Baby Recipe: Fish, Potato and Bok Choy

So we're pretty much decided to pull out any stops as far as feeding Luka.  We figure if we introduce him to interesting food now (we hope) he will be an adventurous eater like his mommy and daddy (and know a little bit more about how to prepare food when he one day gets married than either his parents did).

This week, Chris prepared him an array of delicious food (seriously, you could serve it to guests) including
this delicious boiled fish, potatoes and bok choy (not kidding).

To prepare:
Boil some potatoes on the stove, when soft, remove the potatoes from the water and set aside
Add some deboned white fish (Dory, Tallapia) to the potatoe water, boil until cooked
Steam some bok choy (add some fresh garlic)
Mix all together with a hand blender/bar mix
Spoon into ice trays, freeze overnight
Dump the cubes into a ziplock or Tupper, label and date

Note: each cube is roughly equivalent to 1 tablespoon (Tbs)

To serve:
Remove desired number of cubes x number of feeds, place each feed into a small tupper with a lid and thaw on the counter. refrigerate as needed.

Bubba Brunch Club

Since moving to our new house in town, we have thoroughly enjoyed simple pleasures such as going for a walk down to the beach, to a favorite cafe for breakfast, and especially in hosting again.  Yesterday saw the first 'Bubba Brunch'.  We invited two other couples with young ones about Luka's age, as well as another couple with a young son.  It may seem unnecessary to state this fact, but it is great for parents with babies to visit other parents with babies.  There are the obvious benefits (changing table, wipes in case you forget), but also the more important - comfort.  Watching the other two moms constantly bouncing, walking, standing while eating, dodging spit-ups, breastfeeding, changing nappies, all the while having a great conversation, makes it all seem so normal and acceptable.  I am not saying you can't visit someone that does not have a baby, on the contrary - but it is nice to know if your bub is a little fussy because of teething or tiredness, that everyone will understand.

As for brunch, everyone knows that babies do best in the am.  Add to that the fact that most parents do best after 9am, and you pretty much end up with a timeframe of between 10am-4pm - which is pretty much almost as long as our brunch lasted yesterday.  Truth be told, Chris and I did jump out of bed at 0700 to go for a 30km mountainbike ride (my first in over a year), thanks to a babysitter that showed up at 0730.  Once home, we had a shower, then started preparing brunch which included 2 home made breads (whole wheat and french), a spinach, mushroom and cheese strata (prepared the night before by Chef Chris), home made yogurt and fruit (the yogurt, not the fruit), roasted beef sausages with apricot chutney, and Susan's (well, with a little help from Alice Waters) whole wheat buttermilk banana pancakes.

The beauty is that sometime during brunch all the bubbas (most of them at least) will be down for a nap, and when they are awake, they are delightful and interested in everything and everyone (in Luka's case this means mostly the food!).  The food is great (who doesn't love a brunch?), and by the time your guests leave (and the cleaner does the dishes) you can run out for a nice sundowner walk to the beach with bubba in a stroller (and yes, return in a torrential downpour) just in time for bath time and bed time.

Perfect day to spend a Saturday.  Unfortunately, I was not organized enough to snap a photo of yesterday's festivities, so watch this space for photographic evidence of the new Bubba Brunch Club.