Yes, food is definitely glorious for Quint Man. Goodness does this boy love to eat, just look at this little fella.
If I thought I loved cooking before this little guy was born, I would say it has become, or is becoming my second job and favorite hobby. It's hard not to become obsessed with it. Everywhere I turn, it seems I am learning of new and frightening ingredients or concoctions food companies are pumping into their food, and that makes me more than a little nervous. The way I mitigate this is by cooking and knowing exactly what he is eating. It's a bit of an adventure to make and discover new things he likes!
Quint has been eating plain foods since he was about 7 months old, just around the beginning of fall. I started out with bananas and avocados, foods everyone told me babies loved. Well, not Quint. He turned his nose up (literally) when presented with these soft morsels. I thought I was in for it and that he was going to be one of those kids that hates eating, and I was a bit discouraged. It was still hot hot hot down here in Savannah, but fall foods were in season so I decided to try again with those. I steamed butternut squash, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, yellow squash and just fed it to him straight... and he LOVED it. At about 8 months old, he could almose eat an entire half of an acorn squash. I even started cooking and experimenting with pumpkin since it was in season and made pumpkin bread, muffins and pancakes with ingredients that were safe for him. He loved those, of course, I mean who wouldn't? His main staple was still nursing, but it was fun watching him dig in and enjoy eating as much as I enjoyed cooking for him!
As the winter months approached, I tried some seasonal cooking again and we tried the various root and winter vegetables like steamed broccoli, carrots, parsnips and turnips. He loved the broccoli, carrots and turnips, but for some reason definitely did not like parsnips. We got a bit more adventurous in the Thanksgiving-New Years time frame, and even tried scant bits of turkey. The holidays were definitely the catalyst for that experimentation. I even gave him bits of a persimmon, which he really liked! It was just too much fun to give him the real good stuff and watch the delight and surprise in his eyes after you put those creamy gruyere cheese grits in his mouth. mmm mmm.
7-9 months of age was a pretty fun food experimentation time, but now at about 10 monthis is when the real COOKING fun is beginning. He loves almost everything and I get to prepare actual recipes for him. Recipes like turkey sweet potatoe meatballs, pastina mac and cheese, rice balls, broccoli cheddar nuggets and all that good stuff. Doesn't sound half bad? Well, it really isn't. I often eat his leftovers, or, much to Will's dismay, his discards off the high-chair. He loves meat, cheese and bread.
I've gotten a little hippy or nuts with the health of it all, but it's really fun for me! I've taken after my very dear friend, Dorsey Ketcham, and started grinding my own wheat berry for flour. What a crazy world that is. It is horrifying when you read about what is actually in, and what is unnaturally absent from store bought flour... even the organic stuff. Almost all of it has been stripped and bleached of it's natural nutrients in exchange for shelf life. None of the flour has the wheat germ or any of its natural vitamin E, but if you grind the wheat berry yourself and use it right away, all that good wholesomeness stays right in the flour. I could go on forever, but I think I might start another cooking blog or something for that, since this is my Quint blog :). Once I grind the wheat which is super easy (I just put the berry in a Cuisinart Automatic Burr Electric Coffee Grinder), I use the resulting flour for pancakes, waffles (which I freeze and give to Quint to eat and help with his teething), bread, pizza dough... everything. And of course, Quint loves it, which fuels my desire to do it often and research more ways to use wheat! I've even boiled the wheat berry with some barley and let it sit in the crock pot with apples, cinnamon and honey to make a delicious hot cereal! Who knew?
While I would hardly call myself a pioneer, frontier or country gal (I am not one to "rough it" for extended periods of time), I love their natural wholistic approach to food and cooking. My next project is cheese making! Quint man LOVES cheese and I want to make sure he is getting the good organic stuff. I will let you know how that endeavor goes. I think I am going to start with Mozzarell and Ricotta. It's fascinating really; you start with a gallon of milk, add some rennet, acid and heat. From there you stretch the curds to make the mozzarella. Then from those leftovers, you can reaheat the whey, strain it and you have ricotta. You can then use the whey as a substitute for broth or stock in soups! CRAZY, I never knew you could do so much with a gallon of milk. I don't know if I am going to add that to my next entry in this blog, or make another blog. We'll just have to see.
