Going for Greens

Children who don't just eat, but relish, enjoy, and seek out vegetables. Isn't that the dream? More often than not, our hopes are dashed by little sour faces, picking warily at our carefully-crafted concoctions, announcing, "Yucky!" with such an air of finality that you'd imagine they had at least tasted it. I am an unashamed lover of veggies, and feel like I have been all my life - (my mother may disagree) so I introduced plenty of green, red, white, orange and purple early and often into my kids' diets. Most of the orange and red was eaten with zest. We started out fine with purple and white, but it slowed down a bit toward toddlerhood. But the green - oh, the green. Sure, they'll have an odd pea or edamame or lima bean if i steam and salt it liberally, and I'm not sure they know that scrambled eggs come without spinach and cheese - but try to get them to eat a broccoli, or a green bean, or - gasp!- kale? All of my attempts at serving leafy greens have been thwarted - UNTIL! I stumbled upon an answer last night, and I humbly share it with you - go forth and feed your little leprechauns, and if they are anything like mine, they will lick the platter clean!

Okay, here it comes - are you ready? Pesto! I usually make my own - basil, pine nuts, garlic, some freshly grated parmesan cheese and a little good olive oil in the food processor and you're good to go - but last night, I'm staring at this pizza dough. I've got some leftover roasted veggies, and a bit of shredded chicken and cheese - but it's looking pretty sparse, and there is a giant bag of shredded mixed greens that's been staring at me for the last week, daring me to use it. But I know they won't eat it, and I'm not sure greens cook alright on top of pizza in that way... then it hit me - grind it up into some pesto and it should work! Not having any pine nuts, I had to "play jazz"as my DH likes to say, but it was a total hit, and the kids were eating it by the fingerful out of the bowl. Here's how the recipe shook out:

1 big handful chopped mixed greens - collard, turnip, kale, and mustard
1 big pinch fresh basil
1 big pinch fresh cilantro
about 4 oz slivered almonds
4-5 oz shelled roasted pistachios (almost any nuts would work - pine nuts or even hazelnuts or walnuts would probably be good - this was what I had on hand.)
a couple of cloves of bruised, peeled, chopped garlic
about 1/3 of a cup of grated hard cheese (parmesan, pecorino, asiago....I think i put some caciocavallo in there...whatever you have. Grate it fresh if you can - the shake cheese has lots of cellulose powder and a different flavor.)
I put in a handful of dried "antioxident blend" mixed berries - in my normal pesto i will put a couple of sun dried tomatoes or sweetened dried cranberries - I like the sweet/tart note they add - this is optional.
a pinch of kosher salt and a spoon full of raw sugar

add these to the food processor and pulse a few times after each ingredient, and drizzle in a good 1/3 to 1/2 cup of good olive oil all the while- until you reach the consistency you like. Make sure you taste and adjust - that's why the measurements are so free.

I plopped it on pizza along with roasted veggies and cheese, but it would be good tossed with your kids' favorite shape of pasta, or scrambled into eggs, or mixed with a can of tuna and scooped on crackers. Who doesn't love crackers? Happy cooking, and I hope your kids like it! Leave out the garlic if they are very sensitive....

My Dream Mixer

I have always wanted a KitchenAid stand mixer, from the time other kids started lusting after cars. I knew they were both expensive and heavy, and since college I have moved about a dozen times, each time grateful I didn't have to lug one around, but still yearning for the mixer's sexy curves enhancing all the goodies coming out of my kitchen. I promised myself I would not get one until I had my first home - a housewarming present to myself - and I put aside the money little by little. I always checked prices - these things are constantly "on sale" but never for less than $250. Over the last ten years, I've pored over the mixer reviews in Consumer Reports, kept my eyes open at garage sales and browsed Craigslist, built my "dream mixer" at KitchenAid's website, and lusted after Alton Brown's custom model with hotrod flames. You'd think the first thing I would have done after purchasing a house was run down to the store and pick mine out. The thing is, after all this time, my frugal brain started its constant refrain: you've been making do with a dinky little hand mixer, and it hasn't affected the taste of anything. You have a home and family to care for, and there are several more important priorities for that few hundred dollars. It's a want, not a need, so you can put it off a bit longer. *Sigh* I knew my brain was right....and on my thirty(ahem) birthday, I was much more concerned with getting the kids fed and bathed than the overly-large, brightly-wrapped package on the table. When the kids began "helping" me unwrap it, and revealed an Ice Blue, Artisan 6-quart hunka hunka burnin love for the kitchen, I was totally blown away. My husband knew I'd never go through with spending that much on myself, and pulled the trigger for me! My dream machine now lounges sultrily on my counter, whispering "come hither...and bake." I couldn't be happier, until I realized...now instead of two beaters to lick, there's only one!

Josie and August helping me bake cookies

Personalities Emerge: Twins as different as can be.

I knew they would be different - they are as different as their curly and straight hair would lead you to believe. I never expected to be raising two of the same person. Yet even as infants they were not just dissimilar, but opposite in nearly every respect - eating, sleeping, cuddling, etc. As they have grown I've loved seeing their personalities burst forth -  and while they are a long way from "set," I can already give you a few observations about them:

August- Sensitive, studious, and gentle with a flair for the dramatic -a truly free spirit, he already marches to his own beat. Possibly a lefty! Easily attached to people, toys, rocks he picks up off the ground, etc. Loves animals, books, hats, rainbows, and skeletons. Favorite foods: Kiwi and all types of pasta & bread. Tends to be a picky eater at the moment. Spirit animal: the koala bear.

Josie - Fearless, Independent, energetic people-pleaser with a mischievous sense of humor. Loves Play-doh, bellybuttons, stripes, and shoes. Also loves telling her brother "NO NO Augie!" Favorite foods: Bacon, pickles, and anything sweet. She will try just about anything, actually. Spirit animal: the river otter.

I'm hoping they will learn to be each others' yin and yang, and that their special twin relationship benefits each as they grow. I can see Josie encouraging August to be more confident and outgoing, and August helping Josie slow down, focus and observe. For now, though, I'm just waiting for the day when my dynamic duo finally get the hang of SHARING!

It's been a while...

So it's been a full year since I've posted - my hubris is laughable. To think I had time to blog with two little guys who were just starting to stand. So what happened was...right around the time of my last post, they started to walk.

And then they walked faster....and then I was chasing them everywhere trying to keep them from hurting themselves, because incidentally babies learn to walk with a very tentative grasp of the word "no," and an even more tenuous understanding of "danger." Nowadays Josie will not hesitate to tell you that "Fiwe is bewy bewy hot. Burns Jojo." (her nickname for herself...she came up with it all on her own!) and August will let you know if there's a knife around because "Knife cuts auggie. ow! ow!" But at almost two, they have made an incredible, blossoming transformation in this past year that I was too busy witnessing and celebrating to blog about.

The other big news is that in August, (the month) we bought our first home, a cozy little craftsman-esque bungalow built in 1924. It's in St. Louis City, in the Southampton neighborhood, a pretty closely-knit community that has welcomed us graciously. We love exploring the nearby parks and shops in our little red wagon, and I'm having a great time pulling together the interior with a thousand little design projects that I'll try to post some before-and-afters.

Anyway, around their first birthday, it seemed like they were constantly trying to cause chaos and mayhem to themselves and their surroundings - reaching on tables and pulling whatever's within reach on top of themselves, opening containers and spreading the contents hither and yon, climbing on anything and everything, etc. Luckily, after 6 or 8 months of this type of willy-nilly exploration, they begin to understand what is absolutely out of the question (ripping the pages out of books) and what is within bounds (reading books by turning the pages carefully).

I'm happy to report that at about eighteen months, the clouds opened up, and the light of understanding that you've seen in their eyes all these months starts coming to you in actual words, and you can explain with much success why things are dangerous or yucky to do, so things go much smoother and with less crying. (there's still an awful lot of crying, however.) That's not to say they can be left unwatched for more than 30-45 seconds at a time, or that they aren't constantly trying new mischief - we recently discovered that they know how to roll down the car windows - they haven't figured out that they can then throw things out of the windows yet. They know how to flush the toilet, but we had a lock on it for the first 6 months or so. Now that we're potty training, I keep expecting to find them flushing crazy things, but so far they are pretty good about not putting anything in there.

I'm very fastidious about letting them know unequivocally whether something is acceptable or not, and I use the dreaded "no" to good effect - some might say they hear too many no's, but so far I seem to have well-behaved children with a fine amount of self-confidence and experimental imagination. After a no, i try to either give a brief reason (no. standing on your toys will break them.) or offer a positive option. (no. We don't stand on the toys, but we can play with them.) This seems to work except for when it doesn't.

Anyway, I'm going to not learn from my mistake and attempt to start blogging again - and this time I know how to post pictures! Now it's much more interesting because we do all kinds of experiments and projects, and they come up with funny and fascinating theories that I can't wait to share. And, they play by themselves for 10 and 15 minutes at a time, so I can actually sit down to write a blog post.

Alas, I hear Josie urging me to "Let's make cimanim rolls!" So I have to go. But I renew my pledge to post regular, brief, interesting snippets into my home life, and I hope you will read, follow, share, and enjoy. Thanks!