She’s only recently started using a spoon by herself and she loves that control. She really concentrates and gets into it. The picture above caught her in a rare moment of looking up from her food.

This was actually my first try at polenta. I’ve always been a little afraid of it the way I used to be afraid of risotto – I fear neither no more! Polenta is so easy as long as you’ve got a moment (actually many, many moments) to stir. It was a good thing Claire was already in her high chair because Aaron was manning the grill (another fear of mine). I used a recipe (from Bon Appetit) that was nice and creamy, which was perfect for Claire to eat. Easy to spoon or grab – and either way she was shoving it in her mouth.

Creamy Polenta
serves 6
Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
2 cups water
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (Gasp! I used this before I gave it to Claire for taste. It’s not that much so I didn’t feel too badly about it.)
1 cup polenta (coarse cornmeal)*

Bring milk, water, and salt to boil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Gradually whisk in polenta. Reduce heat to low; simmer until smooth and thick, stirring almost constantly, about 18 minutes.

*I used regular cornmeal and it worked out just fine – just only cook it for about half the time.

About three blocks from our house is a French-Vietnamese bakery, Artisan Boulanger Patissier (the website doesn’t do it justice), that is run by a husband and wife. It’s a quiet, unassuming place. It’s not a cafe (although they do attempt a little atmosphere, but not much); but when you go in, the smell is so comforting and usually there’s a slight fog of flour floating in the air. It’s not quite Paris in the Springtime, but when I eat their croissants, I’m taken back to my Spring holiday there. Plus, the people are friendly. I always get into a conversation with Andre, the baker, and he’s always willing to share a madeleine with Claire (on the house – though I do go in there almost every other day).

I usually get a multigrain loaf, a beautiful brown poof of goodness, that is a little expensive ($5) but worth it. It doesn’t last very long because Aaron and I are always looking for meals around it. And Claire loves it. They didn’t have them today; I went a little later in the morning. I highly advise going as early as you possibly can because they sell out of things quickly and, while they post hours, they close when they run out of goods. So today I bought a country loaf. This gorgeous thing (ok, I’ll try to limit my use of gorgeous and beautiful in describing food – in this post – to once; but, you’ve just got to see this bread) only cost me $2!! That’s at least half of what I would spend on the grocery store, high-fructose corn syrup, lumps – I mean – loaves.

It is food like this that makes me not too concerned about nutrition and what is ‘best’ to eat. Good, real, just out of the oven white bread is better than any over-processed brown thing at the grocery store.

Since Claire has become quite picky in how (and sometimes what she eats), I’ve been struggling to find foods that she can eat herself. She doesn’t have interest in utensils yet and she’s still mastering her pincer grasp. Finding the right mix of easy-to-grab, ready-to-eat foods, is a little bit of a challenge for me. As I browse the market and the produce section of my g-store, I’m always looking for foods her little gummy mouth can handle. Typically an expensive fruit (I just now discovered that avocados are a fruit – I’ve always thought they were vegetables though I’m not sure why), avocados were on sale at the g-store, so I picked one up and thought I’d give it another go with Claire.

Avocados are jam-packed with good fats, something every growing baby needs, and (a plus, especially at lunch time) you can serve them as is. I just opened the fruit; took a paring knife and cubed the fruit in its skin in my hand, being very careful not to cut through; and spooned out the ready made cubes of goodness (I think). Often at lunch I am crossing my fingers that Claire will eat what I give her and if it’s little cubes of something she usually does. She was no different with the avocado. It was like she never had seen it before an gobbled it up as best she could. Because they’re so expensive, I only give her one a week but one avocado is good for two servings for Claire. Now if only I could learn to like them as much as she does. I don’t think cutting them up into fun cubes will do it…

She’s really getting into finger foods now. This is a blessing and a curse, as they say. It’s becoming a problem because she really only wants to eat what she can put in her mouth. She doesn’t want a bottle either. She’ll take it. Sometimes she’ll drink it. Often she drinks half and then throws it down and takes off running. She’s not quite skilled at putting food in her mouth just yet; so, she doesn’t eat very much on her own. The trouble is that she doesn’t want me to feed her, either. She doesn’t get the spoon yet – it’s still a device of mystery when not in mama’s hand. I’m working on various ways to get her to eat pureed foods and trying all kinds of finger foods, probably more quickly than I would have planned. But with a baby, nothing goes as planned so here we are trying eggs and whatever else we can get our hands on.

Claire’s had egg yolks before and they were on the Do Not Eat list for some time. However, with her lack of coordination (and teeth) I am running out of options of what she will eat. So I decided to hard-boil a few eggs and give it another go. Here is the result:

She loved it. The yolks* are mushy and easy to grasp and they melt in her mouth. I’m happy because she’s eating and eggs are such an easy food to prepare. Once they are hard-boiled they last about a week in the fridge, which makes for an easy, ready-to-eat food.

*Note that the whites of the eggs are typically an allergen and it’s advised that you don’t give egg whites to a baby under 12 months.