Kitchen Dance Party

On Wednesday afternoon while Jesse was at the allergist getting a new year's worth of antihistamine (marriage drugs), Miles and I headed into the kitchen to prepare some food for the week. I decided to make a giant batch of bolognese and prepped some mashed pears and steamed peas for Miles. I feel pretty lucky that he's so into green things. Of course that may change, but for now I'm going to take full advantage of his non-discriminating taste buds.

This week we've been dealing with Miles' teething woes. Poor little guy is having a rough bout with those two suckers on the bottom that are bulging and aching, but just won't come out. I try to keep him distracted during the day, but have resorted to giving him a good dose of ibuprofen at night, because it's just too much. He was getting a little fussy while I was cooking, so I set my iPod on shuffle and cranked up the volume. Gwen Stefani was one of the first artists to pop up and Miles smiled and immediately started bobbing to the music. I'm pretty sure Jesse is pretty bummed about his love of such pop nonsense, but our little kitchen dance party did the trick until it was time for bedtime relief. I'm thinking Miles' afternoons with dad will definitely include soul music appreciation dance parties.

More Purple Food

We had an abundance of these purple beans from our CSA sitting in the refrigerator. Tonight I needed a quick vegetable (other than salad) and decided to saute them with a little butter and garlic as a side for the main course. They were pretty cool looking, purple on the outside, and bright green on the inside. I couldn't wait to test them out. Much to our disappointment though, they didn't stay purple. As soon as they started to cook, they turned green and looked just like any other bean. Luckily they were tasty and we had no trouble finishing them all. 

The main course was much more exciting. Jesse and I purchased a slow cooker a couple of weeks ago knowing that life with a baby just wouldn't allow us to spend hours in the kitchen tending the oven and stove. When I was coming up short on inspiration for what to cook (other than pulled pork), my good friend Lauren suggested I purchase the Gourmet Slow Cooker. I was pleasantly surprised when not a single recipe called for canned soup! 

I decided to delve into the Mexican section and prepared chicken in peanut chili sauce for dinner, which really turns out to be more like a mole. The recipes do require more prep time than the usual slow cooker concoctions that I've seen, which involve dumping cans of stuff and cooking the crap out of it. However, I browned the onions and garlic, blended the sauce, and prepped the chicken in the 30 minutes remaining on Miles' nap time. It cooked for about 3 hours on high and the chicken was perfect. We served it over a quinoa pilaf and sprinkled it with a bit of queso fresco. Paired with our hypercolor beans, I was really happy that dinner exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to try out the next recipe on my list, pork stew with tomatillo sauce.

I made quite a mess with the blender and sauce, so Miles and Jesse offered to help with the cleanup. What can I say, I'm one lucky gal.