Eating Jim's Lunch: Tyler Florence's Start Fresh cookbook

Somewhere, very soon, a grown man may cry over broccoli.

Jim, This Is Just To Say*
I have eaten
the leftovers
that were in
the icebox

and which
you definitely meant
to eat
for lunch

Forgive me
they were delicious
so tender
and so warm.

 It's rare when I jump to a recommendation without weeks of scrutiny, but Tyler Florence's Start Fresh cookbook won me over as soon as I started reading it.

I'm too lazy for most celebrity chef cookbooks. The recipes seem designed to occupy hours shopping for hard-to-find ingredients, doing abundant prep work, and then obsessively observing every stage of cooking. What I need now, with my household of five, is simplicity, clarity, and health.

A mom who was making her baby all-organic baby food recommended the book to me, and I thought, "Lady, you're insane." Every time I cracked the cover of a baby cookbook, I spent at least an hour preparing something that NO ONE in the family wanted to eat (though Jim would very kindly feign enthusiasm for the disgustingly soft, unbelievable bland horror that I dished up). My friends grew an organic garden and made mountains of baby food for their first child, only to have it summarily rejected. I was too smart to do this again (note: with every new Jones baby I buy an expensive sling I hate and a stack of labyrinthine baby/kid cookbooks). Not this time (for the cookbooks, I already gave up on a Moby wrap).

And then came the line that landed the sales pitch, "You make one meal for the whole family and just puree some of it for the baby."

I dream of only making one meal that everyone eats. Somehow, I have become that short-order mom who everyone thinks they won't be. My kids eat fruit, breads, peanut butter, crackers, and cheese. It's like being stuck at a w(h)ine and cheese buffet for life. Jim and I still love the variety and flavors offered through menu planning service Relish! (we've subscribed since '08). So I've been making two meals and feeding the baby from jars and containers.

When (Tyler Florence's) Sprout baby food went on sale at the grocery, I bought a couple packs. If the baby would reject them like the other kids' did another leading organic baby food brand, I could cast out the lingering book recommendation faster than she spits out peas.

The baby all but wept for joy at the first taste. Her joyful face soon turned cynical as I swear she thought, "What else are you holding out on?" Then she banged her fists until she ate every bit. About 10 bags later, I bought the book.

Start Fresh is a pragmatist's cookbook. Recipes call for simple ingredients that are roasted or steamed (techniques that are cheap and easy). Jim has some great 13 gauge baking sheets which are perfect for roasting.

Last night the baby ate pureed roasted broccoli with Paremsan while we tossed the broccoli with some random pasta, Parmesan, and olive oil. It was outstanding. Even Ranger ate the letters in his name (which is something for a 6 year old who doesn't eat pasta). Jim was gleeful when I packed the leftovers for his lunch.

And then he forgot them. (And Jim, should you still be reading this, I actually saved half for you.)

Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating is currently an Amazon bargain book ($7.79).  The first part of the book is purees while the second half is family meals with simple adaptations. About half the recipes are vegetarian (including great foods like beets, quinoa, eggplant, butternut squash). Only four dessert recipes are included- which is a refreshing change from most kids' cookbooks. The included desserts look healthier than average while still sounding sumptuous (e.g. baked pumpkin with peaches, strawberry-stuffed muffins).

While the book has some fancy-pants moments like making your own almond milk, it has parallel slacker instructions for us less motivated readers.

*My deepest apologies to William Carlos Williams, his red wheelbarrow, the white chickens, and the rain.

***Baby Toolkit is one Midwestern couple's approach to geek living with kids. Our opinions and judgement may be questionable, but they are entirely our own. We have no relationship with Tyler Florence or Rodale books. We are however Amazon affiliates, so a small percentage of purchases made through our links helps support this blog (thanks!).

When Life Gives You Apples, Make Apple Cake (And Invite Me Over)

About a month ago, Ranger talked us into buying an enormous bag of beautiful Granny Smith apples at a warehouse store.  My kids love tart Granny Smiths more than any other apple, and I am to blame (either by nature or nurture) for this.  There is nothing like the sharp snap of a tart slice of apple.

When I sliced the first apple from the bag and gave it to the kids, Ranger declared the apple sub-par.  In his defense it lacked the crispness that characterizes Granny Smiths.  I figured we could still make it through the bag; a green tart apple is a green tart apple, right?  It turns out that Ranger has the dedicated tastebuds of a wine master.

Later I fed him a sliced Granny Smith from a local orchard.  He loved it and asked for more, so I sliced an apple from the bag that I'd moved to the fridge the previous evening.  He took two bites and pushed it away.

I gave the leftovers to Scout who played with them for about 15 minutes before asking for "an apple."

I sliced another chilled bag apple and put it on a new plate.  She ate half a piece, shook her head, and asked for cheese.

Jim soon arrived home and helped me eat the two rejected apples.  That only left a few more pounds in the pantry.

In subsequent weeks, I kept trying to pass off the apples as grocery store apples.  To no avail.

Then I started looking for Granny Smith recipes.

Relish! had one for apple cake that looked straightforward and didn't require a special trip the grocery store.  The heavenly autumn olfactory trifecta of cinnamon, cake, and baked apples now waft through the house.

Relish! Apple Cake
Prep: 30 minutes Bake: 50 minutes Serves 12 3 cups all purpose flour 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 large eggs , lightly beaten 1 1/4 cups canola oil, (or cooking oil) 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 Granny Smith apples , peeled and chopped 1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted per serving: 317 calories; 3 grams protein; 18 grams total fat; 1 gram fiber; 2 gram saturated fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 21 mgs cholesterol; 188 mgs sodium		Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. [1] Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a very large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; make a well in center of dry mixture and set aside. [2] In a medium bowl, combine eggs, oil and vanilla; stir in apples and nuts. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened (batter will be thick). Spread batter in prepared pan. [3] Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for at least 1 hour. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

The sweet cake bakes to form a crunchy top that yields to a soft crumbly interior.  The texture and homey flavors of cinnamon-sweetened apples well suit this season of crisp leaves, pleasantly sharp breezes, and harvest flavors.

The commonplace ingredients, simple recipe, and exquisite results are typical of our cooking experiences with Relish!

This recipe was good enough to make me (momentarily) consider another mammoth bag of mediocre Grannies, but then I realized how wonderful it might be with fresh orchard apples.  If you try it, let me know, or, even better, invite me over.

***Baby Toolkit is written by at least one geek parent with a serious sweet tooth and a love for fall foods.  We are (paying) Relish! subscribers since October 2008 and credit the online menu planning service for most of the home cooking we accomplish.  We have no ongoing financial relationship with Relish!  We are however Amazon affiliates, so purchases made through our Amazon links support the ongoing blogging efforts of Baby Toolkit (many thanks!).  

Joy on Ice: DIY Iced Chai Latte

There's a reason Starbucks has a siren on their logo.  Lately the call of iced chai lattes has been drawing me to the Seattle-borne shop.  The night I found myself explaining to Jim that I either wanted the middle size if the menu board showed 3 sizes or the smallest size if the updated menu board had been put in place, I realized that I had spent too much time drinking the corporate Kool-Aid.

So here is the Jones' answer to the witches' brew.

Jones' Iced Chai Latte

4 c boiling water
4 spiced chai teabags (we used Trader Joe's because it was in the pantry, Starbucks uses Tazo)
1/4 c & 3 TBS sugar
4 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Boil water and brew teabags until you're pretty sure the resulting sludge is both bitter and repulsive.  At any point you can add all the sugar to brewing tea (sorry it didn't come out to a normal cup measurement).  Stir until the sugar dissolves.  You can use a sugar substitute, but we're into extreme sucrose around here.

***IF YOU USE A GLASS PITCHER, please make sure that the tea has cooled before the next step.  In childhood, Jim exploded a glass teapot making sweet iced tea.  His mother still mourns the teapot.

Pour milk into a pitcher with the brewed, sweetened tea.

Stir in vanilla and cinnamon.   Serve over ice.  Makes 2 quarts (64 ounces).  We have no idea how long it keeps because it only lasts about 24 hours here.  Do not serve to toddlers unless you're willing to share most of your cup.  In our small sample preschoolers seem entirely immune to its charm.


***Baby Toolkit is a random smattering of events told by geeks, full of words and lame jokes, signifying parenthood.  We're Amazon affiliates, so please be duly warned (and thanked) that any purchases made through our links promote even more of this nonsense..

Menu Planning for New Eaters: Babyfood101.com

At 6 months, the Raptor can easily be described as an enthusiastic eater. It's a joy and a relief after years of struggling with Ranger over food.

I recently stumbled onto babyfood101.com (I cannot figure out how I got there, so please let me know who I owe credit for this). This amazing site is great for the confounded parents of early eaters.

Babyfood101 offers a weekly email outlining two new foods for baby (see week 2). The email instructs on the selection and preparation of the foods, the appropriate age for introduction, homemade baby food recipes, storage, whether or not the food is sold in jars, if buying organic is worthwhile, and adult recipes for the same ingredient.

It's like Relish for babies!

The emails start with recommendations for the earliest eaters and progresses to more complex foods over time.

Babyfood101's web site is also searchable by food, recommends gear (starting hilariously with the finger), offers a grocery guide, discussing making baby food, foods to avoid, recommended books and web sites, and a first feedings question and answer section.

Bon appetit, mes petit amis!

Dinner Renaissance: How Relish! Changed Our Lives

At our house the phrase "home cooking" has long been a punch line. While we cooked in the early days of our marriage (potatoes, lots of potatoes), we quickly transitioned to eating out, take out, and heat and serve as soon as our budget allowed.

Over a decade later, we still enjoyed the ease of take out, but were completely bored with the restaurant options. We were paying a premium in money and family time for meals we had long ceased to enjoy. Ranger always looked a little lost in his play kitchen. He'd usually pop a couple things in the microwave and then carry them into the living room.

Shortly before the Raptor was born (late in '08), I became intrigued with a menu planning service featured by Cool Mom Picks. Relish! (at relishrelish.com) features a composite shopping list and meals that take around 30 minutes to prepare and cost about $95 a week (4 people, 5 meals).

We signed up for a 3 month subscription ($21). There were options that cost less than $7 a month, but they required longer subscription terms. A voice in my head (or maybe the collective voice of my unused kitchen gear) grounded my expectations: "A unused 3 month subscription ultimately costs less than an unused 12 month subscription."

When I chose our first week's menu (5 out of 15 options), Jim (buoyed by the prospect of delicious sounding dishes) offered to go to the store. Awesome! In the past I've gone to the store because I especially hate trying to make a shopping list. Then I hate being at the store because I cannot think of thing to make. I used to end up coming home with a random assortment of things that couldn't be assembled to make any actual meals. Shopping really bummed me out.

Now I just keep a post-it note of additional groceries to attach to the Relish! shopping list. Jim and Ranger go or I go when the kids are with other adults. The grocery store has lost its sting. The list itself gets plenty of attention at the grocery store. Strangers track us down to say things like "Wow, you must be organized" (which I love to hear even if it's totally inaccurate) or "Where did you get that list?"

And our fridge is no longer a place where food goes to expire... Before kids, our fridge was the condiment and take-out box museum indicative of workaholics. After Ranger, I bought food out of guilt and good intentions, but usually didn't muster the courage to assemble it while it was edible. On the rare occasions I tried to make something, we were inevitably out of an essential ingredient so some meals were abandoned midstream.

The wasted food hit an all-time high early last summer after we joined a CSA project. After a few weeks our fridge threatened to become an organic compost heap, so we started distributing all of our share among friends. Jim was driving an extra 30 minutes each week to get food that just made me feel wasteful.

Now we buy what we eat, and we eat what we buy. It's a clean feeling to throw out empty packages rather than expired food.

Our life is more ordered too. We sit down for meals together and clean up together. In the last week, we've had guests for four meals. It's easy to invite people over, even at the last minute, when you know something good is in the works.

Jim and I clean up together most nights, and it gives life a nice rhythm. Ranger seems to like sitting at the table with us and is eating at a less glacial pace. The Raptor has a bouncer in the kitchen were she keeps me company while I cook.

There are so many ways Relish! has changed our quality of life. We have more conversational time, more money, less guilt, and more happiness. And that is before we even broach the meals themselves.

Last night my mom summed it up with "You eat like kings!" We do, maybe better depending upon the kingdom and the era.

We've cooked dishes and ingredients I never would have tried, and we've had great results with everything (which is notable when you look at our storied history of cooking failures). Shiny, unused kitchen implements have become instruments of weekly, if not daily, use.

Our menu for the last week was:

• Italian sausage heroes with apple coleslaw
• Nutty cucumber sandwiches with homemade baked potato chips
• Pumpkin-bean soup with cranberry & feta salad
• Mexian scrambled eggs with pomegranate & pear salad
• Gourmet chicken chili with jack quesadillas

The meals are so suitable for each season. The winter has been full of sumptuously warm meals that contrast the spare weather and atmosphere outdoors. After some chicken and dumplings, Jim and I marvelled over the rich flavor contributed by well cooked carrots. Carrots. The orange kind.

Relish also offers a freezer cooking menu once a month and special menus for holidays, lunches, deserts, and events like the Superbowl and themed movie nights. Around the holidays, the freezer menu included a number of make-ahead appetizers and hors d'ouevres to simplify the season.

I am proud to report that we just renewed our subscription after 3 months. This time I signed up for a full year... a delightful, delicious year.

WIN A YEAR OF RELISH!

Relish! founders Karen Hutcherson and Anne Bender have generously offered a one year subscription ($58.80 value) to one lucky Baby Toolkit reader.

To enter the contest please tell us (in a few sentences) why you think a year of Relish! would be a good fit for you and your family. We'll randomly select a winner. Email your entries to babytoolkitcontests[at]gmail.com by 11:59 PM CST, February 1, 2009. We'll announce the winner on Groundhog's Day. One entry per household please.

Talking Turkey: Jennie-O Offers a Fool Proof Turkey

We've hosted a few Thanksgiving dinners in our home, and with the exception of last year's, they have been unmitigated disasters.

Our first Thanksgiving away from extended family the turkey didn't thaw according to instructions. Not noticing the total lack of pliability, we put it in oven as instructed (not removing any of the extra parts inside the bird). After a long day of cooking, we found a mushy disaster. We tipped the content of the roasting pan into the garbage and high-tailed it to the only local grocery store still open for pre-cooked ham.

The year before Ranger was born Jim and I spent weeks planning an elaborate menu that was Martha Stewart in its vision. We even included individual compote-stuffed acorn squash for each guest.

Our guests arrived hours early, just in time to be here when the oven caught fire. We ate each dish sequentially (as they now had to be heated in our tiny, EasyBake wattage microwave) in the slightly smoky dining room. Needless to say no guest present has ever suggested us hosting Thanksgiving again.

When Jennie-O contacted me that they had an idiot-proof turkey available, I wondered how far our reputation as destroyers of Thanksgiving had traveled. Their miracle turkey could go straight from freezer to oven without cleaning, thawing, marinating, or prepping for roasting.

Our Jennie-O Oven Ready Turkey came boneless, skinless, and frozen. We removed the exterior bag to find the turkey in a roasting bag. We placed the roasting bag in an ovenproof dish and cut 3 small slits in the bag.

The turkey then went in the preheated oven for about 2 hours, emerging as an easy and flavorful dinner. The pop-up timer signaled the end of cooking (and popped around the same time our meat thermometer hit the recommended inner temp of 170 degrees). The thermometer was much easier to use in the Jennie-O Oven Ready turkey breast than in a conventional bird (where you need to avoid the bone). [Video of cooking instructions]

When we cut off the roasting bag, there was enough juice to make a homemade gravy, but it wasn't necessary. Jennie-O includes a packet of gravy mix (add water and heat on the stove). We should have started the gravy before the turkey came out of the oven, but we did not. Instead, driven by the savory scent of turkey, we microwaved the mix.

The turkey was surprisingly juicy and tender. The seasoning was mild, but delicious. Jennie-O's Oven-Ready Turkey was our first successful turkey. These fool-proof gobblers could save future holidays here, and the boneless turkey breast makes a hearty weeknight dinner.

Jennie-O Oven Ready Turkeys can be found year-round at Safeway (Dominicks, Genuardi’s, Vons), Jewel, Super Wal-Marts, Ralph's, King Sooper, Acme, Schnucks, HEB, Meijer, Winn Dixie, Publix, Hy-Vee, Super Target, Fry's, Von's, and some Kroger and Super-Valu Divisions. A 12 lb. whole turkey costs $28, a 5 lb. bone-in breast costs $17, and the 2.75 lb. boneless breast retails for around $13.

Jennie-O turkeys can be ordered online, but their heavy shipping weights and need for expedited shipping translate into considerably higher costs.

Even if you're an expert poultry chef, you can enter Jennie-O's Trauma or Triumph Sweepstakes to win a month of free groceries from Amazon, an iPod nano, a camcorder, and Netflix or iTunes gift cards.

What holiday cooking disasters have you experienced?

Not-Quite Homemade: Custom Decorating A Bakery Cake

We spent a lot of time last month deliberating about Ranger's birthday cake. It was a big issue because we were throwing his first friends and family birthday party ever, and (feeling inclusive) we invited over 40 families (most with toddlers and kids).

In an additional act of insanity, we didn't ask for RSVPs, so we knew we could expect anywhere from 3-100 attendees. That's potentially a lot of cake. While we love and advocate homemade cake, the thought of making and transporting 100 cupcakes or a giant sheet cake was overwhelming.

So we ordered a big sheet cake from a local warehouse club. Ranger chose blue for the trim color, and the bakery employee kind of blinked at me when I said I wanted a blank white top.

"And what words do you want on it?"

"No words. Just the flat white icing and the blue trim."

"Seriously?"

With a raise of the eyebrows, she accepted my request and filed the cake order away.

Jim, either in an act of diplomacy or trying to dissociate himself from the insanity attributed to me said "We're going to put our own robots on it!"

Her look said "I'm sure you will, honey," but her mouth said "That's great," as she BACKED into the employee only area of the store.

So, the Jones master plan was to make robots similar to those on our AWESOME Creative Commons robot invitations (thank you, Dot of Dabbled, for being so generous in sharing all your great original images and robot party ideas) to top Ranger's bakery cake.

Dot's beautiful 3D robot cake had been our original inspiration for birthday dessert, but we couldn't envision the fleet of robots we would require successfully making the car trip from our house to the party location. It did however, inspire us to look into fondant.

A cake making friend describes fondant as inedible, so I wasn't in any rush to buy premade. Google offered good recipes and tutorials for marshmallow fondant (which is primarily marshmallow and powdered sugar), so Jim and I spent an evening making and kneading the fondant.

The first steps are much like rice crispy treats- melting marshmallows to hot goo. Then- on very greased surfaces and with downright slippery hands- you mix in colors, then knead in the powdered sugar. The mixture turns into a rather adhesive dough until you really saturate it with powdered sugar.

Ranger wandered into the kitchen soon after we started the kneading process. He found Jim with hands stuck in what looked like a giant yellow glob of chewed bubble gum and me with cerulean mitts closely resembling melting smurf hands.

"What happened?"

His only response is a wave of hysterical laughter. A wide-eyed Ranger BACKS out of the kitchen.

After letting the fondant set up in the fridge overnight, we rolled it out and Jim cut out the robot shapes. We had lots of fondant left, so I grabbed a cookie cutter and cut out a dozen or so stars. We even marbled the two colors together to get some multicolored stars.

The end product was well received (it was cake and sugar, after all).

Clean as a Whistle: A Dishwasher Hack from the Land of Very Hard Water

One of the first things we did upon moving into this house was replace the avocado green dishwasher, not for looks, but for lack of function. The poor thing just didn't clean the plates or glasses.

Jim and my dad installed a new dishwasher, and I was pretty surprised when it didn't clean the dishes very well either. They came out with bits of food sealed to them rather than rinsed clean and the glasses (dark blue) looked like they had been dipped in milk and left to dry. After a couple years of rewashing many dishes per load and having glassware that I was embarrassed to show to guests, we resorted to handwashing everything.

Our still pretty new dishwasher became a giant drying rack. That lasted for almost a year before I got tired of seeing the perpetual backlog of dirty dishes on the counter. So, I started looking for solutions.

Our water (from the Ohio River) has very high levels of calcium and other minerals. The water here is actually so hard that I'm reasonably wigged out when we're somewhere that water is more tempered. On a recent trip I finally asked Jim what he thought was in the water that just didn't rinse off. He informed me it was properly softened water and that the unpleasant experience was merely liquidity without massive mineral deposits (as opposed to the normal pelting of tiny rocks one experiences here).

It turns out that the hard water was giving our dishwasher a hard time. Rather than looking at a whole house water softener, I looked for a solution localized to our dishwasher. A lot of people with hard water suggested a performance boosters like Glass Magic to solve these problems (but such products are heavy on phosphates which encourage algae growth downstream).

Someone in the Amazon comments for Glass Magic mentioned the use of vinegar instead, so I started experimenting. By adding 2/3 cup white vinegar to the bottom of the dishwater before washing, I've been getting splendid results.

It's nice to be able to hand a guest a sparkling glass now (that I didn't have to handwash).

I guess there's a little Stepford wife in me after all.

Frozen Lemon Scraps Freshen Disposal Breath

When it comes to an in-sink garbage disposal, I have little tolerance for unpleasantness. There's something totally unpalatable about smelling damp variety goo when pouring a glass of milk or peeling an apple nearby.

We used to be big fans of Plink, but then we found an elegant solution that is cheap, easy, and reuses kitchen waste.

According to my dad, one of the reasons the disposal smells is because little bits of nastiness get left behind. Apparently, if you run ice through your disposal, it knocks loose all the bits of cruft lurking down there in the dark. Dad also attests to the miracle power of ice to sharpen blades. I don't know if it's true, but in 11 years of home ownership where I periodically feed the disposal ice, I've not had disposal problems.

To get the super-fresh smell of lemons, we grind up frozen chunks of juiced lemon rinds with the ice. It's a brilliantly clean scent. Whenever we juice a lemon (limes work too!), we cut up the juiced rind into chunks no bigger than an ice cube and throw them in a container in the freezer.

Whenever the disposal gets monster breath, we throw in a cup or two of ice and a few pieces of rind (usually 1/3 of a lemon or 1/2 a lime). Run the disposal until the ice is gone then let the cold water run another minute.

Tube Popsicle Hacks: Inspiration from the Freezer

Friday is fast becoming a day of inspiration for me- and it keeps happening in my friend's kitchen.

It turns out my friend is a second-generation practitioner of the cut-the-tube-popsicle-in-half approach (coincidentally featured recently on Parent Hacks).

She didn't however know my mom's practice of running the popsicle under water to seperate it from the plastic wrap. This makes the ice a lot easier for toddlers (and clumsy adults like myself) to push without shooting it across the room.

Another smart friend pointed out that a tube popsicle wrapped in paper towel is a subtle way to apply ice to an injured hand.

We love the electrolyte popsicles (by companies like Pedialyte) for inspiring rehydration during illness (particularly during barf-fests when kids can refuse to eat).

If anyone knows of some freezer pops without high fructose corn syrup, I love to hear about them.

***This is the independent of opinion of the geek parents at Baby Toolkit. We're not doctors, so go somewhere respectable for actual medical advice. Despite the wisdom of the hacks listed above, we do not promise that anti-freeze blue Fla-vor-ice won't still end up staining your (or your friend's) upholstered kitchen chair. Again, let me offer my heartfelt apologies about that, K-.

Easy Bake in a "Jiffy:" Mixing Things Up For Less

I spied a "Jiffy" [s.i.c. since 1930] brand baking mix on my friend's counter and was immediately transported back to the 1970s and thoughts of my Easy Bake Oven on the kitchen counter. While my brother ran through the woods beating things with sticks ala Lord of the Flies, I built a culinary education that would serve me well should I ever be trapped in a incandescent-bulb-lit, well-stocked pantry hungry for miniature baked goods.

The Easy Bake mixes, sold in the toy section, exceeded my allowance and my frugal family's sense of economy. So Mom figured out that 1/2 of a Jiffy Mix substituted nicely for an Easy Bake mix. So, if your little light-bulb baker is begging for the $5 Hasbro Betty Crocker cake mix (that has to be bought in toys rather than at the grocery), swing by the baking aisle and grab a 67 cent box of "Jiffy" cake mix and a 67 cent box of frosting mix instead ($1.34 total). Both make and frost two Easy Bake cakes, but (GEEK BONUS) "Jiffy" offers the practical math experience of dividing a recipe by two.

Amazon sells "Jiffy" mixes in bulk (24 box multi-packs) if you want to avoid the store all together or start a Easy Bake supply store for the whole neighborhood.

But, in the wonderous age of the Internet, you can also make your own mixes for pennies on dollar while building valuable math and (dare I say it) actual cooking skills. The nice folks over at Budget 101 have started a registry for Easy Bake and Queasy Bake mix recipes.

Tired of the same old cake mix? Well, you can spice up "Jiffy" mixes with their FREE recipes (online or in booklet form) that transform Banana Nut Muffin mix into Banana-Berry Tarts and Crust and Frosting Mix into their celebrated Easy Coconut Cookies.

In searching for images of my model of Easy Bake Oven, I stumbled upon a most amazing Easy Bake Oven cookbook issued in 2003 honoring Easy Bake's 40th birthday (and I didn't even send a card!):

I kid you not, The Easy Bake Oven Gourmet is a serious gourmet cookbook with contributions from the hungry minds of Mollie Katzen, Mark Bittman, Rick Bayless, Bobby Flay, and others. You can bet that a copy will soon be arriving here at Baby Toolkit Headquarters (even though I no longer have an Easy Bake Oven and Ranger is a few years away from using one).

Maybe I can just cook these on my dashboard during mid-summer [Thanks, Kevin Kelly via street use!].


***This is the independent and often odd opinion of the geek parents at Baby Toolkit. We have no relationships with and have received no compensation from Hasbro, Running Press Publishing, David Hoffman, "Jiffy," or Chelsea Milling Company. Chelsea Milling Company sent us a free copy of their fascinating "Jiffy" mixes recipes booklet but they'll do that for anyone in the United States.

Come on in My Kitchen: Win a Copy of Annabel Karmel's delicious Toddler Cookbook

It is easier for me to envision a cookbook for toddlers and maybe even one using toddlers as an ingredient than it is to imagine a guide to cooking with toddlers.

When DK offered to send me a review copy of Annabel Karmel's new Toddler Cookbook, I had a sneaking suspicion it was one of those "toddler" books truly geared for age 5 and up. I am rarely so pleased to be proven wrong.

Although not every step of every recipe is toddler-friendly, I readily found recipes that 2.5 year-old Ranger and I could work on together. Not only that, they were recipes we might actually enjoy eating.

While some recipes include meat (chicken satay skewers, lettuce boats with chicken, salmon fishcakes, and chicken dippers), vegetarians won't feel excluded (pita pizzas, corn quesadillas, cherry tomato sauce, and mini Caesar salad with homemade croutons). There are also 10 snack, drink, and dessert recipes.

The book is well-illustrated with great photographs showing kids enacting EACH STEP of the recipe. Clear bowls prevent obstructions and everyone's hand seems magically out of the way throughout. Ranger loved seeing kids cooking, and the photos helped him see himself in the unfamiliar role of cook.

The strong visuals gave me courage to tackle meringues for Valentine's Day (while Ranger was taking a nap). I was tempted to stop there and proclaim the recipes easy and delicious, but deep in my heart I knew only a toddler-tested recipe would do.

Tonight we made mini banana muffins. The author calls for whole wheat flour which is a pleasant departure from stereotypical kid fare. Ranger and Jim were the mixmasters. They mashed a banana (which Ranger seemed to feel kind of guilty about), mixed ingredients, and then (drumroll, please) sifted in the dry ingredients. It turns out that while Ranger likes mixing, he loves sifting with my old school rotary sifter (which I need to upgrade to one without a loose handle). If we get homebound by another ice storm, I am breaking out all the flour and sugar and setting up a toddler-powered home grist mill.

We all had a great time, and I'm starting to realize how toddler Ranger can participate in the kitchen activity without risk of injury or meltdown. And the muffins, well...

even extraordinarily picky Ranger couldn't keep his hands off them.

Which is how I feel about the Toddler Cookbook (list price $10.99, $8.79 at Amazon).

WIN A COPY!
Thanks to the kind folks at DK, five Baby Toolkit readers (with U.S. addresses only) will win copies of the delicious Toddler Cookbook. To enter this random drawing, email babytoolkitcontests(at)gmail.com with the subject: Toddler Cookbook. Entries will be accepted through 11:59 PM CDT, 3/9/2008.

General disclaimers regarding contests on Baby Toolkit: we'll do our best but we can't guarantee the same efforts from the postal system. If a prize item were to be lost in the lost in the mail, we would take it as a message from a higher power that the situation was simply not meant to be (no compensation or replacement will be issued). One entry per household. We will use a random integer generator at random.org to determine a winner. Jim, Adrienne, their parents, and Ranger are not eligible for this contest. We respect your privacy and will not use your personal information for any purpose beyond determining a winner and sending prizes.

Good luck, we really think you're going to love this great book!

***This is the independent opinion of the geek family at Baby Toolkit, (c) 2008. We accepted a free review copy of the book, but under no obligation. We wouldn't write about it if we didn't like; we regularly decline reviews. We receive no compensation from DK or its affiliates for this review (though they are supplying and shipping the contest prizes). We do like DK as their travel books (including Rough Guide) and Eyewitness books have been household favorites as long as we've been a household.

Hot Dog Flowers: Definitely NSFV*

*NSFV= Not Safe For Vegetarians- although Jim thinks we could do this with a veggie dog, I suspect it only works with the extraordinary snout count in hot dogs.

When I was a wee child, there used to be a chain of Sir Beef Restaurants. As far as I know, there is only one left in this universe. This is a tragedy for two reasons:

1. The jokes.
2. They used to make these flowers out of hot dogs that boggled my wee mind. A picky eater like me could turn my nose up herds of hot dogs (or is that just one?), but a hot dog flower still gets me every time.

My dad, being an engineer, had to figure out how to make them at home. His efforts turned out much better than our flaming attempts at DIY microwave popcorn. It's not hard at all, and it's fun to watch if you don't mind cleaning the wurst spatter out of the microwave later.



If you like this hack or need a vegetarian palate-cleanser, check out how we slice apples.

***This is the independent, unsolicited opinion of the geek parents at Baby Toolkit, (c) 2008.

Apple-tizing: Slice Up Something Tasty

When our son started on solids, I found myself cutting apples a lot as he's carpophagus (not to be mistaken for coprophagous). When Jim noticed my apple-cutting technique he first said "Where did you learn this?"

I told him my mom always cuts my apples that way from infancy to well... now.

"You really are spoiled."

So, spoil your kids with delectable thinly sliced apples. I don't know if it's the greater surface area or the crunchiness of the thin chips- but kids dig apples sliced this way.

Peel the apple first if your kid's a prima donna about such things. Ranger is, but I left the peel on so the pictures didn't look like potatoes.

Cut alongside the core on the side away from your hand. Estimate where the core ends (I usually guess between 1/4 and 1/3 of the way from the stem to the edge).
Lay the apple on the cut side and slice on both sides of the core.

Lay the apple on a flat side (preferably with a core side toward your holding hand). Slice off the remaining non-core chunk.


Check to make sure you didn't get to close to the core- like I did on one side (see the seeds?).


But the roughage (extra fiber) is easily cut away.
Then slice your apple chunks to thin or wafer-thin.
Enjoy!

This style of cutting is great for some toddlers because it takes them longer to eat the slices. It makes a great time-consuming (for them, not you) snack. It also can extend a single apple among a greater number of kids in those didn't-get-to-the-grocery pinches.

The Awkward Hostess Strikes Again: More Frozen Food Baby Shower Ideas

If you've noticed a posting slowdown in the past week, it's not your imagination. This weekend we hosted a brunch and frozen food baby shower for some great moms with new babies due in the next few weeks.

I've written about food showers before (twice), so I won't go into repetitive detail.

Here are some new ideas for this food shower:

• Store-bought frozen foods for the dads (think college-grade frozen pizza and microwavable breakfast sandwiches).
• BRUNCH & BUFFET. With a couple good breakfast casseroles, strata, or quiches it was so much simpler logistically than the tea shower. The two casseroles I served were Gayle's amazing recipes from an adoption shower she hosted last month.
  
• Watermelon basket- completely freehanded it took maybe 5 minutes. I suspect with about 10 more minutes of preparation it could have even been symmetrical.
  
• Very few disposable goods were used. We used my plates and glasses and the tables were dressed with cloth. The only disposable items used were the napkins (which were too adorable to pass up). In the tradition of my octogenarian friends from sewing, I used decorative items which were already around my home. This can have a very understated and gracious feel.
• Pre-portioning the frozen foods: Veronica had the inspired idea to split frozen breakfast foods into individual portions before freezing so the family would be able to heat only what they need at the moment.
  

One of the best aspects of the shower was having my mom's help. She came early and washed some of my windows before the shower (see her in the picture?) in addition to helping get everything set up. During the shower, she entertained our baby guest (I don't know which of them had more fun) and she also packaged all the leftover food and did the dishes! Wow! I cannot tell you how surprised I was to walk into a clear kitchen.

One of my mom's friends hires high schoolers from her neighborhood as assistants whenever she hosts a shower. Assistance with serving allows a host more time to enjoy their guests and party. Helping a friend who is hosting a shower can be a great gift of your time.

Jim and my dad also helped a lot! Jim worked on the front porch, driveway, and yard while Dad took Ranger for pancakes at IHOP. Then Jim and Ranger headed to Kentucky for a fall party at Aunt Mo's leisure farm (complete with hayrides, boats, fishing, and chili made in a 55 gallon drum stirred with a canoe paddle).

Veronica made awesome individual cakes (chocolate and white with raspberry filling) for everyone at the party. She was also awesome and came early to help, so she made a lovely arrangement of fruit with some assorted dishes from my cabinet (I especially love the blueberries in the spiral olive plate nesting among the grapes).

Some presentation tips:

• With 8 individual cake plates, it was easy for the table to look cluttered, so we stole a technique from the pros and tiered them. I used an assortment of cans from my pantry to get a variety of heights: big pear cans for the highest tier, condensed milk half-cans for the second tier, and a water chestnut can for the lowest tier. I covered the cans with a runner.
• My cream table cloth was visually boring, so I dressed it up with an improvised runner (a floral twin bed sheet folded in half).
• If you don't love ironing tablecloths, but want a fresh look, put them in a warm dryer for a few minutes and then immediately place on the table. (I should have done this with the runner too).
• Jim recommends this excellent mnemonic for arranging a place setting (thanks, Parent Hacks!).
• Use interesting plates and have someone artistic lay out the food. My favorite plates are 1970s green and brown acquired at antique malls and thrift shops. I tend to stick to white serving dishes, so I can easily add new pieces.
• Don't be afraid to pull out the fine china- when else are you going to use it?
• Borrow big or infrequently needed items. Maggie loaned me her gorgeous punch bowl and cups. They were beautiful.
  

With all the help and generosity of spirit, the whole day left me feeling incredibly fortunate to have such great family and friends. Maybe (with their help) this hostess is getting a little less awkward.

Do you have any good baby shower/party tips or freezable recipes to share?

What's Cooking -Or- What the Heck Do You With Bok Choy?

If you love fresh seasonal foods and innovative, delicious cooking, get some great recipes for in-season veggies from our dear friends at their new Seasonal Eating blog.



Their family joined a new Community Supported Agriculture co-op, and their produce runneth over. This is great for all of us who have NO IDEA what to do with bok choy (other than let it sit in the fridge until it gets furry and/or soggy).

Marshmallow Magic: Mix It Up With Some Novel Treats

Target's after-Easter clearance (at 75% off yesterday) helped me score supplies for a favorite household hack. We got oodles of Toasted Coconut Marshmallows at $0.24 a bag.

While the bag claims they are "munchable" alone, I couldn't wait to get them home and try them as Marshmallow Crispy Treats.

For a young pink-loving friend's birthday party last summer, I threw together a batch of Rice Krispie Treats made with the Tutti-Frutti flavored Pink and White marshmallows by de la Rosa. I shaped them in a heart-shaped jello mold (no, I don't normally mold gelatin, I used to do a froofy desert as a lesson in my technology and the family class to make people understand how a jiggly desert once inferred electric refrigeration and affluence as opposed to what it denotes these days). The tan color of the crispies aren't well-masked by the pale pink of the melted mallows, so the whole think looked more like a human heart in color. Jim encouraged me to take the fleshy looking treats anyway (probably to get them out of the house).

We really can't say how those kids liked them because the adults (none of us huge fans of Rice Krispie treats) couldn't stay away from them. I made a second batch of these pink monstrosities for a dinner with my brother (a former fan of krispie treats suffering from complete burnout after a few too many bachelor meals of them). My brother, being super suspicious of many unfamiliar foods and imaginatively squeamish about anything mildly suggesting cannibalism, was entirely put off by their color.

But, he is a brave soul and wouldn't want to hurt my feelings, so he nibbled at one. This is truly an act of bravery as Mom and I once made him a homemade Key Lime pie for his birthday- substituting regular Persian limes for Key Limes (completely disregarding their size difference and using a 1:1 substitution). We included the zest of 12 Persian limes in one pie. My brother ate a very generous piece without a word (though I suspect his head was threatening to implode with the tartness). I tried the pie after he left and gagged. I can eat raw lemons, and the pervasive tartness of this desert was way too much for me. He has ample grounds not to trust me.

After a little nibbling, he took a bite. "Wow, these are great!" After finishing a few he asked "Could I take the leftovers home?" I made sure there were plenty left as he was gracious enough to eat an entire of slice of that horrible pie and pretend to enjoy it. He really is a fine big brother.

So, the Tutti-Frutti ugly treats passed muster with a cynical audience- and actually a few adults from the kids' party kept asking me for the recipe. I was happy to tell them about the substitution, but I don't know if we can get the de la Rosa marshmallows locally, I typically buy them at Saraga when we visit Indianapolis.

When we came upon the Toasted Coconut Marshmallows at 75% off, I knew we would have to try another variation. The bags release a cloud of toasted coconut aroma, so be prepared to spend maybe $0.96 if you find them at your local Target. Unlike the typical fat-free marshmallow crispy treats, the coconut marshmallows pack some saturated fat, so they promised to be extra delicious.

I made a test batch, promising Jim he could take them to work if they were good. And they were. Maybe not as good as the de la Rosas, but lusciously scented with coconut sophistication they exceeded the regular limits of standard issue crispy treats. I was so sad to enter the kitchen on Friday morning and find that Jim had taken ALL of them to work. Leaving none behind for young Ranger (BabyGeek has outgrown the old moniker) or me. When I called him at work to see if he would bring leftovers home, he reported that they were all promptly consumed by his fellow Morlocks.

I was forced to make another pan. Ranger saw me eating one and demanded a portion. He's onto the fact that much of what I don't offer to him is delicious (this actually proves useful in getting him to try new things through reverse psychology), and in this case I was willing to share.

Try them at your house. And if your kids don't like coconut, well I guess you may have to invite a few other grownups over for Happy Hour. (Jet-Puffed also makes Strawberry Marshmallows- though I've never seen them in stores- in case you want to placate the wee ones with treacle.)

Awkward Hostess Challenge: Throwing a Frozen Food Baby Shower

A couple months ago I attended a reasonably impromptu, very wonderful, very informal frozen food baby shower for some of pregnant friends. As the entire baby group was in attendance (babies and toddlers included), we didn't bother with niceties like decorations, food for guests, games, or much else. It was a bustling, splendid time.

I realized, after writing about the shower, that my dear friend, due only 7 weeks later, had no festivities planned to celebrate the arrival of her third child. This seemed a grave omission on my part, especially as she co-hosted a shower for BabyGeek's arrival.

Thus, I became an ersatz hostess. While many of the girls I knew growing up were encouraged to participate in and understand formal hostessing, I was raised by a grown tomboy with no interest in such matters. Travel, basketball, or sailing? My mom rules. But if it requires a doily but not Elmer's school glue- forget about it.

If I can get through a formal social event without any major gaffs, I count myself lucky. Hosting one presented a challenge.

The honoree, a friend who I met in high school gym class almost two decades ago, is an exceptionally graceful, gracious, and social person. This meant the guest list would be intergenerational and full of interesting, gracious, and social people who I would hate to horrify with my own ineptitude.

So I threw a tea. Why, a tea? It's the only formal event I usually feel much at ease attending- probably because it's primarily centered around eating things that are very bad for me and talking. My friend is also a tea aficionado. Plus, I've been to loads of teas of all kinds. It seems hard to screw up: sweet and savory foods full of cholesterol, some good tea, a decent location, and presto, a party with grace and simplicity.

What do I put on the invitations?
Although a food shower is a common idea in some parts of the country, it isn't even a known quantity here. I struggled and Googled to write an invitation. The one I had attended had been organized by email, so there really wasn't any written invitation available to crib. Google only offered a few rhymes, but they weren't my style or the expectant mom's.

So, this is what I eventually wrote:
You are cordially invited to a food shower and tea in honor of [mom] and her newest daughter at [time, location, details]. Please join us for conversation and celebration. [hostess, rsvp, contact info]

And, I knew everyone receiving the invite would be confused, so I slipped in a second magic decoder explanation on the map with directions to the event:

What is a food shower?

Like a baby shower, a food shower celebrates friendship and the arrival of new life.

Unlike a traditional baby shower, the gifts are ready-to-freeze or frozen foods that the family can enjoy in those harried first weeks after the baby's arrival. It is always appreciated when givers include a copy of the recipe for the family.

It is also greatly appreciated by the family if the food is packaged in containers that need not be returned.

Please clearly label any dishes containing nuts or nut products as *** has a severe nut allergy.

Quite a few people attending the shower mentioned that they appreciated the explanation. While I was writing the invites, others said suggesting restaurant gift cards or offering to bring fresh meals after the baby's home would be appropriate in the food shower explanation, but I figured, better safe than sorry. As I understand a shower, it is a gathering to celebrate the arrival of a child, gifts (although traditional) are not requisite. So, the suggestion of bringing anything at all, much less what to bring, seemed to teeter on the cusp of graceless. As I have little judgment in such things, I decided in favor of brevity.

I printed the invites and envelopes using a spreadsheet and mail merge. When I was shopping for invites, I chose a card that could double as a thank you note card. I printed a second set of the guest envelopes with the honoree's name and return address in place of my own. It was really easy to do. Sure, not everyone invited attended, but I had plenty of stationary and some of those people not in attendance may still give a gift. The honoree mom was quite excited to receive these and sent out thank you notes lightning fast (which is impressive as the baby was born less than a week after the shower).

What to serve?
I chose 3 teas with various caffeine levels (a classic black tea- full caffeine, my favorite pomegranate white tea from Trader Joe's, and a caffeine-free fruit tea). Green tea would provide another interesting alternative, but it gets quite bitter if it steeps too long. I knew I wouldn't be able to watch it very closely, so I went with teas requiring less observation.

Amy generously loaned me her Sizzix die-cutter, and I cut out standing labels for the foods and teapots. By inserting a folded index card into the die, I was able to make a perfectly matching standee for the pretty paper cutouts used for labels. I put labels on each teapot using colored embroidery floss tied through a hole in the label. Using a lark's head knot, I could easily attach, remove, and swap teapot labels as needed. As a result, no pots or cups were refilled with the wrong tea.

I put little standees among the different foods. My parents were vegan for many years and I've known lots of people with allergies and other dietary restrictions, so I'm into full disclosure serving. I like to identify in writing all foods I serve. If people want to know ingredient specifics, I'm happy to supply more information. If a dish contains a hidden, serious allergen (like nuts or nut oils), I always try to note that ingredient's presence.

We had egg salad sandwiches, spiral deli wraps, and tiny quiches for savory foods.

For sweets we had our family's favorite Oatmeal Scotchie bars (the recipe on the Tollhouse butterscotch morsels bag is quite remarkable if you substitute Billington's Molasses Sugar for the brown sugar and turbinado sugar for the white sugar. We found both substitutions through pantry scarcity and now consider it our secret recipe), the new Girl Scout lemon shortbread cookie, and tiny cream-filled cakes reminiscent of petits fours.

Veronica, Supermom to twins, gifted cake decorator, and bowmaker extraordinaire, offered critical assistance at just the right moment. She decorated 24 tiny cream-filled cakes (that I made from her family's recipe and "leveled"- so forgive her any crooked confections). When the guests entered, they were greeted by her gloriously-presented dessert (on her clever cupcake stand) which set a gracious tone for the occasion. Veronica's hard work on this small detail really paid off as the initial impression of graciousness lingered despite my careless pouring and other foibles.

There were many great storytellers among the guests, and only a handful were previously acquainted with each other. It was delightful to watch friends from different circles enjoy each other's company. So delightful in fact, that I completely forgot to take pictures or do the single planned activity of the afternoon (a piece of advice written to the child by each guest to be placed in a small scrapbook). Thanks, Asha for this great idea!

Instead, I'm taking the guests' recipes and making baby's first cookbook. The honoree has requested that I include the Scotchies recipe (they're really completely amazing cookies), so I will probably throw in all the recipes from the shower as well (kids need cholesterol, right?).

Egg-cellent: A Hard Boiled Hack Just in Time for Easter (or Egg Salad Sandwiches)

I love egg salad. My friend Kathryn has the best recipe ever for egg salad, but as she's a Southerner it's completely irreproducible for anyone living above the azalea line. She's given it to me more than a dozen times (always when I'm lacking a pen).

The "recipe" goes something like this:

"Honey, it's just egg salad- but you MUST use Duke's Mayonnaise [only available at Winn-Dixie, Piggly-Wiggly, and other Southeastern grocery chains] and you take the pickle relish [sweet/dill? I can never remember- and apparently it's essential that you not choose the wrong one] and you squeeze all the juice out of it. Then you put [one portion- either the squoze relish or the juice- another detail I can never conquer] in with the regular egg salad ingredients. Whatever you do, you MUST use Duke's mayonnaise."

Note the complete lack of measurements and proportions. It just makes my head spin, plus it's dangerous to assume I know anything about cooking. Should I ever lay hands on an unexpired jar of Duke's, I may call Kathryn and take one more shot at getting the recipe, but for now I really love the recipe for Pickle Packers International's Auntie M's Deviled Egg Salad. This stuff is seriously delicious (far superior to my own Auntie's egg salad), and, as if that weren't enough it allows one to say "Pickle Packers International" (bonus points)!

Jim and I were making egg salad tea sandwiches for a baby shower, and he dropped the eggs into the large pot of boiling water after punching a pinhole in the big end of each egg. I heard the egg shells cracking together as they dropped into the pot, and I remembered that Jim usually misses the hard-boiling stage of egg salad production. So I taught him a hack that we think useful for religious and secular egg boilers alike.

Using a spaghetti scoop (aka spaghetti server, spaghetti fork, spaghetti ladle, pasta server) is great for gently navigating the eggs into and out of a pot of boiling water. It cradles the egg, making them easy to capture and strategically release (unlike a large spoon).

Happy Spring, everyone!

Shower Me With Dumplings: The Best Baby Shower Ever

While I couldn't wait for the opportunity to hit the keyboard, BabyGeek is busy sleeping off the excitement from this morning. Two of our fabulous Tuesday Mommas are expecting in the next month, and we're all excited so we had the Best Baby Shower Ever. Since we all met after the birth of our babies, it seemed really fun to share a shower with new friends.

But what do you get for a family that already has kids? Diaper showers lack excitement ("Think of all the poo!") and second-timer (or more seasoned) parents typically already have a house full of stuff to stub their toes on.

Joy, one of the expectant moms who claims to have baby brain (but is still brilliant), mentioned that she'd heard about a "Cooking Shower"and would find one quite useful. A Google search for "cooking shower" apparently returns things like a "kitchen shower" for brides-to-be. New spatulas were definitely not what we were thinking of. So let's call it a Dinner Shower for now. If you have a better term in mind, please add it to the comments- this is a killer meme and it deserves a great and distinctive name.

The Dinner Shower (hosted at Joy's house because she has a great play area at her house for the passel of babies who accompany the Tuesday Mommas and a great kitchen) entailed everyone bringing a prepared, freezable dish. Since we had two expecting moms, we all brought enough food for two families and spent time looking like an infomercial while Cathy demonstrated her Food Saver. ("So how does it vacuum-seal soup?")

We split our prepared food into portions for both expectant moms' families (in a shower for just one mom this wouldn't be necessary). Joy's went right in the freezer while Amy's went into a cooler for the ride home.

Some people made a breakfast casserole while all this was going on (which we then divided and froze), and we all pitched in on clean up so everyone who brought food for repackaging took home clean dishes.

We had pizza and got to spend some quality time together.

The moms each received seven carefully prepared and delicious looking homemade entrees (all in portions large enough for multiple meals). What a great resource for those first tiring weeks of new baby's life.

No one needs to prepare expensive or elaborate meals, so everyone can give according to the time and funds they have available. Plus, the frozen meals mean the giver can plan ahead despite the random nature of birth and the family can control the timing of the meals.

This wonderful time together also honors community. My mom reminds me that in previous generations people always used to give prepared meals to families with new arrivals. This type of shower reinforces community in a way that shares and acknowledges the dualistic joy and difficulty of family life.

The shower's positive energy has made me realize the simple abundance in a well-timed gift of a good meal. It's enough to get me excitedly planning ahead for the hot meals I'll be dropping off after the babies are home a few weeks.


....but, if you must buy a traditional shower gift, let me suggest the Diaper Valet. It's handy.

What type of baby showers have you actually enjoyed?

How can we improve the Dinner Shower idea (including the name)?

Who has good freezable recipes? (Please share!)