My Own Little Boston Organics Baby

It's dreary and I have so much work to do that I don't know where to start. But to reverse the blues I'm listening to "B is for Bob" - a Bob Marley CD that I got at the BPL -- L likes Bob Marley because it is upbeat and kind of like a lot of peppy kid songs is it not?

Instead of doing the easiest thing first like I usually do - I'm right now working on something that is going to distract me from the blahs -- my own little organic baby and thinking about what I should feed L first instead of MIIIIILLKKKK!

Here is what the Boston Organics box looked like before she jumped in...



I hate Anne Geddes vegetable babies, but who can resist my own little organic cute peanut butter banana!

Baby Friendly Mexican Breakfast Brunch - Tu Y Yo

So L does not look as impressed with our Mexican Fonda dining experience as me... but let me tell you momma loves the Chilaquiles Toluqueños at Tu Y Yo, so we tried to see if the peanut would sit in her car seat without screaming and disturbing the other brunch diners.

We happened to get to the restaurant at a time when she would have rather been napping -- oops! Parental timing mishap... but she dealt with us eating with minimal squawking and we have become more adept at eating with one hand, or taking turns eating.

Since the service is very quick here and very friendly, we didn't feel too bad about delaying L's nap time and she was mildly entertained by the music and the ceiling fans. This is the second table service restaurant we have taken her to -- the first being IHOP where it is so noisy that no one cares if a baby screams the whole way through breakfast (although she snoozed in her car seat for that meal!). She has successfully "eaten" at Chipotle as well, but I don't think that really counts as a restaurant, does it?

I'm thinking that before she becomes mobile it will be easier to go to restaurants... as long as we can find places that have enough room for all the ridiculous accessories babies come with these days, don't have a wait or slow service... any suggestions for us, from other Boston-area people who like to dine with infants?

Spring has Sprung - It's time for Baby BBQ!

Spring was here briefly in New England which prompted us to break out the BBQ for the first time this season. Unfortunately it snowed again a couple of days after we BBQ'd, so I haven't been out on the patio since.

And don't worry, I didn't BBQ the baby, but I just noticed looking at these pictures that there were a lot of "baby" foods in this BBQ -- brussels sprouts = baby cabbage, baby corn and baby shrimp! Well these shrimp aren't really baby sized, but they are considerably smaller than the super jumbo shrimps I usually splurge on.




How can you not love any type of food called "Mr?". Although I don't really like "Mr. Sub" for all of my Canadian readers out there.



I have discovered that BBQ is a good way to cook when you have a baby because:
1) there is usually minimal clean up because it is done outside, so who cares if it's messy
2) daddy is more likely to help out because BBQ'ing is considered to be more "manly" than regular cooking
3) it forces you to go outside for some fresh air which sometimes is hard when you spend a lot of time with a cranky baby and don't want to be embarrassed by her "bad" behavior

This weather is making me crave SOUUUUUPPPP!!!

It is nasty in New England right now. Thankfully I can telecommute for most of my job because E, L and I all got colds this Friday. Since we've been cooped up I haven't had a chance to get groceries, so E was nice enough to venture out to Pho Pasteur and get me the Vietnamese food I've been craving. Here is me housing some Pho Dac Biet yesterday afternoon.

Fun fact about Pho Pasteur is that it is in the space formerly occupied by a strip club in the old "combat zone" of Boston's chinatown. So E and I refer to it as "Pussycat Lounge" and it's actually programmed into his cell phone that way!!

This morning I had leftover Banh Xeo for breakfast! Mmmmm....

Lactivore getting set to become omnivore...

chomp chomp chomp -- I love BPA free hooves made of natural "caoutchouc"

uh oh... I guess it's time to start reading those homemade baby foods books and to buy a bunch of food making accessories from diapers.com!

My Baby's Breath Smells Like Fajitas

Okay, so here is why I have been MIA for the last 3 months or so... 2 days after my last post I had my first baby girl! You can check out her awesome moves here.

She was born around Thanksgiving and here is a picture of her with her first feast. The roast beast is bigger than her and yes, she is a girl despite her blue "slanket"



Needless to say, I have not had much time for cooking creatively or eating out, so there hasn't been much to write about. The food that I think about most is breastmilk and this may be a bit too much information for some, but it seems like many days lil' L's breath smells inexplicably like fajitas. E thinks her breath smells like tacos, but that is close enough to fajitas to make me think that I haven't gone crazy.

I haven't eaten fajitas in the last 3 months... perhaps it's the copious amounts of Thai take out we have been eating?

Anyway, I feel the direction of my food blog (and the rest of my life for that matter) changing considerably due to the arrival of the peanut. Stay tuned for adventures in baby food making and many pictures of food ending up all over the place!

A Very Belated Post About the Meat Sweats

The fall has been quite the blur. I'll explain in due time, but one possible explanation would be that I was lulled into a protein induced coma by my road trip through Canada.

Here are two very meaty encounters that I had while traveling this summer. The first in Ottawa and the second in Syracuse, NY.

We went to Sweetgrass Bistro based on several recommendations from food friends and from some of my Ottawa pals. It was most certainly a unique dining experience since a) I had never had aboriginal food before and b) the air-conditioning was broken in the restaurant and it was a hot and humid Ottawa valley day and night.

We started with an order of Navajo Frybread which reminded me a lot of a beaver tail except more crunchy. It came with a little dish of honey for dipping!

We then shared the Hunter's Platter. I can't remember which meats were featured because I'm a bad girl and didn't write anything down, but I think there was some elk, duck, bison, wild boar and maybe some goose?



E had a huge slab of bison!



Definite meat sweats post this meal. I wondered whether this was what it would be like to be in a sweat lodge?!

During out meat-nanza, our friend Ted could not stop raving about this other place called Dinosaur BBQ. His glowing endorsement of the place pretty much solidified that we would be stopping there on our drive back from Toronto to Boston. Syracuse is about halfway anyway, so it made the decision that much easier.



Even though this place looks clearly like a biker bar from the outside, there was a very diverse clientele inside even at close to midnight! Here is one of the highlights of the decor.



Our appetizer was the fried green tomatoes and we shared the traditional sampler: 1/4 Chicken: Leg & Thigh, 1/4 Rack of Ribs, Texas Beef Brisket. It came with a side of coleslaw, mac and cheese and cornbread.





I think the best part of the meal was the peanut butter pie. Unbelievable and makes me sad for people with peanut allergies. What a perfect way to cap off our meat-venture. I am now curiously craving a salad...