Jottage from Lancaster - Pasta with New Potatoes, Green Beans and Pesto

Heather has been home with Tristan for a few days and so I began thinking about what we would have to eat a few days beforehand so that I would have all the necessary ingredients to hand to save us having to make any emergency supermarket trips. The list turned out to be a double column on A4 paper. For some reason I seemed to think that 12 fully-grown adults would be staying for a month instead of 1 adults + baby for 5 days. I did make some adjustments as I went round Booths following my list, but somehow still ended up with 4 tins full of various biscuits - which weren't on my list at all.

Having bought all this stuff I then had to remember which bits belonged to which recipes. One thing I did remember was that I had bought walnuts for a pesto. I'm not very keen on pine nuts, nor olive oil so pesto is one of those foods that I usually avoid. But Hugh suggests using walnuts as an alternative to pine nuts, and I always have rape seed oil to hand instead of olive oil. And I knew that Heather and Tristan loved pesto so it seemed worth a try. I chucked the ingredients into my blender and ended up with a lovely mush to which I carefully added the rapeseed oil to stop it being too oily. This somehow was very satisfying to make - not least because I had just decided to grow a few herbs on my windowsill and I had a new basil plant which would block the view if it wasn't checked.

One of the nice things about this recipe is that it is easy to make and seems quite a simple dish, but actually it's very satisfying. You have to cut the potatoes up into small sticks like chips so that they cook at the same time as the pasta, then you throw in the green beans, mix in the pesto and that's it but for a sprinkle of parmesan. 

I made up the pesto full quantities but used less of the pasta, potatoes and green beans as there were only 3 of us, but Tristan had the pesto on some macaroni the following night and there's a little bit left for me for lunch today. Considering how cheap it was to make anyway, it has done us well over the past few days. Definitely a recipe to return to.

Jottage from Lancaster - Tupperware Mexican Chorizo

I am surprised, amazed even, that I haven't written a blog about this before as I'm sure this was one of the first recipes I cooked from River Cottage Everyday - it's probably one I have made the most often. I have made it up for guests coming as well as just a weeknight tea and it was the recipe that introduced me to smoked paprika. It's so very versatile and easy to make. I would say that you can't really go wrong - but I nearly always do as I forget that 1 tablespoon of smoked paprika makes it far too hot to eat. A couple of times I have had to add extra meat - a LOT of extra meat - to make it edible. 


Hugh does tell you to break a bit off and cook it so that you can taste it as you go along so that you can add more seasoning if you need to - but he doesn't say how to adjust for LESS. This time I used just a teaspoon of the hot stuff and cooked a marble-sized piece which I have just eaten and established that the seasoning is just about right. 

Meatballs gently frying

Tin of tomatoes for the sauce

Pasta simmering

I am going to make meatballs with half the quantity and we will have that with pasta tonight using a tin of tomatoes reduced for the sauce, then I will make some pizza dough tomorrow morning and we will have the rest tomorrow night on home made pizzas.

The finished meal

Easy, tasty, cheap, and with enough leftovers for another meal!

Jottage from Cambridge - Polenta and How Much Does it Cost to Feed a Baby?

I have managed to get through the first thirty-four years of my life without using polenta, or indeed knowing what it is. Yet when I typed ‘polenta’ into the recipe finder on Epicurious, 173 recipes were returned, including a dazzling array of cheesecakes, stews and lasagnes. Thanks to Hugh I now have a large packet of the bright yellow stuff sitting in my cupboard, having used it to make the polenta chips (Baby & Toddler Cookbook) for Tristan. Polenta is ever such a funny thing. Made from yellow cornmeal it quickly thickens up into a grainy paste if you add a splash of water. I don’t find the taste particularly pleasant, and most of Tristan’s chips ended up on the floor – though the quantity of leftovers is by no means a measure of how much Tristan likes or dislikes something. More about that later.


Polenta is considered ‘peasant food’; perhaps less so now though as again I had to go to Arjuna to get a packet as it wasn’t stocked in the supermarket. It’s pretty cheap though (see photo) which leads me on to the next section of this post about the cost of feeding a baby.

All you really need in the first week of weaning is a carrot and a packet of baby rice (£1.64). In the next week you might introduce apples and pears, but the baby isn’t really going to eat anything which might break the bank. Within a couple of months though, when the baby is on three meals a day, the costs start rising and tins of sardines and mackerel, as well as unsalted butter, whole milk and yogurt (I have just acquired a yogurt maker – more on this coming soon), quickly become staples. However, although there are a few more packets in our larder (along with polenta, we now always have  Weetabix, porridge, baby pasta, and peanut butter, as well as the above), Tristan generally eats our leftovers. This, of course, saves time and money and means that I only really need to think about what to give him on toast for lunch as the other meals are covered. However, what if I had succumbed to all the brightly coloured pots and pouches which even the dinkiest Tesco and Sainsbury’s stock? Even Annabel Karmel who, judging from her Complete Baby & Toddler Meal Planner appears to encourage home cooking, has her own range of baby meals at £2.29 a pop. Heinz probably rule the school though with a range strangely called ‘Mums Own’, even though all Mum has done is open up her purse and gotten a few Clubcard points.  So imagine a typical day as below:


Breakfast: Heinz Mum's Own Recipe, Apple & Banana Breakfast 128g = 65p
Lunch: Heinz Mum's Own Recipe, Cheesy Tomato Pasta Stars 200g = 62p
Dinner: Heinz Mum's Own Recipe Vegetable Hot Pot with Chicken 250g = 84p + Heinz Egg Custard Dessert, 128g = £0.42
Total: £2.53


So each week you could be spending nearly £18 on baby food. (n.b. Sainsbury’s prices in November 2011)


Now, I don’t know anyone who actually feeds their little ones Heinz pots for every meal, but I bet some do. If you choose to be organic and buy the Ella’s Kitchen range or anything branded Plum you would be even poorer - in some stores each pouch costs £1 or more. These meals do serve a purpose though and, when you’re out and about, it’s really handy having a nutritious meal on hand (I know one baby who will only eat Hipp Porridge though which must be quite frustrating!) and I did have a variety of Ella’s Kitchen meals when we holidayed in Cornwall. In fact, in these days of baby-led, there’s a bit of a fear of being judged with a baby ready meal. In the café at Cambridge’s Botanical Gardens last weekend I had a box packed with peanut butter on toast cut into fingers, a banana and a pouch. I noticed the woman sitting across from us was trying to give her little girl of approximately the same age a few pieces of bread, and slices of cucumber. She also had spoons filled with some concoction laid out on the table for her daughter to pick up and put in her mouth. As Tristan didn’t seem to have eaten many of his peanut buttered fingers and the café floor was looking worse for wear, I contemplated opening my pouch of Ella’s Kitchen butternut squash, carrots, apples and prunes, but feared disapproving looks. I enviously looked at the other woman, though her daughter wasn’t making progress either and, as I was leaving, I noticed her getting out a little pot of Heinz baby food from her bag! That made me feel much better. So not only, in these austere times, can people still afford expensive baby food, but it also seems that many people are willing to follow Rapley up to a point and then succumb to puree which, if it comes from a pouch, has the texture and gloss of Pantene Pro-V, though hopefully tastes nicer.

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.