A month away from 1 year

I don't know if other parents do this, in particular, other mothers, but the day we crossed Baby's 9 month birthday threshold, I took that mental period to the sentence: Baby has existed outside of me exactly as long as she was inside me. I don't know if it really was all that important, but to me, it was. It was that mark in my mind of Baby's first step of departure from my protective veil, and somehow, unlike how my parents had tried to be protective of me for much of my young life, I was OK with it.

I'm still cooking away, for both Hubby and myself, as well as for Baby. She's moved on out of her purees - now onto solid pastas, meats, veggies, and we're trying our hand, quite literally, at allowing her to feed herself some of the foods. The main key has been keeping things bite-size before giving them to her, but otherwise, everything's game. I've been feeding her curries, pasta sauces, whole grains, stir-fries - just about everything we adults eat. You know, regular human food. The only thing I've been trying to keep light on her are the sugars and salts, but otherwise, she eats just about everything we do.

I'm still trying to cook as much organic and from scratch as possible, but it's tough. Some nights, I have to admit, I envy those parents that cook the pre-made meals day in and day out. But then again, I wonder if that leaves the kids only wanting chicken fingers and hot dogs day in and day out. I'm going to try my best at trudging onward.

But, today, we went to Costco, and I have to admit, we picked up a ginormous bag of OreIda fries, and I thought, "hey, that would be great as to the topping for shepherd's pie." Go figure.

Tonight's dinner:

Lamb chops (thick)
Red wine
2 heads garlic
S/P
Soy sauce
Red Wine
Carrot, chopped
Celery, chopped
Kale, chopped

I marinated the lamb chops in chopped garlic of 1 head, some salt/pepper, while frozen - left them to defrost while seasoned. I browned the chops in a dry pan, topped with a touch of soy sauce, and turned them to brown each side. Once the soy was almost dry in the pan, I added about 2 cups of wine, added the carrots and celery, and let the mix slow low simmer for about an hour, turning the chops every so often to evenly cook each side. I threw in the kale at the end of the cooking process.

The other head of garlic? Chop off the top of the head, toss it with some olive oil, wrap it loosely in foil, and set it in to bake at 350 for 30 minutes for some nice roasted garlic to accompany the lamb. Trust me - it's great.

I also cooked up some pearled barley mixed with red jasmine rice and wheat berry. The wheatberry, unfortunately, did stay quite intact. But, used in small quantities, and mixed with the softer rice and barley, the wheatberry provided a wonderful textural contrast.