

I'm anonymous

Mommy Relcuk said...

Your cooking stories are hilarious. We are definately related -- book smarts, not a lot of common sense.

Groovy on the baby food. I had great plans to make and freeze baby food before travellign to China. I instead spent all my spare time doing things like exchanging my single strollers for a double stroller, accquiring a second crib, and generally freaking out about having three children in a short period of time.

As it turned out, the twins had teeth and didn`t need much babyfood. We used it only when away from home or as a quick
convenience food. Maybe Baby V will get some home cooking?
Thanks for the links.

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