Jottage from Cambridge - Corner Shop Spanakopitta

Mixing the spinach, onion,
lemon and egg

It was hard to resist making something called ‘Spanakopitta’ even though I wasn’t wholly convinced that I was going to like it. Although I love spinach a dish containing a whole kilogram of the stuff seemed a bit excessive. Anyway as my mother wrote in her last blog Hugh rarely disappoints, and I’ve found over the last few weeks that what I would have dismissed straightaway suddenly seems quite tempting. It’s a truism I think that the more you cook the more appetite you have for cooking and, what would have looked like an alien recipe with ‘they surely won’t sell that in Sainsbury’s ingredients’, seems like a dish that can be knocked up between the end of Tristan’s dinner and the beginning of the game show that I’ve become strangely addicted to, ‘Pointless’. 

Adding the feta and pine nut

The Spanakopitta took about 30 minutes to put together – I am in total agreement with my mother about the amount of washing up that that Hugh’s meals require though and I’m sure it took at least the same amount of time to get my kitchen ship-shape again. It was a satisfying thing to make. I plonked Tristan in the high chair so that he could watch the spinach wilt on the stove, the pine-nuts toast under the grill and the onion gently sauté with the fresh thyme that competes for sunlight with the basil and hyacinths on my windowsill. I put it in the fridge and cooked it later on that evening so that my husband could enjoy a meal straight from the oven: he generally has to warm up his meals in the microwave as I’ve eaten a couple of hours earlier. It was a total success, though Theo thought that it could have done with more feta. We have more filling left over than pastry so I’ve decided to make little pasties with the remainder of the spinach concoction. Unfortunately the pie was a bit too salty to share with Tristan, but we’re planning on making the lamb with lemon and barley this weekend (Everyday book p.220) which I am certain he is going to love. 

The End Result

     

Jottage from Cambridge - Soggy Weetabix or How to Start Weaning

The word ‘weaning’ in the context of babies is incredibly annoying. It seems to imply that they’re coming off something, so you could easily assume that, sometime between four and six months, you should stop feeding them milk, and exclusively offer solid food. Nothing could be further from the truth. Milk remains the most important source of

nourishment for babies until they’re at least a year old, and probably even beyond. So, when Tristan was five months old and I decided to start weaning I didn’t confine my feeding bras to the back of the wardrobe, but rather thought more carefully about the best time to
give Tristan milk feeds so that he was hungry enough to eat three meals a day too.
If you haven’t waited until the baby is six months old then you’re bound to start them off on baby rice and pureed carrot or, if you’re feeling really adventurous, both mixed together. There was quite a build-up of excitement to giving Tristan his first meal, and my husband and I both eagerly awaited his reaction as we launched the
Tommy Tippee spoon into his mouth. When I put the first spoonful of carrot in his mouth he gave me a terrified look, certain that this orange coloured mush was going to poison him. However, somehow the second spoonful wasn’t quite as bad as the first, and an ice cube sized portion of carrot was demolished within a few minutes. Of course the same meal took much longer the next day, but that’s just how weaning goes. Some days your baby’s inner Popeye comes out and he can’t get enough spinach, and then you’re worried that he’ll only ever eat mangos which are a particular shade of yellow. 

Overall my experience has been very positive though and Tristan, so long as he’s not too tired (note that overtiredness is the reason why most babies start yelling and arching their backs at the first sight of a spoon) eats pretty much everything, with the exception of lentils which, quite understandably, he absolutely loathes. The ice cube trays so beloved of Karmel and co. have now been replaced with little pots
(note that all the mummys in the know get their Tupperware from Poundland), and generally Tristan eats good sized portions. Within a few days I had moved on from carrots to butternut squash soup (with
extra cumin to give it a nice warm flavour), and really any combination of the following: spinach, potato, sweet corn, courgettes, baked beans, peas, and peppers, mixed up with meat or fish. So, now at
just over seven months, a typical day looks like the following:
7am: milk
8am Breakfast: Bowl of porridge mixed with grated apple or mashed up
banana, or Weetabix with milk. For us breakfast is always the easiest
meal, mainly because Tristan adores porridge. Weetabix, which I used
to dread having to eat as a child, I now consider one of the greatest
inventions of the last century.
10am: milk
11.30 Lunch: I generally do baby-led at lunchtime which is usually
something on toast, such as cheese and apple, (see Baby & Toddler
Cookbook p.175) sardines, cream cheese or baked beans. Unless you
weigh the food before and after your baby has spent time with it
(Hugh’s advice is that meals should last no longer than half an hour
which I think is just about right) it’s impossible to know how much
they’ve eaten, and indeed it’s incredible where you find half-eaten
bits of bread. Therefore I often give Tristan banana mixed with
full-fat natural or Greek yogurt afterwards just to make sure that
he’s eaten enough.
4pm milk
5pm Teatime:  I used to make a special meal for Tristan, but now I try
and give him the leftovers of whatever my husband and I have eaten the
night before. The only real no-no for babies (besides honey which is
the latest fad thing to avoid as it’s been associated with botulism,
and certain types of fish which contain lots of mercury) is salt
(sugar too isn’t allowed). Low-salt stock cubes are the answer (I
apologise Hugh but, however much time I might have to spare, I will
never bring myself to make my own stock), and unsalted butter. So
Tristan happily eats minced beef, risotto and any kind of meat stew
for his dinner. If the latter is a bit watery, which it often is after
a spell in the freezer, I add baby rice or baby pasta to thicken it
up.
7pm milk

Despite eating all this food and, since you’re no doubt wondering, I’ll tell you that Tristan still doesn’t sleep through the night, but demands a couple of night feeds, usually around 11pm and 3am. However,
although I moan all the time about the fact that my baby still isn’t sleeping through, there is something quite nice about touching base with Tristan during the night. We snuggle up together while everyone else is sleeping and think about all the lovely things we’re going to eat in the days ahead.