Happy Easter!

What's the use in having a blog if I can't brag about my adorable child on it? Here are some goodies from Archer's Easter pictures.

Biter Biscuits!

My 4 month old is going through an oral stage - everything must be gnawed on, sometimes with great ferocity. It's his way of saying, "Hey". He's not really teething yet, but I'm sure it will be happening soon. In order to gear up for the Great Teething Event of 2011, I've been trying out recipes for homemade biter biscuits (or teething biscuits) for him to try. Here are two recipes to try - one has shortening and salt in it, and the other is more straightforward. Please note that no biter biscuit is guaranteed NOT to crumble. The bottom recipe is quite sticky, so instead of rolling it out, try loading the goo into a pastry bag and piping the dough onto a baking sheet. The first recipe is somewhat sticky, but not nearly as bad.

Teething Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 T shortening
1/2 c sugar (I used TruVia)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water
1-1/2 cup baby cereal (I used HappyBaby rice cereal with DHA)

Directions:
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and water. Mix until well blended. Gradually stir in cereal. Knead until smooth. Pat into rectangle. Cut into 12 1-inch bars, smooth edges so they will not be sharp. Place on ungreased sheet. Bake 20-30 min or until dry. Store in uncovered container overnight.

Cereal Cookies

1 cup flour (I made these with both cake flour & wheat flour)

1 cup dry infant rice cereal (I used HappyBaby organic Rice with DHA - you can add bananas or apples if you like)

3 tablespoons cooking oil

ice water

Directions:

Preheat oven 425F

Mix flour and cereal. Gradually stir in oil. Mix a little ice water at a time (start with 1/4 cup) until dough begins to form a ball and pull away from the bowl. Roll out to the thickness of a cracker on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 min. or until lightly brown. Cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

**as with any self-feeding baby foods, do not leave baby unsupervised while eating

**recipes adapted from those found at www.wholesomebabyfood.com**

earl grey tea cookies, or the cookie jar's already empty?

Tomorrow, I will be baking up a storm in my little kitchen. Not only will I be making my soon to be famous chocolate chip cookies, but Earl Grey Tea cookies will also feature on the baking menu. They are one of my favorite cookies and I cannot wait to get some in my belly. They are crumbly and soft with just a hint of bergamot. Try these with a strong cup of black coffee (if EG tea is overload, try PG Tips with no milk) on a quiet afternoon by yourself, or make up a few batches and share with your book club!

I wonder what Picard would say if he encountered these cookies? "Cookies. Earl Grey. Cold." That doesn't quite have the same ring as his normal replicator request...

In case you weren't already aware, today is Friday. That is, the day after Thursday and the day before Saturday. You know, the one day of the week that the majority of the American workforce is living for? 

I don't live for that day anymore.

I work two days a week. Two. Two long, exhausting, ridiculously coffee-filled 10 hour days. On those days, I am a patient services rep at a specialty pharmacy. Whoopie. But the other five days of the week, those are the days that I look forward to. It's not because I get to sleep in or because I get to lunch with my friends and be lazy indulgent. It's because those are the days that I get to spend at home with my son, talking about world events and important things, like whether giraffes are better than lions. We read a lot - Archer and I are currently reading our way through Roald Dahl's books, while he and daddy are reading their way through Harry Potter. Soon, we'll read Tolkein. I make silly faces and sing songs and inevitably end up with some amount of spit up, drool, or Similac formula on my shirt or pants or some combination of the two. When Archer naps, I pick up the house, plan the week's dinner menu, chat online with my mom friends, and make baby food.

My life now is such a departure from where I thought I would be at 25. I was going to conquer the world. I was going to bake my way through the baking section at Borders. I was going to become Somebody. Now? I'm going to be lucky if I can conquer the weight gain from my pregnancy. I'll more than likely just cook my way through a few baby food cookbooks. And I already am Somebody...I'm Archer's Somebody and that? That's better than anything I could have ever asked for.

I get to go play with that little boy today, but expect to see a few recipes posted over the weekend.

The time has come...

...the Lestlie said, to...start...blogging...again?

The first blog post is always the hardest. It's the worst post ever on every blog! Why? There's all this pressure to be awesome from the get-go, isn't there?

I guess I can settle for mediocre.

Here I sit, a completely different person than I was when I started my first blog at 17, a blog that netted 150 page views a day. I know that's not much in this world of blog craziness, but back then, for someone who was mostly blogging about nothing, 150 page views was a big deal. I met quite a few people, people that I still talk to, and no blogging venture since then has been as successful or as rewarding.

Well. This time, ladies and gents, I've got something to talk about. I have my 4 month old son, Archer (aka McStinky), who is my current favorite topic of conversation. I have food, particularly baby food, which is sort of my new passion. And I have other things, surely. I can't talk about work because of the social networking policy (even though that would provide fodder for many anger and frustration fueled posts, I'm sure), but that's probably for the best. I work two days a week and try to keep all work-related talk to those two days only. Why let my job get in the way of my 5 day weekends?

I've got big things in the works. Big things...and maybe some small things, too. Read on if you want, pass on by if you don't.

Until then...