Watermelon Hands

When I was having difficulty getting my daughter to sleep, I did what nearly every other modern mom does:  I took to the internet.  Everything I read suggested all different kinds of techniques, but one theme rang true, and that was the ritual.  It seemed that if you followed a set ritual, something that was designed to calm your child down and prepare her for bed, nighttime would move a lot smoother and your child would be more susceptible to sleep.

Some of the rituals that families had were long-winded productions that ran night after night like a perfectly-scripted play that closed the curtain at exactly the same time every evening.  They consisted of several acts that dragged on for hours, and most of these families included a warm bath (with some kind of highly-advertised lavender soap marketed as a miracle sleep aid), songs, stories - an entire repertoire of calming activities that were to run immediately after dinner.

There's no way I could pull something like that off.  The planning and the execution must be exact, and I'm too carefree with my time to even joke about considering something so demanding.  

We never really had a ritual so much as we had bedtime techniques instead.  Evelyn and I would rock in the glider in the corner of her nursery, window open if the weather allowed it, listening to the sounds of the night as I sang softly to her until she fell asleep.  Then our rocking chair broke. 

It seemed that every time we got into some kind of ritual, the figurative rocking chair would break and we would be forced to improvise.  I won't bore you with all the details of every single ritual that has come and gone, but needless to say, we finally found one that we all as a family can live with.

Family Fruit Time

At 7:30 p.m., Dada changes Evelyn's diaper and puts her in her pajamas as I prepare her warm milk (an essential part of our ritual, of course).  Then, as her milk is sitting in a mug of hot water to slowly take the chill of the fridge off, we stand around the kitchen or sit at the bar and eat fruit together.

We giggle.  We feed each other.  We dribble juice down our chins.  It runs contrary to almost everything I've read about infant and toddler sleep:  Not only are we giving her sugar before bed, but we're also engaging her in a stimulating activity.  And yet she still drinks her milk a half hour later and is asleep by 8:30 p.m. every night.

The past two nights, we have been indulging in watermelon.  Sitting in her Dada's lap at the bar, she would slap her little hands on the granite in anticipation of each juicy bite as I stabbed into the pink fruit with a fork and presented it to her.  Sometimes, she would lean forward with her little mouth open like a baby bird and snatch the bite directly off the fork; other times, she would carefully pull it off the fork with gentle little fingers, sucking as much juice out as she could before finally popping the whole piece in her mouth.  

Tonight as we lay in bed together, she rolled toward me and pressed her little face up against mine, forehead to forehead, nose to nose.  Just before she fell asleep, she brought a little hand up to my face and cupped my chin.  It smelled like watermelon.

This too shall pass...

This ritual started one night when I dropped an apple and decided it had to be eaten before it sat around on the counter bruising up.  Jon-Michael was holding Evie and I was busy trying to eat as much of the crunchy skin off the apple as I could so she could tear at the white flesh with her little teeth.  We all ended up eating the apple together, standing there in the kitchen and laughing and just enjoying a moment of sweet simplicity together.

I know it will end, like all other rituals, to be replaced by something new.  Our son will be born soon, and the job of tackling a toddler ritual with a newborn ritual will begin, and togetherness in the kitchen around a piece of fruit probably won't be a possibility anymore.  I'm going to soak it up as much as I can, though.  Juicy, sticky chins and all.

Enchiladas Unwrapped

Motivation, Where Did You Go?

I admit that lately, I've been losing my motivation when it comes to preparing meals for my daughter.  The closer I get to giving birth to my son, the more uncomfortable I become.  The more uncomfortable I become, the less likely I am to want to stand in front of a hot stove for any length of time.  Knowing that I don't want to stand in front of a stove, I think to myself, "What is the quickest, easiest dish I can prepare?"  It doesn't leave a lot of room for imagination.

I've fallen into a rut of simplicity.  I try to create meals that are extremely easy for me but that are still healthy for her.  These tend to be boring, as one might figure.  For example, last night Evelyn had chicken, mixed vegetables (yellow squash, zucchini, peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts) all folded into a creamy mashed potato with Parmesan cheese.  It's not that it tasted bad, but it certainly wasn't exciting in the least bit.  Meals like this have become pretty standard in the past week - protein and vegetables served with a whole grain or a potato, some fruit and milk on the side.

I was looking in the pantry today for something, anything, to inspire me again to make something a little different for my daughter than the boring stuff we've been eating.  I found an unopened container of yellow corn meal, and thought to myself, "Hey, it's not a potato or noodles."

Mexican Monday

Enchiladas are a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a soft corn tortilla wrapped around a variety of fillings and covered in a tomato-based chili sauce.  Enchiladas have always been one of my favorite menu items when I have the rare opportunity of going out to an authentic Mexican restaurant.

Seeing as how I obviously love to take layered or wrapped adult foods and make them baby friendly, why not turn some simple corn meal into a fun Mexican-inspired dish for my daughter?  Well, it turned out so good that I called my husband at work and asked him to pick up some things for us to have tacos tonight.  I wanted my Mexican Monday, too.

Enchiladas Unwrapped


Ingredients

Corn meal, prepared as "polenta" or "corn meal mush" according to package directions
Ground beef
Small bit of chopped onion (get frozen - it's already ready for you!)
Small bit of chopped green pepper (ditto!)
A little bit of spinach (I like to sneak it into everything - it's healthy)
Tomato sauce
Cheddar cheese
Homemade spice blend - Equal pinches of cumin, cayenne and chili powders

Technique

1)  Prepare your corn meal according to package directions.  I had Quaker Yellow Corn Meal - Mix one cup dry corn meal with one cup of water; meanwhile, boil three cups of water.  When the water is boiling, add the corn meal/water mix and stir really well until thick.  Cover it, put it on low and cook for another five minutes.  When it's all done, you'll have a ton.  You only need a couple of spoonfuls; the rest you can put away in the fridge and use for something else.

2)  Cook your ground beef.  Add just a couple tiny pinches of your spice blend.  Don't use a commercial taco blend, as they often contain a lot of unsavory ingredients and a ton of unnecessary salt.  These spices are hot and a little goes a long way.  You obviously don't want to make your child uncomfortable; you just want to introduce flavor with a tiny bit of spice, so keep it light.  Just a couple of little pinches.  Chop your cooked beef nice and small.

3)  Steam your onion, green peppers and spinach together (alternatively, you can boil them - it won't take as long, but you will sacrifice some nutrition).  When these are warm and the spinach is nice and wilted, chop these finely.

4)  To prepare the sauce, simply add a couple of small pinches to about four ounces of prepared tomato sauce and warm it up in a pan.  Add a few cubes or shreds of cheddar to taste (we like to use a lot!) and let it melt down.  Use as much of it as you feel you need on your baby's dish - you'll have leftover.

5)  You can either layer your ingredients for babies who can handle things with a less-than-smooth texture (corn meal on bottom, beef, vegetables, then sauce) and give it a gentle fold, or you can mix it all together (which is what we do).

6)  Serve with some whole milk and some juicy watermelon.  Enjoy!  I know we did!

The Baby Pantry: Eggs

"That's a potential allergen."

That's how I explained my fear to my very confused mother when I told her I wasn't sure if I was comfortable with my daughter, Evelyn, trying a scrambled egg.  Neither I nor my husband suffer any food allergies, nor do our parents; other risk factors that increase the likelihood of food allergies, such as asthma, aren't an issue, either.  It would seem that my daughter would be in a low-risk category of developing a food allergy.  

However, there is still a risk involved when introducing your child to a potential allergen.  There are eight major allergens responsible for 90 percent of all the food allergies suffered in the United States, and a certain level of care must be taken when introducing them to your child:

• Wheat
• Cow's Milk
• Eggs
• Fish
• Shellfish (shrimp, prawns, lobster, crab, etc.)
• Tree nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, etc.)
• Peanuts
• Soy

I was especially nervous about Evie being given egg.  She had a flu shot (I didn't want her to get it, but it's an enraging story that I refuse to recount again), and reacted terribly to it.  We ended up in the ER with our baby clearly in pain, bawling her eyes out and terrified after projectile vomiting food she had taken in nearly six hours prior.  Because doctors seem to refuse to believe that the flu shot could possibly make someone ill, they always look for that "coincidental" thing that made your child sick:  A virus, a reaction to something they ate, etc.  In this case, our pediatrician thought it might have been an allergic reaction to the egg upon which the virus in the vaccine is grown.

It was, of course, a ridiculous suggestion.  I knew that it wasn't the case, that my daughter was one of the many kids I know personally who had terrible reactions to the flu shot.  But it sunk in.  Allergic to eggs?  Could she really be?

Then my mom adamantly declared that the whole idea of her being allergic to eggs was silly, and I knew better about that damn flu shot.  So I relented, and let her feed my daughter a scrambled egg.  My breath caught in my throat as I kept asking questions, like "Is she turning red?  She's not wheezing, right?  She isn't getting a rash?"

Looking back, it's pretty hilarious how overly concerned and terrified I was.  The only reaction my daughter had was "Wow, this is awesome.  I want to eat eggs everyday.  They are the best thing you ever put before me."  Big smile, giggles.  Sheer enjoyment.

And who can blame her?  Eggs are amazing.

Cheap, nutritious, versatile.

Eggs are one of the best values you can have in your kitchen.  For a small price, in that thin shell, they pack quite a nutritious punch, featuring the highest-quality protein available and some pretty impressive health benefits:

• The lutein in eggs is great for eye health, and it is more readily available to us from eggs than from nearly any other source.  Studies show a lower risk of cataracts and macular degeneration among those who eat eggs as a normal part of their diet.
• Contrary to popular belief, regular consumption of eggs doesn't negatively impact cholesterol levels in most people, and in fact eggs can actually help prevent cardiac events such as blood clots, strokes and heart attacks.
• Eggs are one of the few foods with naturally-occurring Vitamin D, which is essential for bone health and proper calcium absorption.  
• Women who consume high amounts of choline are 24% less likely to develop breast cancer than their choline-deficient counterparts.  One large egg provides 30% of your daily choline needs.

Eggs last a long time when stored properly:  Raw and stored in the refrigerator in their original carton, not in the door where they are subject to heat and light every time the fridge is opened, they can last nearly a month (hard-boiled eggs last about a week).  You can even freeze them for up to a year by beating the whites and yolks together, and portioning them out in freezer-safe containers.

Think about everything you can do with a humble egg, from the simple to the complex and the savory to the sweet.  Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs; omelet, frittata, stratta; deviled eggs, pickled eggs, Scotch eggs; mayonnaise, Caesar dressing; custard, meringue, all sorts of baked goods.  If you can name it, you can put eggs in it.

Stick to the Basics

Evelyn and I stick to the basics:  Scrambled eggs and toast.  She gets her eggs in a simplistic Florentine style - cooked with spinach, Parmesan cheese and milk, served with whole wheat toast squares and a fresh fruit.  I always "accidentally" make too much so I'm guaranteed to get some leftovers for myself.  

Vitamin Loss in Cooking

When you want to feed your children the most nutritious food you can, it's just as important to select a proper cooking method as it is to select the foods themselves.  While most minerals hold up extremely well to all temperatures and cooking methods, vitamins are easily lost depending on how the food is prepared.  It's helpful to know how some vitamins are destroyed, and what you can do to preserve as many as you can.

Fat Solubility

Vitamins that dissolve in fat, and therefore leach out of food when cooked in fats like butter and oil, include Vitamins A, D, E and K.  Because excess amounts of these vitamins are stored in the body, and not eliminated like water-soluble vitamins, it isn't imperative that you receive high doses everyday.

However, to retain these vitamins when cooking, it is advised that you refrain from frying the food or otherwise cooking it in fat.  Broiling or baking would be the superior option for retaining these vitamins in food.

Foods rich in the fat-soluble vitamins include:

• Vitamin A:  Liver, sweet potatoes, carrots, dark leafy greens such as kale and collard greens, butternut squash, dried apricots and cantaloupe.  
• Vitamin D:  Fish (particularly raw or oil-packed) such as herring and salmon, fortified products (including soy, dairy and cereal products), and eggs.
• Vitamin E:  Nut and seed products such as sunflower seeds and almonds, wheat germ and olive oils, green olives and cooked spinach.
• Vitamin K:  Dark leafy greens (here they are again, and also a great plant source of calcium), broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus and cabbage.

Water Solubility

Water-soluble vitamins are those that dissolve in water, and are lost primarily when food is boiled or otherwise prepared in water.  These vitamins need to be in the diet daily, as they are eliminated from the body throughout the day, primarily through urine.

The water-soluble vitamins are Vitamin C and the B complex vitamins:  Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, Vitamin B6, folic acid, Vitamin B12, pantothenic acid, and biotin.  All of these vitamins are easily lost in the storage and preparation of foods.

Some information on the vitamins follows:

• Vitamin C:  Vitamin C is very unstable, and is lost when exposed to water or heat, and also when a food is dried.  Therefore, one of the best sources for Vitamin C is from fresh, raw food:  Fruits like oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, tomatoes and dark green leafy vegetables.  When you are cooking, use as little water as possible and cook for as short a time as possible.
• B Complex Vitamins:  In general, you will find an abundance of the B Complex Vitamins in animal foods, especially liver, and whole grain products.  Eggs, fish, leafy vegetables, legumes and milk also provide many of the B Vitamins in good, healthy amounts.  All of them leach out of food into cooking water and many are destroyed by alkalinity and sulfites (which are added to many dried foods to retain color); some are destroyed by too much exposure to light (riboflavin) and long exposure to heat (thiamin).  Despite the loss of vitamins, it is important you always cook meat thoroughly!

Tips on Vitamin Preservation

Save cooking water.  Whatever water you use to boil vegetables, use it to prepare rice, make gravy, add to soup, or make a sauce.

Avoid peeling and cutting.  Vegetables that remain in one piece will retain more nutrients than those that are chopped or peeled prior to cooking.  Only peel when absolutely necessary, as a wealth of vitamin nutrition is in or just beneath the skin.

Prepare food fresh.  Foods that are cooked, then stored and reheated later, lose a lot of nutrition.  Vegetables prepared in advance lose roughly a quarter of their Vitamin C, for example, after 24 hours.

Steam, or use very little water when boiling.  Steaming retains a lot more of the water-soluble vitamins than does boiling, as the water doesn't come into contact with the food.  When you do boil, however, use a minimum of water.  Remember that leafy greens cook down and while four cups of cabbage doesn't seem like it can cook in one cup of water, give it a chance.

Baking and toasting.  When you're baking, the addition of baking soda raises the alkalinity of the product and destroys thiamin.  While you can't avoid the "baking" part of baking, you can avoid over-toasting any bread you might make (or purchase) to keep from further destroying thiamin:  Toast it just so it's golden around the edges, and no more.

Roast and grill.  Your best bets for meat are to prepare them with dry heat:  Roasting and grilling.  Don't overcook your meat, as this leads to unnecessary further nutrient loss (not to mention that it's incredibly disrespectful to the cow who gave his life to put that amazing steak on your table when you cook it anything past medium for an adult).  Don't be afraid to use fully-cooked drippings to prepare gravies.

Stir-fry, don't fry-fry.  Deep frying is horrible, and destroys nearly all of the fat-soluble vitamins in your food as well as adding on too many additional fat calories.  Stir-frying, however, which uses a minimum of oil and a minimum cooking time, isn't too bad.  Slice your foods very thin to limit how much time is needed to cook in this high-heat method.  

Most Importantly...

Eat at home.  See how your food is selected, stored and prepared!

Unstuffed Cabbage, or Cabbage Unrolls

I'm married to one of the pickiest eaters in America, which has made it all the more important to me to present our children with a variety of tastes and textures early on in an effort to keep their culinary horizons broad.  Thankfully, he agrees with my mission and has agreed to some very important rules:

1. Dad is not allowed to sneer at, say "Ew!" to or otherwise show any signs of revulsion to any food he is presented with.
2. Dad is not allowed to suggest in any way that vegetables are disgusting.
3. If the baby looks a little less than enthused with a first bite of a new food, Dad is not allowed to say, "I know, that's gross!" or sympathize in a manner suggesting that a second bite should be completely shunned.

So long as he applies these three simple rules to mealtime, my job is easy:  Cook without stereotypes.  That means to cook without stereotyping my child or the food.  One vegetable that I notice receives more undeserved hatred than most is cabbage.  I've heard it described as "Mushy," which immediately leads me to believe that those who primarily don't like cabbage have only had it poorly prepared, and are primarily children.  Though I can assure you that picky adults even think they don't like cabbage, despite having it shredded and added to salads for his lunch sometimes...

Cabbage could easily be described as a super-food.  It's full of antioxidants, it has anti-inflammatory properties, it's full of powerful enzymes that help keep your digestive tract healthy, and has been the subject of many studies regarding it's anti-cancer benefits.  Full of Vitamins A, K and C, folate and fiber, cabbage should be a normal part of anybody's diet.

Introduction to Cabbage

Up until today, my daughter has never had cabbage.  The opportunity never seemed to arise, and I'm sure in my earlier days of motherhood full of worry, I came up with the potential for gas as a reason not to give it to her.

I decided today to introduce it with a take on one of my favorite classics, stuffed cabbage. Stuffed cabbage traditionally contains a filling of beef and rice or barley with onions, wrapped in a boiled cabbage leaf and finished in a casserole dish with tomato sauce.  As it is primarily a Central European dish, it's not unusual to have it served with potatoes of some kind.

In making it baby-friendly, I tried to keep a fairly even ratio of meat to grains and cabbage, whereas you would normally get a large portion of meat in an adult version.  I prepared brown rice for the filling, but because my pans are horrible and let out too much steam apparently, it burned ten minutes before it should have even been done cooking, so I used whole wheat noodles in place of it.  I mashed a potato with butter and whole milk and served the Unstuffed Cabbage over it.  

Like my Inside-Out Ravioli, preparing pocketed foods for babies is the best, because you don't really have to stuff anything, but you still get the spirit of the dish!  

Unstuffed Cabbage, or Cabbage Unrolls

Ingredients

Half of a small yellow onion, chopped (the very small variety that fit in the palm of your hand)

Quarter of a small clove of garlic, diced

Equal portions of ground beef and prepared brown rice

A few good-sized leaves of cabbage

Tomato sauce, a low-salt commercial variety or homemade

Tiny sprinkle of pepper

Small pat of butter

Technique

1.  Melt the butter over medium heat in a pan, and then add the onions to caramelize, stirring often.  When they start to become golden, add the garlic.  Don't cook too much longer, as burnt garlic is horrifically bitter. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.

2.  Wipe remaining grease from your pan, and then brown your ground beef.  Sprinkle with a tiny bit of pepper, or any other spice you'd like to introduce your baby too.  Keep it extremely subtle, however, and do not add salt.  Drain your beef, and set it aside with your prepared brown rice.

3.  You can prepare the cabbage one of two ways:  Steaming or boiling.  Steaming maintains the most nutrients and enzymes and is the superior option, however.  Do not overcook, but cook it enough so that it's tender.  When this is done, set it aside as well. 

4.  Dice all your components - you don't have to use all the onions if it looks like too much. You can dice it all together, or do it separately.  I prefer to dice the beef separately to ensure that the pieces are small enough that she can chew them, and then dice everything else and mix it all together.

5.  Spoon the mixture back into the pan, add enough tomato sauce to moisten it up, and heat through.  Don't heat it too much; cooking in such small amounts and then dicing them cools your ingredients off quite quickly and you just want to warm them with the sauce.  Give it a quick taste to make sure it's not too warm, and then spoon over a small mashed potato and serve.

My daughter absolutely loved her first taste of Cabbage Unrolls, and when the bowl was empty, she kept pointing to it and looking at me with a huge grin on her face.  For her, that means "I want more!" and for me, that means "We have a winner!"

First Birthday Smash Cake!

As I write this blog, it's difficult not to watch the clock and think to myself, "At this time last year, I was in a hospital bed simultaneously watching terrible television and the contraction monitor.  My husband (okay, fiance at the time... no one's perfect) was by my side, my mom was texting friends and family, and my dad was slouched on the couch in the low light of the birthing room.  In less than an hour, I'll have started pushing."

My daughter was born at 1:55 a.m. on March 3, 2011.  The days leading up to March 3, 2012, have been a lot more hectic than they were a year ago.  All I did then was sit around all day in pajamas stuffing my face with whatever food I could find, building houses in the Sims 3, and simply waiting uncomfortably for contractions to begin.  This year, however, it was all about party planning - busier, more stressful, but a lot more fun than the Waiting Game (which I have to look forward to next month when my son is due).

Packages started arriving in the mail full of party supplies that I ordered from three different websites in my hunt for the best deals; informal invitations were spread via Facebook, phone and word of mouth; food was purchased or pre-ordered; the house, cleaned and decorated. Including Evelyn's gifts, the whole thing cost us about $500 and a lot of energy.

And then I had to make a cake.

I don't bake.

My idea of baking up until this point has been opening a pouch of some kind of dessert mix and checking the back of the box to see how much oil and how many eggs to add.  Even then, I couldn't get it right:  Who knows how many brownies were burnt to the bottom of the pan, or how many dry cakes I pulled from the oven.

This year, it had to be different.  I've been doing too well with introducing my daughter to whole, real foods to let one day spoil it.  I wanted a simple cake made with simple ingredients that I could pronounce; I wanted to watch it be made from start to finish; I wanted no artificial flavors or colors or preservatives or any unnecessary additives.  You can't really find that from a box, but you can find it with a quick search of the internet.

I came across this recipe for an eggless whole wheat cake that I adapted slightly to reflect the ingredients that I had available.  Of course, I was skeptical and had every right to be.  No eggs, whole wheat flour, yogurt with vinegar.  What was I getting myself into?

Evelyn's Smash Cake

This cake made me nervous as I made it.  As I added the applesauce to the butter and sugar, it started to separate and look curdled.  The blog said it was going to do that, and it was fine, so I persisted.  Then, when I went to pour the batter into the cake pans, it was thick and gluey. I've never made a cake from scratch, but even I know that what I was pouring into those pans resembled more of a bread dough than anything.  The blog said it would be a little thick, so I persisted.

I watched through the oven door as the top of the cake began to harden like a bread crust, and small breaks along the surface started.  Here we go, I thought to myself.  You ruined your daughter's cake.  That recipe ruined your daughter's cake.  This cake ruined your daughter's cake.

When it was done, I scooped a corner of it out of the pan.  Yes, it had a slightly hard crust on top, but it was surprisingly soft inside - not spongy like the cake we're all usually used to, but it was more like a soft, dense banana bread.  The whole wheat flour mixed with the applesauce made it taste like sweet corn, and the first thing I thought was, "I just made corn bread without corn."  Subtly sweet, a little nutty, and too thick to really be cake.  This recipe should be rebranded as some kind of breakfast bread.  My husband insisted that melting butter on it would be perfect.

I gave Evelyn a little taste, and she did the classic "Give me more!" thing she does, which basically entails her grunting hard and pointing repeatedly at what she wants.  Really, the only thing that's important is that she liked it.  I liked it, too, honestly, but I would never serve it to guests as a cake.

For the record, everyone else at the party will be eating cupcakes from the local grocery store's bakery.

Eggless Whole Wheat Cake Breakfast Bread


Ingredients
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 Tbl apple cider vinegar
2 tsp real vanilla extract
1 cup plain whole milk yogurt

Technique

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare two 8" round cake pans by greasing them or lining with parchment paper.
2.  Whisk together the flours, the baking powder and the baking soda in a medium bowl.
3.  Cream together the butter, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy.
4.  Add to the butter mixture 1/4 of the applesauce at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next 1/4, and so on until the entire cup has been used.  *Here is where it will start to look curdled, but don't worry.
5.  Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture until well-incorporated to the butter/applesauce blend.
6.  To the cup of yogurt, add your vinegar and vanilla extract and stir well.
7.  Add half of the yogurt mix to the large bowl with the butter/applesauce/flour, and mix thoroughly.  Add another third of the flour, blending fully.  Then add the rest of the yogurt, mixing well (be sure the scrape the sides to be sure everything is well-incorporated into the batter).  Add the remaining flour and mix well.  *I gave up using the hand mixer around this time and used good ol' fashioned elbow grease and a strong fork to mix everything together.  It was really gummy.
8.  Spread the batter into your pans.  It's incredibly thick, so you'll have to smooth it with a spatula.  Pop them in the oven and give them about 30 minutes or so.  The time will vary depending on what kind and size pan you use (you can also use one 9x13 pan instead of two 8" round pans).  Always do the "toothpick test" to find out if it's done:  If a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, you're good to go.

Conclusion

I think my cake was a little underdone.  I was getting very impatient as the time kept creeping on longer and longer and the toothpick still came out a tiny bit doughy from the very bottom of the cake.  Since there are no eggs in it sitting around being raw and disgusting, I figured this would be okay.

I also ended up using one pan because the pair of 8" round cake pans I thought I had turned out to be just one cake pan with an odd burn mark in the middle of it.  I used what I had, and that was an 8" square pan which seemed awkward but fit all the dough.  I'm not sure how long it actually took to bake the cake in that pan.  I just kept adding minutes to the timer every time I tried the toothpick and got frustrated.  I cut a circle out of the middle of it and peeled away the rest of the cake (which is sitting in chunks in a Ziploc in the fridge for later consumption, to be warmed with butter and served with Sunday breakfast).

The cake is now wrapped in plastic in the fridge as it waits to be frosted in the morning. Keeping with the overall simplicity of the cake itself, I'm making a whipped cream with a little sugar and natural orange flavoring to fluff all over the cake, but I wanted it to be as fresh as possible, so that's a chore for tomorrow before the party.

I already know Evie likes the cake itself, so that's not a problem.  I'm just hoping she knows how to be extremely entertaining when she realizes she can dig her little mitts in and get as messy as she wants.

UPDATE:  Please do not make this cake.  If you do, don't store it in the fridge.  It pretty much reverted back to a wet, disgusting uncooked state.  I literally cooked it again and then decided "Whatever, she won't eat it anyway."  Sure enough, she was too busy swiping whipped cream off the cake to even get her little fingers into the cake itself, so in the end it turned out fine.  But that "cake" was absolutely horrendous.  This is why I don't bake!

Inside-Out Ravioli

Ravioli: (n) Small pasta envelopes containing meat, cheese or vegetables.

Inside-Out Ravioli: (n) Small pasta shapes containing a meat, cheese, or vegetable filling as a sauce.

With a hearty but smooth filling conveniently encased in a pocket of soft noodle with fun crimped edges just begging to be nibbled off, ravioli are a popular pasta favorite.  They can be simple and traditional with fillings like ricotta and spinach or Italian sausage, or they can be modern and extravagant, stuffed with creamy lobster or spicy pumpkin.  There really is no limit to what can be done with the ravioli.

I, for example, turned my ravioli inside-out.

That's Not Really Ravioli

Two things stand in my way of preparing a real ravioli for my daughter:

1. My inability to make homemade pasta.
2. Her inability to chew big things.

While technically the ravioli is the pocket, I think it's okay to think outside the box when preparing it for someone with only three teeth.  I took the liberty, then, to slightly redefine the ravioli to mean the comforting fillings I enjoy the most:  Creamy cheese, beef and spinach. Served with soft noodle shapes, it might not be an accurate representation of a ravioli as far as the textural experience goes, but the flavor was more than enough to make up for that inaccuracy.

Inside-Out Ravioli

Ingredients

Pasta Shapes

Ground Beef

Spinach

Whole Wheat Flour

Butter

Whole Milk

Provolone Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

A little bit o' spice

Technique

First, put a pot of water on to boil so you can prepare your pasta shapes.  How much pasta you prepare is up to you and your child's appetite.  Anything you have leftover can be refrigerated and used for a meal the next day.  Put your pasta in when the water is rolling, stirring often until it's done, then drain it and set it aside.

While your water is boiling, prepare your cheese sauce.  First, make a roux using equal amounts of butter and whole wheat flour (I used about half a tablespoon):  Melt the butter over medium-low heat, then add your flour slowly and vigorously whisk to incorporate.  Slowly whisk in the milk to the desired consistency; turn the heat up a little to help it thicken (I always keep it a little low when I actually add the milk to keep it from scalding).  Remember you can always add more milk to thin it out later.  Then, add your cheeses:  A few pinches of grated Parmesan and maybe an ounce or two of provolone.  Keep whisking slowly until all the cheese melts, and taste it frequently.  Add more provolone if you want it a little thicker or stronger in cheese flavor. Sprinkle with a little bit of spice - just a tiny bit of garlic powder and a pinch or two of pepper. Do NOT add salt.

As I said in a previous blog, when you're making creamy sauces with whole wheat flour, it will have brown flecks in it and it will taste a little nutty.  While this may seem unappealing to you, it's a great way to acclimate your baby to the taste and texture of whole wheat so they can acquire a preference for healthier whole grain options throughout life.

Set your cheese sauce to low heat to keep it warm, giving it a quick stir now and then to prevent burning and to keep that silly skin from forming on the top while you prepare your meat "filling."

If you're using frozen spinach, prepare it according to the package directions.  If you're using fresh, toss it into your pasta water for a few seconds until it gets soft and wilted and immediately take it out - how much you use depends on how much beef you use; try to use at least half the amount (for example, one ounce of spinach to two ounces of beef).  Brown about a meatball-sized portion of ground beef (if you need to add a little fat to keep it from sticking to your pan, I suggest a quick spray of canola oil Pam), then add the spinach and give it a quick mix.  Drain the beef, then dice the spinach and meat mixture to a texture that your baby can handle.

Spoon the pasta into a bowl, add your meat/spinach mix, and ladle on a healthy helping of sauce to moisten everything up.  Stir it all together and serve!  

Enjoy!

This was a big hit with my daughter, and surprisingly, my husband as well, who ventured to ask why I don't cook like this for us normally.  It was a good question, one that I contemplated as I poked at leftover noodles and cheese sauce.  Why don't I?

*I like to prepare creamier sauces for my daughter because she outright refuses to drink whole milk, something that is suggested at her age.  This way, I can sneak in the extra calories, calcium, protein and all the other goodness of milk without actually having to watch her choke down an ounce through exaggerated gags and squinted looks of disgust.  She's on her way to winning an Oscar with the performances she puts on when offered milk, but it's something we're working on.