Seasonal Meals

So I'm no food blogger, but I do enjoy cooking, baking, and eating; and I like having a record of what we ate in which seasons. It helps when I'm in a cooking funk or just looking to be reminded of seasonal recipes when we're overloaded with tomatoes or lemons (or whatever).

With that disclaimer, here's a very non-professional post about our recent menus. :)

Our growing season starts early in Phoenix (obviously), so we usually start our garden in February. This year was especially mild, with very few nights with frost, so our mesculun mix greens took right off and we were harvesting salads in just a week or so from planting the seedlings! Our herbs did well right from the start, too, so I combined our mint and lettuce with onions, cucumbers, feta, toasted pita, and a wonderful dressing to make one of our favorite salads: fattoush. The fattoush dressing uses a good bit of lemon juice, which worked out well in using up some of our abundant supply. (We pick lemons from our Lisbon and Meyer lemon trees from about the end of November till April.)

Grilled Moroccan chicken from Natasha's Kitchen goes beautifully with this salad. (I reduce the amount of salt and typically sub lemon juice for most of the oil.) Her recipe also helps us use our surplus of lemons, and our meager supply of cilantro contributes to the marinade before it bolts (I've never had good luck prolonging the cilantro season--it bolts within a few weeks of planting a seedling, it seems.) 

I make that Moroccan chicken throughout the year--it's so good! Often I make up a big batch of marinade and process a bunch of chicken at once, bagging chicken tenders or thighs in quart ziplocks with the marinade and freezing for future meals. It makes it easy to pull out a package to thaw for dinner. If I have muffins or bread in the freezer, too, I can warm that and only have to make a salad or hummus and veggies to round out the meal.

We're fortunate to have fruit in season for many months. During citrus season (winter/spring), we feast on blood oranges, tangelos, navel oranges, and grapefruit from both our and neighbors' trees. Sometimes we even get some clementines, tangerines, or mandarins.

 
I love how pretty and special sliced grapefruit looks sprinkled with flaked coconut:

When we have lemons in abundance, I often make a double batch of hummus every other week--that amount uses up a full cup of lemon juice! (The recipe I linked to tastes the most like hummus we'd buy from shawarma stands and Lebanese restaurants in Dubai. I do often need to thin it with water/olive oil.) If I don't feel like making a salad for dinner, I like the ease of pulling out the container of hummus and chopping some veggies to dip in it. We also enjoy it with Arabic bread, kofta, or sourdough crackers. Clara likes to eat it straight with a spoon!

 Lemons in January

I typically cook a big pot of chickpeas in our pressure cooker, freeze them in 4-cup amounts, and thus have them easily on hand for thawing and using in hummus.

These June days bring a bounty of fruit in our back yard! We're so excited about the peaches and grapes this year. They're just gorgeous, don't you think? The children will gobble down as many as they're allowed (and Lydia has been known to sneak sour ones weeks before we pick them), but I think I'll try to freeze some this year for snacks later in summer.

I like that I don't need to put much fruit on my grocery list when our vineyard and orchard are so prolific. We do eat plenty of store-bought watermelon and still stock some apples and bananas and berries. Unfortunately, our apple trees have been a bit disappointing. We got a few Anna apples this year, but we had to slice off wormy parts.

Anna apple on left

It's nice to end a meal with a lovely bunch of grapes or sliced peaches and whipped cream, and I like keeping sugary desserts to a minimum. We do indulge in the occasional peach crisp, pie, or shortcake, though--and the peaches are so good on top of plain yogurt with homemade granola.

Mid-pride peaches

Our dwarf Bonanza peach tree is at the tail end of its season--we've been picking its peaches for close to three weeks now. They're a bit small and sometimes a little mealy, but decent. The Mid-pride yields really excellent peaches, though, and we're on the cusp of what looks to be a lovely harvest. I'm looking forward to peaches with just about every meal in a week or so, plus plenty to slice and freeze for future smoothies, yogurt, snacks, desserts, etc. (We've canned peaches before, but it's long, hot work and hard to do with small children underfoot. The last couple years we've been happier just freezing them.)

Well, I intend to write more about our produce and meals/menu planning, but the children are up from rest time and feeling needy ("I want a snaaack!" "Can I see those pictures? Can I take a picture? Where's a picture of me?" "I wanna sit on your lap, Mama!" etc.). So that's it for now.

Clara at Seven Months Old

How has more than half of Clara's first year gone by already?

As is usual with babies, she's still growing and changing constantly.

First time in a swing--she loved it! (in April)

Her mobility has increased and thus her access to siblings' toys, shoes, and other sundry items has become reality. "Help, Mama! Clara's gettin' my stuff!" is a cry I hear often these days. She loves to get into the big kids' toys--especially their Duplo. (We're careful to keep her separate from the new Lego that they're all enthralled with.) She also likes to roll and army-crawl over to the shoes by the front door and gnaw on them.

Clara can easily roll back-to-front and front-to-back these days, and she's started to use her rolling strategically. No longer does she tuck her head down when she scootches--she either uses her arms to pull herself forward with her head up, or she gets on hands and knees, rocks, and then plunges forward toward her goal (though she's doing less plunging now). She's definitely fine-tuning the army-crawl--and getting faster! She's good at aiming for things of interest and staying on target till she obtains them (or is thwarted by a big sister or brother).

Just in the last few days, she's figured out that I'm often in the kitchen--so she works her way to me from the living room. I love seeing that sweet, expectant face peek around the wall as she pulls her way through the dining room into the kitchen!

We borrowed a Bumbo from friends when Clara clearly outgrew the Rock'n'play and the big kids broke the bouncy seat. I needed something in which to contain her sometimes. The Bumbo has worked well for that. She is usually content in it when the other kids are playing around her--she loves to watch! But she can get herself out of it if determined (and if I haven't put on the tray); and she gets antsy in it sometimes, or just rebels against containment. Typically she prefers to be free and unrestrained on the floor . . . or held by Mama.

She seems to be on the verge of both crawling and sitting well. She can sit unassisted for a little bit before toppling forward in pursuit of something or throwing herself back, sure someone will cushion her head. 

Abby and Clara

Clara was very interested in our food at mealtimes and often grabbed at Jeremy and my plates when we held her on our laps. So I think we introduced solid food earlier to her than to the other children--a little before six months. She tried watermelon first of all and certainly enjoyed it, after the initial shock of something other than Mama's milk.

Since then she's had lots of food. I've tried to give her a taste of quite a variety of things. She loves to gnaw on a carrot stick, suck on tomato slices (lots of these available!), gum cucumber spears, and lap up yogurt from a spoon. I've also given her cooked egg yolk and scrambled egg (the yolk was easier for her to eat), peaches from our back yard (both white and yellow), broccoli, cooked zucchini and crook-neck squash, avocado, banana, peanut butter, chicken, radish, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, oatmeal, pinto and black beans, green and red bell peppers, several sorts of cheeses, kefir (in a smoothie) . . . I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting!

We've given her servings of our meals when appropriate, too. She seemed to like Dutch baby pancake, Ma'loube, lentil-rice casserole, chicken tortilla soup, pesto pasta, and chipotle pinto beans just fine. The bean skins are a bit hard for her (I mash the beans up with the back of her spoon), but overall, she's handled textures better than any of the other kids. I haven't bothered to puree anything. We just mash food with the back of a spoon and feed it to her lumpy or pinch off small pieces for her. While she occasionally makes a face or spits out skins and other harder-to-swallow bits, she's generally amenable to everything we offer. She loves to eat and will welcome bites of anything.

Of course, she grabbed at the spoon when we started feeding her solids, but she seems to have learned the "no hands" rule for spoon-feeding pretty quickly. She'll even hesitate in grabbing a proffered carrot or some-such, seeming to check if it's okay for her to take it.

Sweet, smiley girl!

Perhaps she's even on her way to becoming a cheese snob: she's tried sharp cheddar, Colby-Jack, feta, Parmesan, Romano, and fresh mozzarella so far! She seemed to like the hint of balsamic vinegar on the mozzarella from our Caprese salad, too.

Clara loves to be outside, just like her older siblings did (and still do). Although it's gotten hot in the last couple weeks, I try to give the kids some outdoor playtime each day. I'll put Clara in her Bumbo on the patio to watch them sometimes, with the fan blowing low on her if the mosquitoes are bad or it's just too hot. The big kids' games and antics keep her happy and entertained, though she does try to pick grass or get sticks if they're within reach.

Jeremy helped her slide down the slide one evening . . .

Still our growly girl, Clara makes lots of noise when she wants. Sometimes it's at 4 a.m. Once she woke us in the pitch black of early morning with a happy growl, and Jeremy nearly leaped out of bed in fright, thinking a wild animal was in our room!

While she likes to "converse" with coos, growl, squeal, laugh, and sometimes complain and cry, Clara still doesn't really babble. I've heard her make a "mamama" type sound a few times, but not often. She certainly knows how to express her eagerness and impatience for food at mealtimes, though!

 
I've noticed Clara developing some stranger anxiety in the past few weeks, but it was especially obvious when we went to Flagstaff this past weekend for Daniel (Jeremy's brother) and Lauren's wedding. Granted, being in a new place with lots (not just a few) new people and disrupted schedule probably contributed to Clara's clinginess.

Clara in her wedding finery

Thankfully she really warmed up to a good friend of Jeremy's family--Desiree--and her husband. They graciously held her while I readied the ring bearer and flower girls (Josiah, Lydia, and Abby) and handled them during the ceremony. Clara was so happy with them! So while she's a little unsure of leaving Mama, she's still our content and mellow baby--and pretty friendly, too.

Clara is growing healthily and has gained in percentile since birth (she was pretty tiny to start with--6 lbs 4 oz). At her six-month check-up she weighed 17.5 lbs. I can't remember what her length and head circumference were . . . if I find the paper I jotted that info down on, I'll add it. Her thighs are pleasantly chunky, and while she's no heavyweight, she's nice and solid.

When I bring Clara out from our room after night or naptime, she's obviously eager to see her siblings--craning her neck and body around to glimpse them out in the living room, ready with a smile and a squeal for whomever notices her first. They, too, love to greet her. They come running to pull on her legs, kiss her, tickle her, and yell, "Hi, Clara! HI CLARA! HI HI HI HI HI HI! HI CLARA!"

They compete for her attention and delight in making her laugh. Of course, they also attempt some illicit activities: they drag her away from their toys by her feet, play a game of hopping over her on the floor, pull her into their laps without help from Mama, etc. So I still need to keep a watchful eye on them. But what fun it is to bring a baby into a family with big sisters and a big brother!

Fashion Statements

Hats, helmets, coats, bibs--the girls are interested in dressing up and accessorizing lately! Abby is particularly particular about these things. Last week we were surprised at her outburst when Jeremy slipped the green bib around her neck. Apparently she decided she'd have the pink bib--or none! (I think we have usually given her pink and Lydia green, and I guess she figured the pink bib was hers.) 

Another day she loudly objected to the car seat I buckled her into; she wanted the other one. She tries on any clothing she finds lying around (especially Josiah's), but often tangles herself up in shorts over her head, both legs in one hole of some underwear, etc.

As you can see from the picture below, the helmet clearly elevates a regular old lunch to a fashionable luncheon--especially when helmet and bib are matched so perfectly. ("Do you want to take your helmet off for lunch?" I asked Abby. "Uh-uh," she replied, definitely.)

Josiah's recent artistic pursuits left him with a green streak over the eyebrow

And Lydia is just as funny as ever . . .

Abby isn't the only one who likes to dress up, though she is perhaps the biggest enthusiast. Lydia often follows her lead. One afternoon I heard a noise in the girls' room and figured they were waking from their nap. I peeked in to find them both on the changing table, Abby reaching across to the top dresser drawer and pulling out hats and socks for herself and her sister. The hats below are some recent favorites. (Thanks, Great-grandma, for knitting these!)

Lydia on the left, Abby on the right

Though you can't quite tell, both are posing with cheesy smiles here

Abby

Abby in another hat!

At the Table

One lunchtime last week the girls tasted hummus for the first time. I dipped their carrot sticks in it, and they gave it a try--and then kept handing me their carrots for more and more and more. So I put a dollop on each of their trays, and they had great fun dipping into it with carrots and fingers and cups--and then smearing it around, licking it up directly, etc. I figured baths were inevitable at this point and just decided to enjoy the mess along with them by taking some pictures.

As I snapped shots of them, I asked rhetorically, "Are you two hummus fiends?!" 

Josiah piped up from the other end of the table (perhaps wanting some attention), "I'm a boy!"

Here are our hummus fiends . . . and their brother:

 Lydia was hamming it up for the camera . . .

 . . . as you can see.

 The girls are starting to get the hang of using utensils, but they still need plenty of help.

 Abby wasn't into the picture-taking

 Stuffing the mouth

 Focused on the spoon

 Getting hummus in her toes . . .

 Abby is better with spoon and fork than Lydia, who typically pours the contents just as the utensil nears her mouth

 Sassy hummus girl

 Josiah wanted me to take a picture of him making a "mad face"

And then he smiled sweetly and laid his head on the table . . . he did not want hummus.