Pizza is not a vegetable, broccoli is...

Okay, so we have had a really rough week. I am not going to go into details but all I can say is thank goodness for family. And friends. And food. Tonight we went to dinner at Aunt Janet and Uncle Jim's house in Marin and they prepared the most delicious stuffed peppers -- the kind of food that makes you instantly feel warm and satisfied inside. Leo loved every bite even though he filled up on appetizers before dinner. Thank you for Aunt Janet's cooking.

The other thing that I am thankful for this week, and it may seem trivial but it's a big deal to me, is the fact that my kid loves broccoli. Yes, broccoli. I was feeling particularly guilty a few days ago when I popped a pizza in the oven for dinner because I was too tired to cook and we didn't have any more leftovers. Even though Congress may have declared that pizza is a vegetable, I certainly do not agree. So, I quickly steamed some broccoli to give to Leo as an appetizer before the pizza was done, and he not only consumed the entire bowl of broccoli but licked the bowl clean.

I know what you're thinking. "Yeah right, photos or it didn't happen." So here they are to prove it:

My little Chia pet

At Leo's last well check-up, his pediatrician recommended that we give him Chia seeds for omegas. She said it's an even better source than Flax, so we've been sprinkling Chia seeds on top of his yogurt and mixing them into his oatmeal. He doesn't seem to mind them at all. He also gets cod liver oil and vitamin D mixed into his food. We're lucky that this kid isn't picky and is such a good eater!

Chicken Soup for the Soul

We are hunkering down for the winter...er, autumn, whatever this is....and making big pots of chicken soup that last for many meals. We've been adding different vegetables -- carrots, zucchini, onion, and celery. Leo likes cooked carrots the best.

There is a beautiful new local butcher shop that opened up in town where we get our sustainably raised, local chickens. (I know it sounds strange to call a butcher shop beautiful, but it really is a clean and classy place, much fancier than your average butcher.) Most importantly, the meat they get comes from animals that are 100% pasture-raised with no antibiotics or hormones. When we get our chicken, we ask for the head and feet which make for the best, most nourishing stock.

Speaking of food for the soul, Leo spent the weekend reading and pumpkin-patching. He enjoyed the reading nest I made for him on Sunday. Here he is "reading" on his own...so cute!

Yogurt-Making and Banana Bread-Baking

For the past three weeks, we have been making our own yogurt! This is something we'd been wanting to get back to for a while now, having started our yogurt-making journey a few years back in our previous apartment where the oven was always the perfect temperature for a batch of yogurt. Unfortunately, we don't get the same results with our current oven, so we decided to invest in a yogurt maker to regulate the temperature.

Leo's hand on the milk jar "my milk!"

Our ingredients are simple: farm-fresh raw milk (from a local family farm) and store-bought yogurt as the starter. Here are a couple of yogurt-making success tips we've learned: 1) Do not let the temperature of the milk and starter mixture get above 101 degrees because that is the temperature of the milk in the cow's body. 2) Different yogurt starters produce yogurt of varying degrees of sourness. For example, with Strauss yogurt as the starter, our homemade yogurt was more sour than it was when we used Saint Benoit.

Stirring the milk and yogurt starter

Warming the milk

The consistency of the yogurt is a bit of a surprise every time. When we made 95-degree yogurt, I thought it was too runny, while the 97-degree yogurt was thicker and creamier. To regulate the temperature, we had to add a couple of towels to the bottom of the yogurt maker as padding under the glass jars. This has been the best kind of science experiment because we get to eat the results. AND we know exactly what we're eating because we made it! Homemade food always tastes and feels the best.

Where does the banana bread come in, you are wondering...well, what goes better with yogurt than banana bread? We are a bit obsessed with a gluten-free recipe from this book. It calls for 3 cups of finely ground nuts as the flour and honey as the sweetener. We have been using walnuts and grinding them in our food processor. All I can say is YUM. This recipe is super easy, in fact dangerously easy. I made banana muffins for my office this past week and we just made a loaf for our neighbors down the street as a thank-you for all the awesome hand-me-downs they've passed to Leo. 

Oh, and the best part about the banana bread is that Leo loves it, so it's a relatively healthy treat that we can give him as part of his breakfast or as a dessert. His favorite food is most definitely yogurt but banana bread is an easy second.

A tale of red rice

I couldn't resist posting this photo of Leo enjoying red rice at a local Berkeley Mexican restaurant tonight. My parents tell stories of taking me out to Mexican restaurants in L.A. when I was a baby and putting me in the high chair with a pile of red rice on the tray. I wish I could say I remember the way the soft, fluffy rice felt as I squeezed it in my little hands, but sadly I don't remember. I only know these memories from my parents sharing them over the years. But I do know that I love Mexican red rice to this day. And even before I was pregnant with Leo, I dreamed of doing the same thing with my own child someday. Here we are...

Our Visit to the Berkeley Teahouse

Last weekend we had crisp chilly fall weather and we were getting stir-crazy inside so we decided to venture out to the Imperial Tea Court teahouse in Berkeley for some hot tea to warm our bodies. I love the tea presentation at this teahouse because you get to sip your tea in the classic Chinese way with the covered teacup.

Christopher chose an organic rooibos and I chose a jasmine tea. We shared both with Leo, who sipped the tea (once it had cooled to a lukewarm temp) out of his own tiny porcelain tasting cup. It was so sweet to watch him blow on the tea before taking a sip. We could tell that he very much liked being included in this outing and the tradition of sharing tea together. Here are some pics of our tea tasting...