Baby Gender: How Marketing Has Changed

It is hard to believe how much my baby has changed in a few short months.  She used to be a teeny (relatively - partner is tall & kiddo is definitely getting those genes), totally dependant bundle.  Currently, she's crawling and feeling along the coffee table for things to grab and offering me cheeky grins.

There are a lot of things I wish fo her future.  When I look at certain parts of the world, I'm worried that I won't be able to parent through them adequately.

One of the things that really bothers me is the genderization of very small children & babies.  I'm not sure when it started, but it is radically different from when I was small.

If you were born in the 1980s (and possibly the first half of the 1990s), it was relatively easy to find clothes that could fit a child of either gender, making hand-me-downs a little bit easier.  If you wanted a pair of overalls, they were just plain-old denim overalls.

Nowadays, if you want a pair of overalls, you have to choose between girl overalls & boy overalls.  The girl overalls will likely have some pink or purple elements to them, or be embroidered with butterflies/flowers/animal print or have ruffles somewhere.  The boy overalls will likely be embroidered with some sort of sports-related item, vehicles, dogs or fierce animals like crocodiles.
If you do manage to find a pair of plain overalls, it is almost a guarantee that they'll be in the boy section of the store.

There's a similar issue going on with toys.  If you were a small child in the 80s you may remember this guy:

The chatter-phone is still around.  Only now, the above image is the 'boy' phone.  There's now a girl phone, that is, you guessed it, in shades of pink.  Same thing with the awesome popper toy that you may remember.  The traditional version you may remember is now the 'boy' version, and they've done a pink 'girl' version.

I don't see how the above toy is for boys only.  To me, it's just a toy, suitable for a child of any gender.  I don't think it benefits anyone other than manufacturors to encourage the parents babies and small children into buying all pink or blue toys and clothing depending on their genitalia.  Babies don't care about those sort of differences - they're too busy learning how the world works.
Gravity is super-fascinating when you've never seen it before.

I think one of the reasons this bothers me so much is that I was never a girly-girl. I understand that there are girls who love princesses & all the things that go with that, but I never did. I wanted to be an astronaut-ballerina-archaeologist when I was little, so that I could dig up dinosaurs, bring them to space, and then put on a kick-butt dance show when I came back to Earth (somehow, not surprising that I have a BFA in theatre production & design when I think about that . . .). My favourite colour was blue.

I want my baby to feel comfortable choosing any colour she wants to be her favourite.  I want her to be able to play with a toy without someone telling her it is a 'boy' toy.  I want her to wear comfortable clothes (that I can possibly hand down to any future cousins or siblings without issue).  I know there's a chance that she'll go through a girly-girl phase, and I want to encourage her to be herself.  I also want her to understand that princess is not a career choice.

I'm not sure of the best way to wrap this up, since it feels like a bit of a rant now.  I guess my main point is that after all the advances in equality that have been, and that continue to be made in Western society (including womens' rights, gay marriage, etc), the idea that corporations are trying to get us to go back to the gender ideals of the 1950s just to make a few extra dollars, that really riles me up.

Potato-Bean Cakes - Nom!Nom!Nom!

How's everyone's fall going?  It is one of my favourite seasons - we're past the ugly, hot humidity of summer, but not yet in the super-chilly temperatures of winter.  I'm still figuring out how I'm going to carry the baby around when the temperature drops a little more, but she's currently quite content in a baby carrier, dressed in her fleece with my coat as far around us both as it will go. 

Speaking of baby carriers, who knew they could be this addictive?  There's a different kind for practically every need!  Right now, I'm holding tight at our current count of four. We have a stretchy wrap (ours is from a Canadian company called Maman Kangourou), a woven wrap (mine is the Selter pattern from Didymous and it is beautiful), a ring sling (another Canadian company called Chimparoo) and a soft-structured carrier (ours is a Beco Gemini in the limited edition Orion Black print).  The wraps are really nice at this time of year since there's a little more fabric around you both.
I don't feel too bad, since the internet tells me that woven wraps especially are addictive, and some parents own upwards of twenty!

Once again, I neglected to take photos of the food portion.  Sorry folks!  Having a baby is pretty distracting when trying to make some sort of meal. 
 
Anywho, Potato-Bean Cakes are an easy & fairly quick way to get some protein into your system.  They're also a handy condiment conveyance device!

You will need just a handful of ingredients.

1 large potato (baked)
1 can beans (I've done this with cannellini, black eyed peas and a tin of mixed beans, but I find a single kind of bean works best).
1 clove garlic diced (or some diced onion - personally, I prefer the onion)
1 egg
1 tsp dill (or more, if you like)
salt & pepper to taste
oil for frying

That's it!  Short list, right?

To start, drain & rinse the beans.  Then put them in a large bowl and mash them until there's still a few whole beans left.  Dice the baked potato and add it to the beans along with the egg, garlic or onion & spices.  Mash everything together until it is well mixed.
Form the mix into patties, balls or whatever other shape you would like (I find patties works best for frying).  I usually get between 8-12 cakes.  Put them on a plate in the fridge to set for half an hour to an hour.
When the setting time is done, heat some oil in a pan and fry your cakes in batches until golden (be sure to flip them & fry both sides).
Then you can eat them with the condiments of your choice!  I have eaten these with homemade plum sauce, bbq sauce & ketchup.  I've seen similar recipes that call for an accompanying aoili or chipotle mayo sauces.

They make a nice dinner when served with a salad & some steamed veggies.

S'mores Pie, Guinea Pigs and a Baby Talks to a Chair

I have to confess that I haven't been doing anything special the last few weeks.  Amusing a baby has been pretty high on the list.  She's 8 months old now, and mobile, which is keeping me on my toes! 

I never expected that I would have to fish a tiny human from out beneath my coffee table multiple times a day when I started this adventure.  She's currently at my feet, talking to her bouncy chair.  I don't know why, since the chair doesn't answer - it just sits there, as chairs are wont to do.  Even if the chair did talk, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't understand what "Nabamana!!" means.

That being said, she's now started to communicate to us, which has been lovely.  She can wave hello (amusingly, she'll wave hello to the guinea pigs, who just look at her & wait to see if she'll give them some lettuce), raises her arms to indicate she wants up, and she can do the sign for milk when she wants to nurse.  I'm hoping the next sign she learns is the one for diaper!

Speaking of the guinea pigs, here's a photo of Princess taking a nap on top of her cuddle sack.

When we adopted the girls, they both had a severe guinea pig mite infestation, but Princess had a worse reaction by far.  Half of her hair had fallen out, and she had scratched herself raw.  She now has immune-system based spot baldness but is otherwise healthy.  I think she looks like a little sheep.

This is her cagemate, Rosie.

Rosie is my cuddle-pig.  She's a squishy ball of cuddly fur.  She currently has ovarian cysts, but our vet is doing a bang-up job of treating her.

On the baking end of things, I've been doing more lately.  I'm semi-regularly making bread, and cookies.  This weekend I'm having some people over, and I had a bit of a spree.  The thing I'm most excited about is the S'mores Pie*.  It was super-easy, and should be delicious!

To make your own S'mores Pie, you need a few simple ingredients.
1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
1 packet chocolate pudding mix
milk to make the pudding (usually 2 cups)
1 to 2 cups whipped cream
mini marshmallows

1. Mix the graham cracker crumbs & melted butter together and then press into a 9" pie pan.  Make sure it gets up the sides, as this is your crust.
2.  Make the pudding.  Fold in the whipped cream and then pour into your graham pie crust.
3. Top with mini marshmallows.  Make sure you get a good layer of them on there.
4. Put the pie in the fridge for at least an hour so the chocolate mousse can set.  My pie is currently in the fridge overnight.
5. Once the filling has set, put the pie under the broiler of the oven just long enough for the marshmallows to get nice & toasty.

If you wanted to do something less reliant on already partially processed foods, you could make a chocolate custard or a from-scratch chocolate mousse for the filling.  You could even go so far as to make your own marshmallows, but that becomes a bit of a multi-day project.

I'm tempted to try this pie again, but to coat the bottom of the pie with a layer of dulche de leche or caramel, just to up the ante a little.  What do you think?

* You all know what a s'more is right?  Just in case: you toast a marshmallow over a campfire (hoping that you don't set it on fire accidentally), and then sandwich it with a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers and hope you don't burn your tongue when you take your first gooey bite.

Double Chocolate Mint Brownies

I've been writing about food a lot lately haven't I?  I guess it's because I'm a bit of a domestic nerd - I mean, I make my own pickles and jam, bake things from scratch and get really excited about cheese samples.

It's also a lot easier than writing about other issues that have become important to me, but can easily result in an internet troll or flame war.  Seriously, some people treat parenting like some bizarre competition, and if you are not doing the same things they are, you are, apparently, cheating.  

There are a lot of bloggers who have been at it a lot longer than I have, and seem to have a good handle on the controversial stuff.  I think I'll leave it to them.

Instead, I'd like to talk to you about brownies.  Delicious double chocolate brownies.  With mint.  Delicious minty double chocolate brownies.  My house currently smells of them and it's all I can do to keep from devouring the whole pan.

They are also insanely easy.  Start with the base Baker's Choclate One-Bowl Brownies recipe:

You will need:
4 squares (ounces) of unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup of butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour

Instead of the optional nuts in the original recipe, you will need 1 entire bag of chocolate chips (350g bag if you are in a country that uses the metric system).

You will also need 1/4 tsp mint essence

Melt the butter & chocolate squares together.  I usually do this in the microwave - it takes 1-2 minutes.
Once melted, add the sugar and stir until well blended.
Add the vanilla, mint, and eggs.  I usually add the eggs one at a time.  I find it makes things a little airier.
Then, stir in the flour.  Once the flour has been incorporated, add the chocolate chips.
Pour into your greased cake pan,and bake for 30-35 minutes in a 350F oven.

I recommend under-baking them slightly, so that they'll remain more moist.  Theoretically, this makes 24 brownies.  In my house, it usually makes 6-12 depending on how many I eat right out of the pan and how generously I cut them.

Now that my house smells of minty chocolate goodness, this will hopefully be motivation for me to get some more of my preserving done this coming weekend.

If you're sick of food-related posts, maybe next time I'll tell you about the four-legged creatures that live in my house.

* If it's near the holiday season, when they are mostly cooked, but the top hasn't set yet, you can sprinkle them with 1/2 cup to 1 cup of crushed candy canes for extra minty goodness.

Canning Fool

If you were smarter/less busy than I this past spring and planted a garden, you should have been faced with abundance the past month or so.  Since the weather has been so mild here in Southern Ontario, you are probably still in the midst of abundance.

Abundance, to me, also equals preserving some of it for later enjoyment.

Since I was not really in any position to get a garden going this past spring, I'm mostly relying on farmer's market/local produce from the grocery store to get my preserves restocked.  Due to the munchkin, I'm doing it sort of piecemeal, since I need to have someone else on hand to watch her.  I also need to plan it around her feeding schedule since I'm nursing.

Yesterday I managed to get some Red Onion Jelly and some Garlic & Sweet Pepper Jelly made in one afternoon!  This is in addition to the Peach-Blueberry freezer jam, Zesty Dill Pickle Slices and Ginger Carrot & Daikon pickles I've already made.

I don't have any photos of the pickles, but here's some photographic evidence of the jellies!

The Red Onion Jelly comes out in a lovely pink hue. 

You can sort of see the flecks of red pepper of the garlic jelly in the above photo.

My two favourite sources for water-bath canning (the kind for which you don't need any special equipment) are the Bernardin cookbooks and a book I picked up called The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving. 

Canning is one of those food-related things where I generally follow a recipe fairly closely, since there is a risk of food poisoning if it goes wrong.

Still on the preserving list for me:

• Strawberry Jam (from berries I stashed in the freezer last summer during first trimester pregnancy nausea)
• Salsa (I use a recipe from the Small Batch book for this, but replace parsley with cilantro in my version)
• Plum sauce (I haven't actually made plum sauce before, so I'm still deciding on a base recipe.  If you have a favourite, please let me know!)
• Ketchup (maybe.  If tomatoes are a good price, and I don't get distracted)

Have you done any preserving yet this season?  What will you be making?

Glorious Peaches

Peaches are in season here.  I love peaches. They are one of my favourite fruits. I generally only eat them when they are in season - tinned just isn't the same.  My partner doesn't like them, which means that I can buy & devour a whole basket of them without having to share.

That is, I didn't have to share until recently.  It turns out, the kiddo, who is just shy of 6 months as of this writing, really likes peaches.  The other day, I bit into a peach, and she grabbed my arm, yanked it down to her face level and faceplanted onto the fruit.  She then preceded to suck out the juice from where I had just bitten.  She insisted that I share the rest of the peach with her via baby-death-grip on my wrist.

I think she's ready to start solids.

In an attempt to preserve some of the delicious peachiness for myself, I made some peach-blueberry freezer jam.  Freezer jam is the best!  All you need is mashed fruit, sugar and freezer jam pectin.  No stove required - which is fantastic on hot days.  The downside is that you can't store the jars on a shelf - as the name implies, it is best stored in the freezer.  It also tends to be a little bit runnier than other jams, but depending on how you are planning on using the jam, I find that's generally not an issue.

I've already eaten half a jar, stirred into my morning oatmeal.  I wouldn't be surprised if I turn into a peach before the summer is out!

Bread Heels & Baby Feeding

I've never understood why small children & babies dislike having their faces wiped so much. 
I can understand why they don't want you messing with their nose - after all, how would you feel if someone tried to pick your nose?
But on the faces front, I don't get it.  I would feel better after having sticky crud removed from my chin.
I've been ruminating on this topic lately as we will soon be faced with introducing solids to the munchkin.  This, of course, will necessitate much face wiping.
We've purchased a high chair, and have been sitting her in it with a spoon & some toys at meal times.  So far, she seems to like it.

As for the idea of actually getting food into her face, well, frankly, I'm a bit frightened.  I also don't want to have to spend ages every week making purees. 
This has brought me to research baby-led weaning (ie. minimizing the purees and just giving your kid actual food).  You can see how this approach is appealing from a time saving standpoint.  Just make sure there's some veggies/meat/etc appropriately cooked through, and in a form easy for the kid to grasp, and let them have at it (with supervision of course).
Anecdotally, babies fed this way seem to be less likely to become picky eaters.  Since my partner & I enjoy trying different cuisines, this also seems awesome to us.  I like the idea of being able to cook whatever & have her eat at least part of it.

Speaking of cooking whatever, last night I made a Greek-inspired strata.  I don't like eating the heels of bread loaves, but I also dislike wasting food.  So, I usually put them in the freezer until I have a bunch, and then I make a strata.  It is a convenient way to use up stale or leftover bread.
You will need:
a 2 quart casserole dish (greased)
5-6 cups diced, stale or toasted bread (about 10 pieces of a standard store-bought loaf)
2 cups milk
4 eggs
veggies, cheese, spices, etc to throw in.  The version I did last night had:
1/2 one large cooking onion, diced
8 quartered cherry tomatoes
1/2 packet of frozen spinach, thawed & squeezed to get rid of the extra liquid
lots of feta cheese
some sliced mushrooms because they needed to be used up
oregano, thyme & pepper

Toss the onion, tomatoes, mushrooms & spices in your casserole (Hey! I remembered to take pictures!).

Add your spinach and cheese

Then add your bread cubes.  Beat your eggs & the milk together, and pour over top.

Then, stir everything up in the dish so it is well mixed.  Put it in the oven, uncovered, at about 325-350F and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

The bread will soak up the egg & milk mixture, and everything will get all puffy & chewy & wonderful.  If you like, before you put it into the oven, you can sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs or Parmesan.  Then the top will come out all crunchy & delicious.

The best thing about strata is that you can adapt it to any flavour profile you like.  Having people over for brunch?  Fill it with cheddar, diced bell pepper, onion and diced potatoes (and if you like meatiness, you could also add bacon or breakfast sausages).  Fancy dinner?  Fill it with Gruyere & asparagus & mushrooms.

Hopefully, baby will be able & willing to enjoy strata when I make it next.