Ma Ma Ma Ma - Da De Da De

Everything is blooming in the garden. It's so rewarding to go out there and pick some stuff and then eat it for dinner on a daily basis! Here's the beginning of the latest status on the Zemel Farm. Aside from almost daily salads (sometimes we're just too lazy to walk 20 steps to pick lettuce!), we've eaten roasted beets and their greens, radishes, spinach, swiss chard, cubanelle peppers, some onions, and 1 giant zucchini! We've got a crookneck squash that will be ready soon. Apparently it's got bigger seeds than zucchinis do so I shouldn't let it grow too big. As it was, I left the zucchini on the vine for a little too long and then I had to pick out those seeds for Bayla. There are a few other little baby zucchini and squash on the plant as well after this round is done. There are also a million green tomatoes that we're just waiting to ripen and gobble up. The peaches are still little but they're turning pink as well. I hope they grow some more but they may not since the tree itself is so little, I'm not sure. So exciting to watch. We Zemel Farmers go on a tour every day to check on the progress and it's pretty cool.

I can't wait to take Bayla swimming again in her little blow up pool. I just wish I could get in there with her. Part of what I like about the pool is that it inflates on the bottom so she's not actually sitting on the ground. A little soft cushion for her round tush. On the other hand, that inflatable bottom is the very thing that prevents me from climbing in (don't want to pop it!). She was so cute in there the first time ... playing with the water and all the inflatable toys.

Last week, we were invited over to swim and have Shabbat dinner at the Hart's house. We really love going there. They're such a nice, warm, and welcoming family. It was Bayla's very first time in a pool. Zvi took her in and I just loved watching her try to figure out her new surroundings. She kicked and splashed around and didn't even get upset when she'd splash her own face with water. It was really funny watching her lick her fingers and taste salt for the first time. I know that our climate doesn't really support the need to have a backyard pool, but oh boy is it ever amazing to have one. Definitely something I dream about! Zvi told me about a conversation he had once about how people are either cottage people or pool people. I must admit, I do like cottages. It's nice to get away and being on a boat is really fun. But usually when I think about cottages I think about mosquitos and the various bug bites I tend to get and how itchy they are for weeks afterwards. I think this absolutely makes me a pool person.

After swimming, while we were having dinner, Bayla piped up with her very first real talking. She said "ma ma ma ma ma". I know she wasn't talking about me, but it was adorable. And then yesterday, out of no where ... she just started talking and saying all kinds of new sounds with consonants. Zvi was sitting outside on the porch with her, singing some songs and then when they came back in she just had so much to say. It was so nice to hear her voice and we can't wait to teach her words and hear her use them. Our little girl turned 7 months yesterday and she certainly showed us what a big girl she is!

I've pretty much introduced Bayla to every kind of individual fruit and vegetable that I'm going to for now. I'm going to start preparing bigger batches and freezing cubes of mixed foods. The reason I've been making things in small batches for now is because I've been serving the same food a few times a day for a few days to make sure there were no allergic reactions. Now Bayla can start to enjoy some variety both at every meal as well as throughout the day. I introduced her to banana for the first time today which I mixed with avocado to cut some of that intense sweetness. I've named this dish Avonana ... that that may imply avocado with mint so I might call it Banacado instead. We'll see. After this I'm going to give her Papaya and then we'll be onto the mixtures. I may give her mango before the mixtures as well or I may just save the mango to mix in with bananas another time.

Over this past month, since she turned 6 months, Bayla has eaten: apples, pears, nectarines, cantaloupe, banana, avocado, carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, zucchini, peas, parsnips, cauliflower, rice, barley and oatmeal. She has enjoyed everything except the parsnips (they weren't good and sweet like they were supposed to be ... we'll try again), nectarines (not quite in season so may have been too sour for her), and apples (either the texture was weird for her or she just didn't have a good appetite due to her 6 month shots). I don't really know how she feels about the cauliflower since I mixed a tiny bit into the squash and zucchini ... but I don't want to give her too much since it'll just cause gas anyway. It seemed to be a good mixture to sneak some into to see how it goes. Now I'll be able to include it in soups etc or other combined veggie dishes. Anyway, good on her ... she's a great eater and very willing to try new things.

A Return From Hiatus

I've been putting off blogging for so long that I've unfortunately forgotten about most things on my list of things to write about. I know there was a list because I emailed it to Brian at some point .... but the only thing I really remember being on there was the frog that we found hopping around our garden. We only saw it just the once and I haven't a clue of where it came from but while I'm happy I haven't run into it on my own, I am a little sad about it leaving if it didn't like our garden after all. We did take a few photos of him ... but I can't find them now. Maybe he took them with him when he left??? Ooh ... Zvi found it, here it is:

I'm always a little bummed about continuing things when I haven't done them for a while. I just feel like there's so much that I haven't written about already that there's just no point to go on. I feel bad leaving the gap there but I also don't feel right about quickly summarizing everything that happened in just a few words. I feel like that kind of brevity just wouldn't do justice to the true experiences. On the other hand, I also feel way too lazy to actually write everything out properly so I'm kind of at an impasse. If Zvi were here, I'd tell him that this was a prisoner's dilemma. Yes, I know it's not really a prisoners dilemma ... but if Zvi were here, believe me, I'd definitely find a way to explain just how it really is.

I guess my only choices are to either quit (this is the option I almost always choose and then lament over it for the rest of forever) or to just accept that these things will not be perfect and that I will not be able to devote 100% of my time or energy to it and just do what I can. I have real trouble with tasks that I know I absolutely can't do perfectly. It's not that everything I do turns out perfectly - not at all ... but I at least like to know that there's a chance it will turn out that way if I try. With stuff like blogging, I just know it won't happen so it's really hard for me to stay motivated and not get depressed about it and give up. But I'm going to make a commitment right now to at least try.

Well, at least it looks like Bayla is listening! 

That photo was taken after a big poopy explosion all over her bed. We haven't had many of those kind of accidents lately so I was really glad (as I'm sure was Zvi since he's the one that discovered it!) that we were both home to deal with it. It was her first time in the big bath all by herself. Luckily she's gotten to be really good at sitting up so it wasn't so difficult. Even though the bottom of the bathtub is textured, we still found it to be quite slippery so we'll have to pick up a mat before we stop getting into the tub with her for regularly scheduled bath time. The whole thing was kind of gross but it was also just really funny ... and it was the first time we've ever really bathed her in the middle of the day without having bedtime immediately after so it was a great opportunity to dress her in this very cute duckie robe and take some photos. As much as I'm not hoping for anymore poopy accidents, I do hope there are more opportunities for daytime bath tub fun because really, I want to see her in this robe some more. So cute! 

Here is a status update on our garden ... though it's already quite outdated. I'll put up another one soon. 

We did a lot of cooking over the weekend. It's something we both enjoy doing - especially together. Lately we've taken to eating dinner after Bayla goes to bed which has made our evenings considerably nicer and calmer. It's good because Zvi and Bayla get to spend some time together and I get a chance to rest before having to put her to bed. But it also means that Zvi and I have some nice time to spend together and don't have to rush and have a hectic dinner. All around great decision. Here's a lasagna that we made on the weekend. Zvi said it was the best ever. How nice! I just hope I can recreate in the future. 

There's no real recipe here .... I just layered oven-ready lasagna noodles with a "meat" sauce (we used Italian flavoured ground round mixed into a tomato sauce), a ricotta/spinach/egg mixture, and sauteed eggplant/zucchini/mushroom mixture. Shredded mozzarella went on top. Then bake in a 350F oven for about an hour covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

The recipe for today is for a take on Thai Mango Salad. It's got all the same flavours but is prepared more like a slaw with the addition of cabbage. I got the idea from SmittenKitchen.

It's not only delicious but also quite beautiful and colourful. The only thing missing from the picture above is shredded mint and coarsely chopped cashews. I didn't add them in right away because I prepared the salad in advance and those are both last minute additions right before serving. Had I used a food processor or mandoline, this would've been a really quick salad to make. Unfortunately, I value each of my fingers and am thus terrified of the mandoline I insisted to Zvi that we needed to have. Because I'm also lazy about these kinds of things, you'll see that my slices are much bigger than Smitten's. Oh well.

Mango Slaw With Cashews and Lime
2 Mangoes, peeled, pitted and julienned
1 lb Chinese Lettuce, halved and thinly sliced
1 Red Pepper, julienned
1/2 Red Onion, thinly sliced
2 Limes, juiced
1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Canola Oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Red Chilli Flakes
1/4 Cup Thinly Sliced Fresh Mint Leaves
1/4 Cup Coarsely Crushed Cashews

Whisk together lime juice, rice vinegar, oil, salt, and chilli flakes at the bottom of a large salad bowl. Mix in mangoes, chinese lettuce, red pepper and onions. Add mint and cashews prior to serving.

Focaccia

Zvi and I made our next recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible today. It was a lovely focaccia that featured our very own homegrown rosemary and thyme. Zvi says "too bad it wasn't made with our own flour - maybe next year." Haha, that's what he thinks! I'm really not planning on growing wheat in my backyard.

There are a couple of things I would do differently when making this again. I already added in thyme and more salt than was called for, but I think even more herbs would be really nice. The biggest change is that I used a large baking sheet for the focaccia, leaving a smaller baking sheet to go into the oven ... this may have contributed to a bit of uneven browning and heat distribution on the bottom. Next time I will put the dough into the smaller one and put that on top of the bigger one. Either that or buy another baking sheet in the large size. Anyway, these are just minor details. Overall, it turned out really great.

The dough needs about 6 hours of total rising time so it's best to start this process in the morning if possible, or at least before 4pm which is when I started our process. Oh well - a little taste of focaccia at 10:15pm never hurt anyone!

Zvi and I both also thought that the dough would make for an excellent pizza dough. We could both totally imagine it spread with some tomato sauce, some oregano and basil and maybe some buffalo mozzarella. Except for the cheese we could make it all from homegrown ingredients. Another time.

Focaccia
390 grams unbleached all-purpose flour (2 3/4 cups)
1.2 grams instant yeast (3/8 tsp)
442 grams room temperature water (2 cups minus 2 tbsp)
3 grams sugar (3/4 tsp)
5.2 grams salt (3/4 tsp)
36 grams extra virgin olive oil (2 tbsp plus 2 tsp divided)
2 tsp fresh rosemary
2 tsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp coarse sea salt

1. Mix Dough. Using the paddle attachment in a KitchenAid mixer, combine flour and yeast on speed 2. Gradually add water until the dough comes together - about 3 minutes. Increase speed to 4 and beat until dough changes from a wet mixture to a smooth ball - about 18 minutes. Add sugar and salt and beat until they are well incorporated - about 3 minutes.

2. Let Dough Rise. Using an oiled spatula, scrape dough into a medium sized, lightly greased bowl. Dough will have consistency of melted mozzarella. Lightly spray oil on top of dough. Cover bowl. Allow to rise in a warm spot for about 4 hours until dough has at least doubled.

3. Shape Dough And Let Rise Again. Coat a baking sheet with a heaping tbsp of olive oil. Pour dough onto it. Coat hands with some of the remaining olive oil and spread dough as thinly as possible without tearing it. Let it relax for 10 minutes then spread it to almost fill the baking sheet. Make sure to maintain the bubbles in the dough. Cover baking sheet with greased plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm spot for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until volume has doubled.

4. Preheat Oven. Place another baking sheet on lowest level in oven. Preheat oven to 475F 1 hour before baking (I think we only did half and hour).

5. Sprinkle Toppings And Bake. Uncover dough and drizzle remaining olive oil evenly over top. With oiled fingertips, deeply dimple the dough. Sprinkle evenly with herbs and salt. Place baking sheet directly onto baking sheet already in oven. Bake until golden - about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

In other news, I'm so glad Bayla learned to put her head down sideways when she's on her tummy. She's started rolling over in her crib at night but at least now that doesn't make her wake up screaming because her face is planted flat into the mattress. Of course, she does sometimes manage to get her entire leg stuck through the slats in the crib. No clue how this even happens. It really is amazing watching her do tummy time though because she is so much stronger than when she started out. Not only can she hold her arms straight and lift her whole chest off the ground, she pretty much lifts her hips up too. It's like she's doing the cobra pose from yoga. Great for her - I'm not sure I can hold the pose for as long as she can at this point. It looks like she's at the beginning stages of figuring out how to crawl. (OMG, which means we need to tidy up the house ASAP and get a cleaning lady!!) She hasn't quite figured out how to consistently role onto her back yet either but she can spin around 360 while on her tummy. I love watching her go around and around playing with various toys as she goes. Am I supposed to be this by my child?! Here's a picture of her enjoying some sweet potatoes today. This was taken before things got really messy :-)

My Little Big Girl

Well, we did it ... we fed solids to Bayla. She was exclusively breastfed for 6 months which was really important to me and now we're starting to introduce her to different tastes. This milestone was a bit bittersweet for me. On one hand, I'm so excited for her to grow up because she's getting to be so much fun and I want to see what she'll be like and really be able to interact with her. But on the other hand, my baby is growing up so fast and I'm already starting to forget what she was like at her tiniest and I'm already starting to miss it and feel that incredible yearning that I'm sure all mothers feel for their little babies who need them so utterly and completely. But, I am going to continue to nurse for hopefully the rest of the year that I'm home so Bayla and I do still have lots of opportunity to cuddle and bond together.

We started her on organic brown rice cereal. Zvi had both the video and still cameras on hand to document the funny faces we were sure we'd get. But Bayla was so well behaved ... she was brave and tried it without a fuss. She smiled most of the way through it and let out the cutest little "mmmm" after each spoon. It was impossible not to melt for our little girl. What a cutie.

I know that generally you're supposed to wait a few days in between new food introductions for babies so that any sensitivities or allergies can be noticed. But I didn't want to keep her on just the rice cereal for too long because as I've heard from every mother who has been through this before me - it doesn't make for happy baby tummies. I had hoped that by choosing a brown rice cereal instead of white that it would help with the situation. But even still, I didn't want to risk it. In any case, it is extremely rare for anyone to have sensitivities to rice so I wasn't too worried about breaking this rule. Also - I was so excited about the whole experience that I just really wanted to give Bayla new things to try. So we did 1 day of the rice which I fed to her twice in the day. Then for the next 2 days we moved on to avocado which I had thinned with some milk. I only gave it to her once on each day partly because that's how our schedule worked out and partly because how much avocado can/should a baby really eat, right? Bayla seemed to really like the avocado too.

And now we're on to 2 days of apple which so far is going just fine as well. I've also started giving Bayla little bits of boiled water from a sippy cup. I don't want her to have too much because I'm still nursing and I don't want her to fill her tummy up with non-nutritive sucking. However, I'm really adamant about getting her used to drinking water instead of juice as she grows up (I'm convinced that because I was raised on juice, albeit diluted, I am now completely addicted to sugar) and also it's a great way to rinse out her mouth and not get leftover bits of mush all over me and everything else in the house!

And so for now, I leave you with this last picture of my little big girl. There really are no adequate words to sum up the amount of love that I feel for her.

Everything In The Mouth

Last weekend we took Bayla to meet Zvi's grandmother for the first time. She lives in a nursing home and we didn't want to take Bayla inside because of all the germs. We have been waiting for warm weather so that we can take Zvi's grandma outside and finally the weather was just right - not too cold, not too hot (though it was quite windy unfortunately). Zvi took some great pictures of their introduction but this one is really my favourite because it is so very Bayla. She sees something ... and then she wants to eat it. 

Here's another great example of Bayla putting EVERYTHING into her mouth. She figured out how to get her feet into her mouth a while ago but I haven't been able to capture it on camera until recently. Usually she gets so interested in seeing what I'm doing that as soon as I point a camera in her direction she stops doing everything to interact with me instead. It's really nice but makes catching all the funny stuff she does a bit of a challenge. 

I was REALLY disappointed last night when UPS rang our doorbell with a delivery from Amazon at 7pm. Zvi had asked for a coffee hand grinder for father's day so that is what he was expecting. I decided to throw in a little bonus with that gift so that there would still be some element of surprise. I checked the Amazon website and I was actually expecting the delivery yesterday but when it didn't arrive by 5 I figured it would just come today instead. But at 7pm when the doorbell rang, I tried to get Zvi to not answer it to no avail. So he got this book about coffee as a little early present. Hope he's liking it.

It's So Hot

I'm really not complaining in general, I mean, at least we've got the A/C to rely on. But it's just been so incredibly hot the last week. It's nice that the weather has warmed but the heat actually makes it kind of difficult for Bayla and I to do much of anything. It's too hot to go for walks outside and I don't want to spend my days at the mall. I can't even put sunscreen on Bayla yet so we've got to avoid the sun as well ... which quite honestly is better for me anyway since I seem to burn despite sunscreen anyway. I've just bought a new bottle of 75! .. so we'll see if that does the trick. 

It's just so hard to sit inside our house all day long. It gets boring and lonely for us. It's very unfortunate that I don't have any friends with a pool. I would love nothing more than to spend the day with Bayla in and out of the water. Best summer ever! :-) But anyway, there's no pool so we've got to make due with the little corner of shade we've got at the side of the house. There's no shade at all in the backyard proper, which is great for our growing veggies... but not so great for me and Bayla. Luckily, our side yard is in shade for most of the day so I've been laying down some beach towels and we've been hanging out there, looking at the clouds, singing and cuddling. 

Maybe in the next few months, as she learns to sit on her own I'll be able to put on the sprinkler and have that splash us for a little respite from the heat. Not sure if she would like that, but it's worth a shot. We did get sprayed yesterday when Zvi turned on the sprinkler to water the front lawn and trees while we were standing on the porch. I wasn't expecting the shock of the cold water but Bayla didn't seem to mind too much. Perhaps that will be exactly what we'll do come July and August!

My Little Big Girl

This is the mother's day portrait I mentioned earlier. It's amazing that it wasn't even taken a month ago and I feel like Bayla has changed so much since then. For one thing, she's got TEETH! One of her bottom teeth cracked through the gums on Sunday and I can see another one starting to pop out. I think it'll be out either later today or tomorrow. What a big girl!

To go along with her new "big girl" status, she's started doing a new kind of smile. It's really funny and looks really cute. It's almost like she's trying to show us her little chicklet teeth. Hilarious.

My First Mother's Day

What a lovely day - err, weekend, I should say. We had to make it a mother's day weekend because there are just too many people to celebrate with to fit it all into one day. Especially with Bayla. We had a lovely brunch with my grandma and aunt, we visited my mom, Zvi visited his grandma, and then we had Zvi's parents over for dinner. And of course there was our very own little breakfast party for me. Zvi made the most amazing oatmeal pancakes for me. Since we switched away from quick oats (for both health and taste reasons), we are both really loving oatmeal for breakfast on weekends. And this recipe took it to a whole new level .... oatmeal = great, pancakes = great, strawberry sauce = great ... so what's not to love? :-) The only problem, as we both unfortunately discovered later on Sunday night ... is that we both truly are lactards and using butter, no matter how small an amount, in the batter, on the griddle, and later on top of the pancakes just does NOT work for us. Oh well ... lesson learned. Small price to pay for such deliciousness.

Despite all the hustle and bustle of the weekend, Bayla was such a good girl. She often gets overwhelmed by going to lots of different places and being surrounded by noise and people. I was really proud of her. Here's a picture of her relaxing on the couch with her saba before dinner last night. Oh how she loves tv.

"Bayla" made me the cutest card too. It really made my day.

And I got these lovely Japanese Forged Flower Shears. I can use them to cut flowers from the garden and also to thin my veggies.

We gave everyone a framed portrait of Bayla. It was such a cute photo that we made one for ourselves as well. I'm hoping Brian will scan a copy for me so that I'll have it online as well. The studio wanted $100 for a digital copy so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get much done in the garden this weekend, or even get to the regular garden chores like raking and mowing because we were busy with mother's day and because despite the fact that May 9th is supposed to be the last frost date in this area - the temperature dropped dramatically and we had SNOW! Zvi had to cover up the veggies with some landscaping fabric and a tarp to keep our veggies safe. We took it off yesterday in the day time but put it back down overnight. I think we may have to do the same again tonight ... but hopefully that will be the last of it.

Zvi did have a bit of time though to go pick up some more stuff for our garden. He's got everything he needs to build the next raised garden bed. Hopefully he'll have some time for it this week. He picked up the landscape fabric and all the soil stuffs to fill the bed. And ... this part is very exciting ... we've got 12 asparagus plants and 2 rhubarb plants to go into the bed once it's ready. Since we got the plants this weekend and since I'm so excited about them, I'm just going to count them as part of my mother's day present :-) They're all happily hanging out in my kitchen by the patio door for now. I'm amazed at how quickly the asparagus is growing ... why just yesterday I was fawning over two very cute little mini asparagus spears and now one of them has shot up at least 2 inches and another 2 have popped out of nowhere. If you look closely in the pictures you should be able to spot them ... and if not, I'm happy to show them off when you come over!

Oh! And how could I almost forget about this ... Zvi and Brian went to pick up some free maple and walnut stumps because Zvi wants to make stools out of them for the backyard. I'm still really not sure how I feel about this.... especially now that I see they're not all the same and are even different heights.  Are we really going to want to sit on these??? Anyway, apparently the walnut stump weighs about 100 lbs! Crazy. Nice of that man with the house on Dufferin to give them away for free.

Mostly everything that I've planted so far has started to sprout ... still waiting on the carrots, and two of the lettuces. While I was uncovering the bed this morning I took some pictures of the cute little sprouts that you can see here.  Looks like it's almost time to thin some of them out.

Loving The Sunshine

Bayla and I have really been enjoying the lovely weather. Why, just the other day I put out some beach towels in the backyard (to do: get a big picnic type blanket), brought out the bumbo chair and we had a blast hanging out and playing our usual games in a different environment.

It was too bright out for Bayla so I lent her my shades for a while. She was a little confused at first and resisted the foreign object being put over her face but eventually she figured out that it was cool because she could now open her eyes. So cute! 

The garden is coming along nicely for now. Zvi finished building, digging, and amending the soil so I went ahead and planted some lettuces, carrots, radishes, beets, spinach, onions and peas. 

Bayla and I take little mini trips out into the backyard daily to check on the progress and do a little gentle watering if there hasn't been enough rain. So far some of my onions, radishes, peas and lettuces are starting to peak out of the ground. How exciting!

On Wednesday, I finally got over my fear of organized activities and took Bayla out for a stroller fit class with a group of 7 other moms with their babies. It was a beautiful day and we did a great walk through G Ross Lord Park. Twice up and down the hills, some squats, lunges, skips and stretches later ... I'm actually embarrassed to say that my legs are sore. I can't wait for next Wednesday so we can go again. Until Bayla fell asleep halfway through I had her sitting mostly upright in the stroller and it seemed like she really enjoyed looking around at all the new sights - grass, trees, people, and nature. I'm planning on taking Bayla to a kindermusik class on Monday as well ... another trip out of the house. I can't wait to see how she reacts to an activity with other babies that will be so focused on her and her development. More on that to follow.