Cooking and Baking for my Family

Over the last few years I have really enjoyed cooking and baking and trying out new recipes, especially from my favourite foodblog. I have to say that I love eating and when I'm not cooking or eating I spend a lot of time thinking about food, looking up recipes and planning the next meals. I only lose interest in food when I'm either very exited or busy or very sad. After my sister got her cancer diagnosis I didn't want to think about food for while. I obviously still had to cook to feed my family, but there was no excitement. Everything seemed to be so purposeless. But when I was trying to find a way to be useful to Marina, I started to get into cooking and baking again. Unsurprisingly she had lost her interest in food preparation as well, and she seemed to be happy when I turned up with breads and cakes and healthy treats. And just in time Minimalist Baker posted this kitchari recipe which I made for her when she was unwell after her second round of chemotherapy.

Home cooking has taken on new dimensions again since I started feeding my baby boy Enda solids. This time I'm relying on two brilliant books: Baby at the Table  by the Chiappa Sisters and Planet Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook by Lizzie Vann. A lot of the recipes from the first book are also on the Chiappa Sisters' website. I like their outlook on feeding a family: that you shouldn't cook separate dinners for parents and kids. There is still this belief in people's heads that children don't like vegetables and have to be coaxed into eating healthily. In Ireland there is hardly a restaurant that sells children's portions of their normal food: children's menus are mainly sausages and chips and maybe mushy peas if you're lucky. But if you don't give your children a chance to taste "grown-up" food when they're still young, you can't be surprised that they refuse to eat it when they're older.
(Saying all that, I have to admit that Aidan won't eat anything else but sausages and chips when we're at a restaurant which is of course our fault. We got him used to this as it made it easier for us to go out for dinner. Well, at least he's not too bad eating his veggies at home.)

Coming back to the two books on weaning: I really like Baby at the Table and it guides you very well through the first few weeks of weaning, but after that most of the recipes are just lists of what ingredients to put together in a baby  purée and sometimes it's not clear if you're supposed to cook an ingredient or leave it raw. There aren't many recipes for a baby that has moved on from simple purees but can't chew very lumpy food yet. So I'm glad I have the other book to fill that gap. There are loads of recipes that are proper meals with several ingredients and you just mash or purée them according to how much texture your baby can manage. (I still highly recommend Baby at the Table, especially because of the toddler and family sections.)

The decision to cook my babies' food myself instead of buying readymade was an obvious one for me even though it can be tough sometimes. Though I really enjoy cooking for Enda, especially now that he has properly taken to his food, it's not always easy to find the time. Often I have to hastily cook his meal while he is crying and Aidan is testing my patience by chasing the cat or climbing the back of the  armchair. But I want Enda to eat homemade food just like the rest of us. This doesn't mean that I never buy baby food: while it is possible to take homemade food when out and about it is not always very practical, so I do feed him readymade food now and again. I also keep an emergency bag of baby food in the press for those days when I don't have the time or patience to cook and the stash of frozen food happens to be empty. I just can't afford to be too proud to buy readymade food. Being a grumpy and tired mam is worse for my children.

This is something I keep having to remind myself about: Not to overdo the whole home making process. It's easy to fall into the trap of self blame. After managing to keep up baking my own bread for over a year now I always feel I've failed when I do cave in and buy a loaf from the supermarket. But baking bread shouldn't be about stressing yourself, it should be enjoyable and not a chore. So I decided to scrap those late nights of baking when all I want to do is grap a few hours of sleep before Enda wakes up for his next feed. The good thing is that I got better both at baking and at planning ahead. At the start making sourdough bread felt really intimidating and I mostly stuck to the instructions (something I do very seldom), but over time I realized that the dough still rises, even if I don't knead it for 20 minutes or proof it for four hours. Maybe sourdough starter gets easier to deal with the older it gets... I don't know. But after tackling the problem of inflated loaves I never had a sourdough bread that hasn't risen beautifully in the oven. As regards planning ahead, I always bake a big loaf of bread and freeze half of it, thereby avoiding having to throw out mouldy bread as well as always having a bag of sliced bread in the freezer that can be easily defrosted in the toaster.

It's been a long time...

When I look at my last post I find it hard to believe how much has changed since then. Everything had been alright then: I was pregnant with my second baby looking forward to the birth and my sister had just told us that she was expecting as well. But shortly afterwards she began to show signs of a miscarriage and the day before I had my baby boy we learned that there wouldn't be a baby for my sister. And though it's hard to describe the ups and downs, the feeling of alternating bliss at the birth of a healthy son and desperate heartache at my sister's miscarriage, I can only guess how much worse this time must have been for Marina. And as if this hasn't been enough, worse was to come. It began with a pain in her chest and a few weeks and several tests later she was diagnosed with lung cancer. There was a sense of unreality about it when we first heard it. I was in a state of shock for a few days, my whole world seemed to have been shook. I didn't intend to continue this blog, it made me so sad to see my last post and having to write about what happened. But it's a strange thing: it's impossible to stay in a continual state of shock and despair. Somehow life went on and now we've become used to Marina's illness. We don't accept it of course: there is this determination that we won't allow it to get the better of her. And although there is not much we can really do for her ( that's up to the doctors), we try to do everything to help her get through this: if it's a chat, an uplifting quote, a massage or some baked goods. At least you don't feel completely useless and powerless. And if there is one good thing that has come out of this terrible diagnosis it's that it created an even stronger bond between us sisters and our mam.
With more positive feelings taking over, I realised that I had used my sister's illness as a pretext to discontinuing this blog.  Of course it's hard to find time to write now with a second child who's only a few months old. But I started writing this blog because I wanted to try and find time for creative things amidst everyday life. So I decided to come back to it.

Getting Ready for the last Month of the Year

Being the 30th of the month, this is my last chance to write a blog entry for November. I've been busy trying to get organised for Christmas in the last few weeks, shopping for presents, knitting, crocheting and sewing as well. And baking. The only thing I haven't done yet is decorating the house which I will start this evening. This is probably the first year that I have all the Christmas shopping done before the start of December but as I'm going to have a baby just before Christmas I have no other choice. It feels good to have everything done early. There are still a few things that I need to finish off but even if don't get time to do them, I will be alright with what I have.

My sewing machine finally gave up just after finishing Aidan's Advent calendar. I'm glad that I got that done as hand sewing would have slowed me down a lot and tomorrow is the first of December.

I got the inspiration for the calendar here. It's pretty straight-forward to make: just a piece of cloth with 24 pockets stitched on (German calendars only have 24 days as we get our presents on Christmas Eve). I used paper templates before I cut out the pockets as I didn't want to end up with too little space.

I'm still planning to do some Christmas ornaments that I need to hand sew now that my machine is broken.

But I'm actually happy with how they turned out, especially the birds. Hand sewing gives you a bit more control and you achieve a softer look with stuffed ornaments. It's slower of course, but at least it's easier to undo when you make a mistake.

Aidan and I already started baking. We did some ginger bread and some traditional German "Plaetzchen". We're going to do more today.

Regarding baking: I'm happy to say that my sourdough bread has improved a lot over the last weeks. It's probably one of those things that need some time and practice to get right. After my first two loaves rose really high with proving but totally deflated in the oven I did some internet research and guessed that I might have let the loaves rise too long and in too warm conditions. I let them rise eight to twelve hours. The next time I reduced it to four hours and just room temperature (with radiators on). The outcome was perfect: the loaves didn't rise that high when proofing, but rose again in the oven.

I also discovered this recipe which makes a lovely mild tasting bread. The dough hardly rises at all when proofing but all the more during baking. I've made it at least four times and it always turned out really well.

Tutorial: Last-Minute Halloween Decoration

Last year when I decorated the house for Halloween I decided that I needed a few diy decorations to compliment the two garlands and lantern that I had bought a year before. I just don't have a hand for decorating and while some people can make a few shop-bought things look really amazing, I'm not one of them. After a pinterest search I got the idea to get a few bare branches and hang some small decorations from them. So I came up with these little felt bats:

They're really easy to make and look pretty good hanging from a branch. Last year it was too late to make a tutorial so I'm doing it now.

Here's what you need:
paper pattern (Make your own by drawing a similar shape about 15cm across and 5cm high. That size they hang the nicest, the wings are just light enough to not droop.)
Black felt
Bits of toy stuffing (or some bits of cut-off felt)
Black thread
Scissors
Sewing needle
Pins

Cut out two felt bats by placing your paper pattern on a double layer of felt, pinning it into place and cutting around it.

Pin the two felt shapes wrong sides together and sew them together with a simple running stitch around the body first, kind of cutting off the wings:

Leave a little gap in the seam and push some toy stuffing into the body before stitching it closed.

Then stitch a line of running stitch around the edges of each wing. And that's it! Attach a long piece of thread from the back of the head and hang on some branches or the ceiling.

Two Bags

It's a year since I've started this blog! I'm glad that I got this far and nearly managed to post at least two entries each months. The words still don't come easily but my writing ability has improved at least a little. It doesn't take me that long any more to write an entry.
For the next year I just hope that I will be able to keep this up. With a new baby coming along, the chances that my posts will be more frequent are not high. But I'll try my best. There will surely be more posts about babies and less about craft projects.

So here is another crafty post:

Apart from knitting about four things at the same time, I've also been sewing a little:

This bag is made completely of left-over fabric from other projects. I had meant to make a bag with the flowery fabric for a while but it just wouldn't come together until I got the jeans fabric. And suddenly my head was overbrimming with ideas. The three flowers are made with Suffolk Puffs (little fabric wheels, great for using up scraps) and buttons, the stalks and leaves are embroidered. I should have taken a better photo... I just took one quickly before sending the bag on it's way to Germany for my mum's birthday.

I made this bag, excluding the strap, quite a few years ago before I moved to Ireland.

For some reason I considered it finished without a strap, though it was uncomfortable to hold like a clutch. It was lying around on my sewing table recently while I was sifting through some ribbons that my aunt had given me. And this beautifully woven band just fitted it perfectly. I love when this is happening!

There isn't much sewing going on at the moment. Aidan doesn't nap anymore during the day and in the evening I prefer to knit. It seems to take less effort when I'm tired. But I do have a few ideas in my head and hope to be able to sew more before the baby comes.

Knitting Season

It's autumn again! We didn't have much of a summer here in the west of Ireland but I didn't miss it too much. We had two holidays in Germany and I got all the sun and heat that I needed there. And I prefer autumn over summer anyway, at least when there is some sunny weather, though a rainy day spent inside in front of a fire has its merits too. Still, I hope we'll have some more of those days:

This photo was taken last Sunday which had a wet start but turned into a lovely sunny day. We drove out to the seaside for a walk along the coast. It's much more pleasant to walk in autumn time than it is in summer, I find. The air is so pure and fresh and there's no sweating and baking in the sun even after a long walk.

And more reasons to love autumn: colorful leaves, foggy mornings, the food (apples, plums, berries...) and of course knitting! Though I'm knitting all year round since I moved to Ireland (the cooler weather allowing it), my peak time is still the official knitting season. Obviously. It doesn't feel right to knit a wooly jumper in July, even when your fingers don't get sweaty handling the wool.

My knitting baskets are already full of multiple projects I started. Some of them from last year like my husband's fair isle vest... But I've already finished something:

The pattern is from this book (my latest Charlie Byrne's bookshop find):

It's a baby cardigan for a cherished little someone who is currently still cosy and warm in my tummy but by the time of his or her birth it will be midwinter so I intend to knit lots of wooly warm vests and cardigans.  This one was supposed to have long sleeves and I wish it had. What happened was this: I got the book and decided to start straight away with knitting using up some lovely yarn that I had used for a jumper I knitted for Aidan last year. I had slightly less than the two balls that the instructions said but I chanced it. Big mistake! Never never do this! I figured I could still buy more of this yarn if I ran out. But it turned out that this particular color was discontinued and none of the shops had any left. By this time I had set my heart on knitting a yellow cardigan and did't want any other colors mixed in. My aunt has given me a bag full of sewing supplies among them the lovely heart shaped blue buttons and I really thought that was a sign that I should try and make this cardigan as the blue and yellow go so well together. I ended up knitting several versions of short sleeves until I got the right length that gave me just enough yarn to finish it. In the end I'm happy enough with it but I have my lesson learned!

Apart from knitting for my own baby I have projects planned for friends' babies (quite a lot women of our acquaintance are pregnant as well) and for family members. In fact I will probably not be able to do everything I have planned. I'm due in the middle of December so there won't be much knitting after that. At the moment I'm trying to do as much as I can, fitting in a few stitches here and there. I'll see how far I will get.

Scraps and a new Bread Recipe

When you first start out sewing, you might find it hard to come by materials without spending a lot of money. Yet after a few years most crafters find themselves with an ever growing stash of fabrics, some still sizable enough to be used for future projects, but the bigger mountain is always made up of those scraps of fabrics, too big to throw out but to small and cut-into for most projects. Yet if you throw them out you can be sure that you will need tiny amounts of exactly the scraps you've just thrown away in the near future. I'm always hovering between my tidy minimalistic side that wants to get rid of all those tiny unmanageable bits and my thrifty crafty side that shies away from throwing out anything the might come in useful. So I ended up storing my fabric scraps in various boxes, out of sight and out of mind, which meant that I never really used them at all. After doing some internet research for storing ideas I found this metal basket in a local shop.

It doesn't look the tidiest, but I can just throw the scraps in and they are stowed away but still in sight. And the basket at least is pretty. It would help if I got another one as it's always overflowing. But having the basket in full sight means that I occasionally do feel the urge to sew something with some of those beautiful scraps. Again the internet is great for getting ideas, but my latest idea came from something I've seen in a shop in a town while looking for some birthday presents. They were tiny fabric dogs with a chain and key ring. It's not easy to sew something that small, not for me with my basic sewing machine skills anyway, but I tried some heart shapes, not too small, that came out decent enough. So I did a few different shapes. They're far from perfectly sewn but look alright from if you don't look too closely. 

I used a different kind of scraps (paper) to decorate a folder for my recipes. It was good to cut up some old magazines that could throw out afterwards. While making lots of recipes from the internet I don't like having to use my phone or the computer while cooking. So I usually copy the recipes in handwriting (we don't have a printer), which gives me the possibility to note down all the changes that I might make. My newest addition is a porridge bread recipe that a friend has mentioned when I told her of my decision to make our bread myself. Her mother is making it all the time and after trying it out yesterday I think I will too. The recipe can be found here.

                          

The whole home-baking business is going surprisingly well. I expected to cave in after a week and just buy bread in the supermarket but so far I haven't. It's getting addictive and I find myself looking forward to baking the next bread. Though I have to say that this wouldn't be the case if I had a job. It's easier when you're home the whole day even with a toddler to mind. In fact, baking bread is a way to keep Aidan busy. He loves kneading the dough and always manages to sneak some into his mouth.

The sourdough starter worked out as well after a few difficulties at the beginning. I hated the idea of having to throw out half of the dough at every feeding, so I only fed it a little flour and water every day, but that was wrong. Eventually I followed the instructions here and it worked wonders. Well, that is to say my starter dough was certainly ready for baking.

 

And when I made the bread dough it rose beautifully... only to turn into a brick in the oven.

It wasn't as bad as it looks though. When I cut the loaf, it looked spongey like it should on the inside and it tasted ok. Adrian, who loves sourdough bread, gave it the thumbs up. So I won't regard it as a failure. I haven't baked since and store the starter dough in the fridge. Hopefully my next attempt will make a fluffier looking loaf!

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave