Saturday, January 17, 2009

Avocado, baby!

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Liam was 4 months old Friday before last! Here he is in his Bumpo, learning to sit up (he'd been doing what looked like crunches in an effort to sit up, and is pulling himself to a sitting position by holding onto our fingers).

Today was a fun milestone: we fed him his first solid food. I chose avocado, one of my personal favorites which is also supposed to be a good first food for babies. Here are some of his reactions:


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"What? What's this, eh?"


Liam first food 2

"I suppose that this 'avocado' is tasty enough..."

(the last two photos are not that stellar because I took them with my iPhone-- sorry!)

All I can say is, it's a good thing that avocado is also good for the skin. I like to think that he got some nutrition AND a facial, all at the same time ;)

Congrats, Liam-beast, you've entered a world of culinary delight!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year's Greetings

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I've never been one for going out on New Year's Eve. I don't like crowds and all that goes with them (especially when there's alcohol involved) , and I'm scared of running into a drunk driver. If we do go over to a friend's house, we leave well before midnight.

Now that we have Liam, we have the perfect excuse to stay at home and have our friends come to us! Of course, it helps to have understanding friends who don't mind doing that ;)

Our friends Andrew and Stacy, they of pumpkin patch fame, came over last night to ring in (or sing in as it turned out, more on that later) the new year. We kept the food pretty simple: brie, crackers, fruit, candied walnuts, smoked salmon; Stacy brought a veggie crudite, and Andrew made his famous guacamole.

I like the way the cheese board turned out:

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The board is actually one that you knead bread on, but I like to multipurpose so I also use it for cheese and crackers. I bought one big ol' piece of brie and halved it. One half I kept plain, but the other I topped with this amazing Adriatic fig spread (soooo good-- you must try it!). I then scattered herbs de' provence over the board, added the crackers, and then labeled everything. Labelling saves time and, plus, I think it looks cool ;)


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Here's a shot of some fruit and the candied walnuts. After washing the red, seedless grapes and putting them in the bowl, I decided to have some fun. You know that red stuff (is it cocktail sauce?) with which people eat shrimp? The shrimp are hung around the bowl, right? So I decided to put clementine slices around the edges in homage to that.


Ok, so now you're thinking that I'm weird ;) I have to amuse myself somehow, though!

The candied walnuts were delicious. I simply put honey and cinnamon in my wok, stirred it, and then added the walnuts. I coated the walnuts and then added more honey and cinnamon. After coating them thoroughly, I put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and stuck them in the 'fridge to harden. They are messy to eat, but soooo good.


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Here's another bowl of grapes and clementines, along with some sliced pears.

We almost forgot the salmon, but luckily Chris spotted it in the 'fridge. That was after the picture taking, though.

After sitting around eating and sampling some artisanal beers, we popped in SingStar and proceeded to indulge in some really bad karaoke. Luckily, no pictures were taken; that sort of horror just doesn't need to be preserved for posterity :)

All in all, we had a really nice celebration. I hope that you did, too.

Wishing you all the best for a healthy, happy, and peaceful 2009,
Kimberley