creamy mushroom soup

together in a pot boil:
1 large peeled sweet potato
2 average peeled carrots
2 cups washed and chopped brown mushrooms, bigger the better in terms of flavour
2 tbsp basil

When all is tender, puree with 1 can coconut milk. Set aside.

Add 4 cups fresh homemade chicken stock (boil chicken in water with green herbs (but not dill or mint), salt, pepper, dry mustard, onion & garlic powder).

Whisk over gentle heat. Do not boil. Serve with sourdough toast or toasted Montreal bagels.

Leon's hot chocolate

Makes 6 oz for baby and 12-ish for parent.

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk (not the light crap, and not the kind that is loaded with preservatives or sulphites. Thai Kitchen makes a good one)
1 heaping tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder
1 packed tsp very dark brown sugar
1 tsp Mexican vanilla

Add at end:
Cold whole milk
Cold skim milk

Whisk ingredients together in a small sauce pan over medium to low heat until it just starts to bubble. For baby, pour 3 oz into a bottle, and add 3 oz cold whole milk. Shake, test temperature, serve. For parent, pour remaining hot chocolate into large mug and cool to drinkable temperature with skim milk.

Yummy!

Leon's Curry

Leon, for those of you who read this and don't know, is 7 1/2 months old. He's super sweet, smart, cute, and he really, really likes his vegetables, and foods most people wouldn't expect a baby to love.

This particular recipe makes use of the Baby Bullet system, but would be easily adaptable to any blender system.

Ingredients:
Cooked organic sweet pumpkin
1 can organic coconut milk, separated
mild yellow curry powder

Using the Baby Bullet, make one short cup of pumpkin puree, using the watery part of the coconut milk to thin. Reserve half of this in the freezer for future use.

Fill remainder of short cup with thick coconut cream and a scant 1/8 tsp of curry powder. Blend until creamy. Serve.

Reserve the rest of the coconut milk for future use.

Leon absolutely loved it.

Variations would include adding other squashes and root vegetables as a baby's tastes mature.

postpartum I don't wanna eat my vegetables healthy cake

ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup nonfat milk
2 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
2 tsp. each soda, powder, cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c chopped nuts
1 c grated carrot
1 c grated zucchini
1 c grated yam

Optional: dried fruit or fresh fruit puree added

Icing: 1 brick low fat cream cheese, 1 pkg icing sugar, nonfat milk to moisten, vanilla  to taste.

Bake at 350 F for 40-50 minutes.

This recipe would probably make awesome breakfast muffins too, although personally I love the icing too much to try that...

French Onion Soup

My Dad's awesome recipe:

Sauté in butter:

1 clove garlic (or 1/8 tsp garlic powder)

2 to 3 sliced onions (not red)

Add:

1 can Campbells beef broth (I usually use 2 cans to serve 4 people)

1 tsp dijon mustard

½ tsp season salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 tbsp lemon juice

¼ tsp ground marjoram

Croutons: Break apart stale bread and put in 350 F oven with Parmesan cheese until slightly browned.

Pour soup into oven-safe bowls. Layer with mozzarella cheese in the middle, then croutons, and another layer of mozzarella on top. Put the bowls on a cookie sheet to help keep your oven clean from spills. Bake at 350 F for no more than 25 minutes – less if cheese is too runny.

Christmas Duck l'Orange

As told to me by my Dad:

Pork/Duck L’Orange

You want a cup of orange juice concentrate. That’s real orange juice of course from the oranges. You don’t want a juice that is in a bottle unless it’s genuine orange juice with the pulp and everything in it.

¼ cup of red wine

2 tbsp lemon juice. You can also substitute lime juice if you want, it might be a little better for duck, give it a shot.

1 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp ginger

½ to 1 tsp curry powder

3 garlic cloves, very fine chopped

½ tsp dry mustard

½ tsp basil

Sprinkle duck with pepper to taste, but first of all rub it a little bit with a couple teaspoons of season salt, whatever you want to use, again to taste.

Now with pork, of course, pork chops, a pork roast really, you plug in about 12 whole cloves on the top of the roast. I don’t know what that would be like with duck. I guess it would be fine actually, I’ll leave that up to you to poke the breasts with cloves.

And then follow whatever the cooking instructions are for duck. I’ve never made it, you’d have to have it well done of course. With a pork roast just stick it in a pot with your foil there at 250 degrees in the oven for 4 hours, and there you go.

(Duck cooked well at 450 F in a roaster covered in foil and then the lid (keeps moisture in). Flip the duck after 45 minutes, cook for another 45 minutes. Fanny Farmer says that a meat thermometer in the thigh should go above 180 F.)

Easy perogie casserole

This recipe would give 4 to 5 single servings - adjust quantity and cook time based on how many people you need to feed. Leftovers will freeze well.

In an oven-safe crock or casserole dish, mix the following:
1 small bag perogies
1 medium can crushed tomatoes
1 large can sliced black olives (drained)
1/4 cup no alcohol red wine
1 chopped onion (not red onion)
1 each chopped red, yellow, orange pepper
6 large mushrooms, quartered
Mix well.
Cover with a layer of sliced cheddar cheese (do not use processed cheese!)

Bake covered at 400 F for about an hour. If you are cooking more food, decrease temperature to about 375 F and leave it in the oven until it smells really good and is turning a nice dark brown around the edges.