R's Chocolate Bar Cake

I'm having a neighbor over who just adopted the sweetest, cutest, tiniest little baby -- they got word that they had been chosen to bring him home and dropped everything and went up to the hospital for his birth and then lived in a hotel for a week until they could officially, officially bring him home. Just a few weeks ago, the 30-day waiting period, during which the birth mother could still change her mind, ended, and he became legally theirs.

Anyway, she's coming over tomorrow. I made my mom's amazing streusel coffee cake to serve when she visits and R helped me (recipe at end of post, for those who are interested).

R is such a good helper. She knows how to mix and stir and clean up messes and she's just really great to work with in the kitchen.

After we were finished making the cake she wanted to make another cake for her friends. I told her no, we didn't have all the ingredients.

She insisted, "But Mommy, we only need three nuts!"

I said, "Only three nuts?"

And then she recited the following recipe for "Chocolate Bar Cake." I share it with you all here.

R's Chocolate Bar Cake
3 nuts
1 scoop of sugar
2 scoops of cream
3 chocolate bars
3 scoops baking powder
2 scoops popcorn

Directions:
1. Chop the nuts.
2. Mix everything together.
3. Cook for 50 minutes.


Grandma's Awesome Streusel-Filled Coffee Cake
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C margarine
1 egg
1/2 C milk
1 1/2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease square 9x9 pan. Mix sugar, margarine, and egg together. Stir in milk. Blend dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to wet mixture. Spread half the mixture in the pan. Sprinkle in half the streusel mixture (below). Add remaining batter and sprinkle remaining streusel on top. Bake 25-35 minutes.

Streusel mixture:
Mix together 1/2 C brown sugar, firmly packed
2 T flour
2 t cinnamon
2 T butter, melted
1/2 C chopped nuts

A Preview of Easter Dessert

R and I made this cake this afternoon and had fun decorating it after dinner! We shared fairly equally in the decorating decisions which, I think, is well-reflected in the cake's final appearance.

Matzo Ball Soup: A Video Thank-You

So, my awesome friend D made me some matzo ball soup. I was super-excited to share this with R, because we have a book called Matzah Ball Soup that she really enjoys, because it's all about a girl named R who makes matzo ball soup with her grandmother and learns about her family's Passover traditions.

Without further ado, here's R enjoying the soup and sending huge thanks to D!

RUS Feeds Himself

This is nothing new, actually--RUS has been great at using utensils to feed himself for ages. But for some reason I felt like showing him off a little and took this video yesterday at dinner. He's SO GOOD at self-feeding!!



ADDED: In the comments, someone asked about whether RUS was left-handed. The answer is that we don't know yet, and I thought in the spirit of even-handedness I'd put a video up of him eating with his right hand.

Big sister - little helper

I had the kids to myself a while the other day and RUS was refusing to nap. He was also very fussy, so I moved his lunchtime up a little bit. I'd been keeping R entertained with play-dough for a while, but she'd packed that up as I got RUS's lunch put together. As soon as he was in his high chair and his bowl of baby food and spoon were out, R went over to the chair in front of him, climbed up, and proceeded to feed him.

As soon as she headed in his direction, my first instinct was to say, "No, R, I don't want you to make a mess blah blah blah." But I managed to stop myself. I continued cleaning a few things off the table as she picked up the spoon. I watched carefully and silently as she loaded it up with cereal. I smiled to myself when she held his hand out of the way and brought the spoon right to his mouth. Only after the second successful bite, did I start to breathe again and continue my little picking up and chores. I even began preparing my and R's lunches for a little while as she fed him.

I did offer some advice from time to time. First, after dropping quite a bit of food on his bib, I gently suggested not getting so much food on the spoon. R began tapping off some food each time she took a scoop. I also swooped in occasionally with a napkin to clean off his face a bit. I considered myself especially brave when I suggested she give him some water to drink. She was a natural. I'd almost say RUS responds better to R feeding him than to me. He definitely smiles and laughs more for her than anyone else. At several times he forgot to eat the food, he was so busy giggling at her.

I felt a bit like an anthropologist or a naturalist, observing, but not interfering with the proceedings. But like all things wild, the serenity was only temporary. As R brought the cup to R's mouth one last time, RUS got a hand on it, yanking it and spilling water all over the tray and himself. I was a blur, getting to the towel and helping to mop it up, but I encouraged R the whole time to keep feeding him, which she did. However, a few mouthfuls after I'd gotten the spill cleaned, I noticed R squirming, and saw a puddle under where she crouched on the chair. I grabbed another towel to mop up this water too and then noticed that this was quite warm water.

That was the end of that. R was brought to the potty to get stripped and cleaned off while RUS yelled at us for leaving him while there was still food to be had. He had eaten most of what I'd poured out for him, but he's usually reluctant to end a meal - and has gotten used to seconds at least. When I returned to spoon out what was left in the bowl for him and scatter some rice puffs on his tray, R decided to prance around the living room - quite undressed. The usual chaos had returned. The magical moment was over. But not before I'd gotten some of it on video ;)



R: too far, he will choke.
J: yeah, don't do that.
RUS: grunts
R: mmm. yum
RUS: grunts
R: mmmm. . . yummy yummy yummy
RUS: laughs. grunts
R: He love this food
R: (gibberish?)
R: Daddy. Daddy. . . daddy give you that food.

Celebrating Independence

A few days before July 4th, we informed Grammie and Grampy that we would like to have a little picnic of sorts with them to celebrate (eat pie). Grammie and Grampy said that they would like to try taking R to see fireworks that night, so we decided we would have a dinner party at our place.

We soon realized that it was going to be a HOT day, and nobody was interested in eating anything too warm. While Grammie made a delicious cold pasta salad (with bowties that R got a kick out of) and brought corn on the cob (one of R's absolute favorite foods of all time), I couldn't think of anything I wanted to make - and so we decided we'd get take out. We settled on Ali Baba's - a simple spread of hummus, falafel, tabouleh, pasta salad with kalamata olives - and corn on the cob. It really hit the spot.

We were all done eating at 6:30 and we had a couple of hours to kill before leaving for fireworks - and we were all too stuffed to eat pie yet. So we went outside and set up the sprinkler for R to run through. It's the strangest thing. When she is in the bath, she will SCREAM if any water gets anywhere near her eyes. She starts yelling "I need a towel! I need a towel!" and no, a washcloth just won't do. You'd think she was the wicked witch of the west. But put her in front of a sprinkler and turn it on - watch out! This girl loooooves the water! She runs through it, jumps through it, chases it - and sticks her face right in the spray! She runs up to me, streams of water running down her face - trying to hug me.

Anyway, after getting some energy burned, we went back in and had our pie. Poor RUS had to watch everyone eating - again. He's definitely likes his food - like his sister - but he's not yet ready for cherry pie.

Finally, the time had come. We told R that if she was really good, she could go see the fireworks with Grammie and Grampy. Well, she really was an angel. Took her nap without a fuss, behaved at meals, and generally was on her best behavior. So at 8:30, already past bed-time, we packed her into the car - S and RUS opted to stay home. We found a good spot and walked around while it got dark. There were errant fireworks going off all around - but most were in the distance - not very loud. While carrying R on my shoulders, one went off nearby and it was very loud - but we managed to laugh it off, though R insisted on screaming a little bit and told us the fireworks blew away the bugs.

Over an hour after parking the car, the show started. I immediately put my hands over R's ears. They were loud, but we weren't right next to them, so it wasn't too bad. Still, it was not something she was used to. We talked about the different colors and the funny looking ones - after 5-10 minutes or so, R wanted to go home. I told her we could sit in the car and watch, which she was happy to do. It was a lot softer in the car and we could see some out the skylight and others out the windshield. Still, after another 5-10 minutes, R was ready to head home, so we drove off, craning our necks to see a few more. The finale was happening right as we pulled into our driveway, and Grammie said she could see some from the corner of our yard. I considered the event a success. R did not cry or fuss - even though it was way past bedtime - she just informed us when she'd had enough. She did put up a fight when it finally was time for bed, but that didn't last too long.

The next day, she said to me, "Next time, I will see the finale." I'm looking forward to it.

My Mom is My Hero

I thought chocolate pizza was a figment of R's imagination. But apparently, it really exists. And of course my mother has the recipe! She emailed it to me this morning:

*****
Crazy-Topped Brownie Pizza

Brownie
1/2 C. butter
2 (1-oz) squares unsweetened chocolate
1 C. sugar
3/4 C. flour
2 eggs

Frosting
1 C. powdered sugar
1/3 C. peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 tbsp. milk

Toppings
semi-sweet chocolate chips
raisins
salted peanuts
anything else you might want to add

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a 2-qt saucepan, combine butter and chocolate. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until melted (4-6 min). Stir in remaining brownie ingredients until well mixed. Spread into greased 12" pizza pan. Bake for 15-17 min. or until brownie begins to pull away from side. Cool completely. In small mixing bowl combine all frosting ingredients except milk. Beat at medium speed, adding milk slowly until frosting is smooth and creamy (1-2 min). Spread over brownie. Sprinkle with any combination of desired toppings and press lightly. Cut
into wedges. Yummy!
****

This is perfect! And R will be so excited!

He likes avocados!

R never liked avocados, even as a baby, so it is looking like this is another point of difference between R and RUS.

J tried avocados with RUS yesterday and he couldn't get enough of them! Here is an almost 1-minute long video of him enjoying them--keep in mind that this is the very first time he tried them!



P.S. Yes, that is a princess bib he is wearing. What of it?

First cereal

Last week, when my folks were in town, we tried a little bit of rice cereal for RUS in the morning. He was hungry at the time and though he didn't mind it too much, he did run out of patience and started fussing for his bottle before too long. So we waited about a week before trying again.

Last night I pulled out the rice cereal again. It was right after dinner. R, S, and I were all eating a simple cous cous dish I pulled together and RUS was watching every bite we all took, and would bring his hands to his mouth and chew while we chewed our food. He was ready.

He did spit some of the food out of his mouth - generally whenever I got the food in front of his tongue instead of on top of it, he would push it out. But then he started playing with it in his mouth before spitting it out. And then he seemed to get the idea that he could move it around with his tongue and then suck it down. This all happened in a matter of a dozen or so spoonfuls.

Tonight he was a pro. He was reaching for the spoon to pull it in, biting down on the spoon, sucking the cereal off. His first bite he made a funny face that I attributed to not warming up the milk before mixing it, but after he got used to it, he was lunging for the food every time I got it near him.

So in the end, not too much food missed his mouth. There were a couple of incidents involving the blowing of raspberries with cereal in the mouth that got Daddy in the face, but quite a bit of the food was actually eaten.

And yes, we are thanking our lucky stars that he's been such a good baby! Night time sleeping, taking the bottle, and now eating his cereal. I just won't mention the nap thing. . .

"I want food!"

Grammie and Grampie were visiting this weekend. During one meal, Grammie was holding RUS and pretending to pound his fists on the table while chanting, "I want food! I want food! I want food!"

At this, R snapped her head around, stared at RUS, planted her palms firmly on the table and shouted, "Your food comes out of Mommy's nipples, RUS, OK!"

Go Bento

I'm posting this late, but better late than never! R's good friend H has been spending her summer in Tokyo and sent her this utterly adorable bento box for her 2nd birthday.

When she got it, R was SO excited to take it all apart and put it back together. She's going to have so much fun once I start putting snacks in it for her--we haven't done it yet because of all the packing going on right now. But it's perfect for packing food in to take to the park or to have a picnic with. I also can't wait to really teach her how to use chopsticks. I'm thinking maybe we'll eat off chopsticks every day for a month and really train her. Or something.

Vintage Cookbooks

My grandma passed on to me a bunch of her old cookbooks when we were visiting this past weekend. My mom and I spent one evening looking through them, and had a ton of fun reading through-- and laughing hysterically until we cried about-- some of the crazy things they put in these cookbooks.

First up: Food Favorites, from the Kraft Television Theatre . . . "selected by popular request." (1951).

(But seriously, though, I have a hard time believing these recipes were ever popular.)
"Mayonnaise Appetizer Dip." This consists of basically-- you guessed it-- mayonnaise. Plus 1 teaspoon grated onion, 1 teaspoon horseradish, 1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar, and 1/4 teaspoon curry powder. How disgusting does that sound?

It totally makes me think of that scene in "Notting Hill" where Spike (Hugh Grant's character's roommate) says, "There's something wrong with this yogurt," at which point Hugh Grant informs him that he's been eating mayonnaise.

And how about these "Jellied Green Pepper Rings"?
It's kind of hard to see the picture, but essentially, to make this, you cut the stem off of some green peppers, make some lemon Jell-O, add chopped celery, chopped carrots, shredded cabbage, and chopped cucumbers, and spoon this gelatin mixture into the green peppers and chill. When the Jell-O is hard, you slice the peppers into rings and voila, Jellied Green Pepper Rings. Serve with mayonnaise.

Can we say "ew"?

Next: "Stuffed Prune and Date Dessert."
To make this, all you do is squeeze cream cheese through a pastry tube on top of prunes and dates. They look like decorated turds, seriously.

But this last one is my absolute FAVORITE from this Kraft cookbook: "Cheese Nutburgers"
The ingredient list for the burgers (in its entirety): mayonnaise, pecans, relish, and Worcestershire sauce. (The "cheese" part comes when you put American cheese slices on top of the "burgers" before baking them.) If you'd like to try these I'll be happy to send you the complete recipe.

The other cookbook is called Easy Ways to Good Meals: 99 Delicious Dishes Made with Campbell's Soups (1949).

This cookbook was slightly more appalling than the Kraft one mainly because they tried to put Campbell's soup into dishes that really, really, did not need soup as an ingredient whatsoever.

For example, the "Stuffed Meat Roll," which is essentially meat spread onto waxed paper and covered with a mixture of potatoes and pea soup and then rolled, like one would roll a jelly roll, kinda. But look at that picture! It looks like it's stuffed with lard!
MMMM, "Chicken Mousse." Made with Jell-O, cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, chopped chicken, and mayonnaise, of course. Topped with whipped cream. (I know, I know, I wouldn't believe it myself if I wasn't reading it in front of my own eyes).

Back in the 50s, I guess people just loved to put Jell-O in everything. For example: "Tomato Soup Salad." There was no picture of the actual salad, but check out the ingredient list (I photographed it just for proof): Jell-O, tomato soup, cream cheese, salad dressing OR mayonnaise, and lemon juice. Good gracious. Who would eat that? Or, better yet, who would even think to invent this? But, on the bright side, it's among the few recipes that doesn't ask for BOTH cream cheese and mayonnaise.

But I think the "Grilled Shrimp and Vegetable Salad" wins grossest Jell-O concoction in this cookbook. You make it pretty much how you would expect-- with some Campbell's consomme, Jell-O, and a whole slew of vegetables just mixed up in there. Dang, that is one beautiful salad.

And you know no cookbook would be complete without dessert. Dessert made with soup, of course. So we bring you "Apple Sauce Spice Shortcake with Foamy Sauce." (Yes, that is the actual name of the recipe). Made with tomato soup, along with the typical ingredients for an apple sauce spice cake. MMM, foamy sauce. Take a look.

Yummy Yummy Tummy

Today one of R's classmates had a birthday, so the girl's grandma brought in cupcakes for the entire class. J and I went together to pick R up and we arrived just as all the kids were waking up from their nap and getting ready for snack, so we hung around to let R join in on the party.

Everyone sang happy birthday and then dove in to their snacks. R, like a good girl, started with her pretzel, while just about everyone else went for the cupcake first. We actually had to ask her if she wanted to try it.

Once she tried it, she kept saying, "Yummy, yummy, tummy, Yummy, yummy, tummy" with a HUGE grin on her face.

Then, a little later, she started singing. "Happy Birthday, R! Happy Birthday, R!"

We got her to say "Happy Birthday, Chloe" once or twice but she kept reverting to "Happy Birthday, R!" and then laughing and grinning. She was so delighted, it was really really cute.

Ketchup

Last night J and I took R to get some Indian food. It was a buffet chock-full of vegetarian options, MMMM.

The servers couldn't get enough of R. She was a total cutie the whole meal. They even brought out some plain chicken with some ketchup on a plate for her, I suppose in case she thought the buffet food was too spicy.

We let her have a teeny little bit of the chicken and she loved dipping it into the ketchup. Once she'd eaten that, she started picking up individual grains of rice and dipping those into the ketchup. It was the funniest thing to watch her daintily picking up single grains of rice and ever-so-carefully dipping them just a tiny little bit into the ketchup.

We finally took the plate away when she started dipping her fingers into the ketchup and licking it off.

Grandma and Grandpa's Latest Visit

My parents came out a couple weekends ago to visit. It was great--we always love having visitors, but especially grandparents who love to spoil R. She just eats up all the attention.

On Saturday, we went to a really good Asian restaurant in town. Thank goodness we went early because by the time we left the place was so crowded we had to literally push through the crowd so we could get to the door.
On Sunday we had a really good breakfast out and then spent time hanging around the house. My mom and I went shopping briefly.

R was sick most of the weekend, so she spent a lot of time cuddling up to all of us, especially Grandpa. Here she is with Grandpa and all of her dolls. Grandpa named them "G", "Trucker", and "Tyke" even though they're mostly wearing pink clothes.
(Speaking of doll names, I don't know what R will end up naming hers, but whenever I think of doll names, I think of Ramona Quimby and her doll Chevrolet. The blonde-haired cabbage-patch style doll I had when I was little I named Megan, and I had another preemie Cabbage Patch named Bruce Trevor. I don't remember any of my other doll names. What did you name your dolls when you were little?)

Hot

In this video, R is careful when feeding Linny, a stuffed guinea pig she got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa, to be sure the food isn't too hot for Linny to handle.

(be sure to note the new "purrfect" plate from Great-Aunt K and Rapunzel!)

Forks

R's gotten very interested in eating utensils lately. She sometimes insists on having her own spoon in the morning while eating cereal. Unfortunately, because we always feed her hot cereal-- either Cream of Wheat or oatmeal-- we can't let her try eating it on her own. But sometimes I give her her own spoon and we trade off-- her giving me her empty spoon in exchange for the one loaded with cooled-down cereal that I hand her to feed herself.

In this video she's eating grapes with a fork. She tries to eat lots of things with her fork, not always successfully. But she's definitely got the hang of grapes and forks. This is great fun for her--and even more fun now that her Great Aunt K and Rapunzel gave her her own set of pink "purrfect" dishes (plate, bowl, cup, spoon, and fork) to use. I'm sure they will be appearing in mealtime pictures very soon!

Feeding the Baby: A Photo Essay

Ok, Baby. Get all buckled in!
Wait a minute. You're a little too high. C'mere.
This spot is better.
There you go. Mmmm, food.

Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday Rosemary had her first doctor's appointment for actual sickness, not just a check up. He diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection and prescribed some antibiotics. No ear infection and she's doing well. She's just crankier, and she wants to be held all the time. Here's hoping she gets better really soon. It'll be nice to be able to have her running around instead of crying to be picked up whenever she's on the floor. Poor J had to make pizza dough and put together calzones while holding her the entire time. Trying to roll out pizza dough one-armed is kind of hard, he said!

Two stories

"Bittersweet"
When I dropped R off at day care, she hung out with me while I put her lunch in the fridge and tucked her things into her little cubby. Then, I walked her out to the main area, where the teacher who gets in earliest is always hanging out and getting things set up. Once R saw the teacher, she let go of my hand and walked up to the teacher with her arms outstretched to be picked up.

"Cooking Crackers"
J reported that when he was busy getting food ready for R earlier, she saw the crackers and began signing cracker, cracker. When he gave her a cracker, though, instead of eating it, she put it in one of her little pots, covered the pot, and walked into the living room, where she proceeded to "cook" the cracker a couple of different ways.