Bye-bye Alma. We will miss you!

Kinnard Family Reunion many many years ago., originally uploaded by chloe & mark nightingale.

My awesome grammie died. She had 7 kids and was a domestic and crafting goddess. Rumour has it, she made EVERY SINGLE RECIPE in the Joy of Cooking cookbook.

Stop it.

Stop it.
Originally uploaded by chloe & mark nightingale

towards the end of a long day

towards the end of a long day, originally uploaded by chloe & mark nightingale.

Bert woke up in the middle of the night last night, so I let him sleep with me and this morning, I could tell he was awake, but I was tired and was pretending to still be asleep in case he decided to have mercy on me and fall back asleep, too. He didn't, but he crawled on top of me and gave me a big wet open-mouthed kiss. It was so sweet, I could have cried. It absolutely made my morning. I really love that kid.

Bert's food diary...

smile, originally uploaded by chloe & mark nightingale.

I've typed up some of Bert's food diary. Basically, I let him eat as much or as little as he wants and don't force him to eat anything he doesn't like. He is not a picky eater at all and he usually eats a ton. On top of this, I give him diluted apple juice and breastfeed him 2-3 times a day. I like to try to give him a protein, a grain, and fruit or veg at every meal. Certain grains like millet, buckwheat, and quinoa, are actually seeds, so they have a lot of protein & amino acids in them already.
Have a butcher's:

9 May
parsley-hummous
2 wild garlic pancakes, blackberry pancake
tofu
broccoli-buckwheat
banana
tropical porridge
1-1/2 rich tea biscuits (my husband Mark likes to share biscuits with him -- it is probably the only "naughty" food I let him have)

10 May
avocado, shallot, and nutritional yeast flakes sandwich on w/w bread
broccoli-buckwheat
1/2 digestive biscuit
1/2 small potato
banana
rye bread
a few spoonfuls of my organic puffed brown rice (cereal) and soymilk

11 May
tropical porridge
banana
beetroot-potato-tofu-shallot salad (w/ flaxseed oil)
1/2 digestive biscuit
rice

12 May
banana
miso soup w/ rice
rice w/ tomato sauce
toasted rye w/ margarine (I use Sunflower Pure -- it's not hydrogenated) and treacle
nibble of malt loaf
spicy garbanzos (chick peas) w/ onion, wild garlic greens, carrot, & w/w couscous
1-1/2 digestive biscuits
rye bread

13 May
1-1/2 bananas
wild garlic & walnut pesto w/ nutritional yeast flakes on rye
cucumber with a dab of olive oil
broccoli hot pot
toasted rye w/ marg and treacle
a wee bit more broccoli hot pot w/ tomato sauce
a few spoonfuls of my organic puffed brown rice (cereal) and soymilk
1/2 digestive biscuit
oatmeal & raisins

14 May
kiwi fruit
banana
w/w (whole wheat) couscous & tomato sauce
broccoli hot pot
soy yoghurt
w/w pasta w/ spinach, shallot, garlic, olive oil, and wild garlic & walnut pesto

16 May
1-1/2 bananas
(a TON of) tropical porridge and flaxseed oil
(a TON of) spicy rice, curried dahl (red lentils) with tomatoes, onion, and olive oil
digestive biscuit

24 May
banana
rice & tomato dahl cury
sweet potato
potato-pea-pesto mash

26 May
pea-potato mash
tofu (Bert is wild about tofu, so I give cubes of it to him as a snack)
rye bread w/ marg and treacle
broccoli-tomato rice
apricot-peach-apple sauce
soya yoghurt

27 May
rye bread w/ marg
broccoli-tomato rice
tofu and brussel sprouts
baked beans
pear

28 May
oatmeal-w/w bread
banana
tofu
curried potatoes
miso soup w/ rice and wakame seaweed
spicy okra in tomato sauce
pear
oatcake

29 May
banana
mini whole wheat date scone (I made healthy scones for his birthday)
tofu
oatmeal-w/w bread
spice soup (chili, tomato, onion, carrot, celery, courgette -- more of a thick stew, really)
rice

30 May (his first birthday)
pear
banana
blueberries & soya yoghurt
2 mini w/w scones
spice soup and rice
tofu
gazpacho soup (thick -- like the way they do it in Seville) with w/w bread

31 May
mini w/w scone
2 bananas
blueberries
gazpacho soup with w/w bread
w/w toast & all-fruit raspberry jam (unsweetened/no sugar or sweeteners)
tofu

1 June
mini w/w scone
tofu
banana
avocado hummous (mmm!)
gazpacho soup & w/w bread
cucumber
smoothie (banana-blueberry-tofu-soya yoghurt)
pear
small potato

2 June
avocado hummous on w/w bread
2 wee potatoes
1-1/2 bananas
more avocado hummous
stewed okra & tomatoes
apricot-peach-apple sauce
organic brown puffed rice & a dab of soya milk

3 June
avocado hummous & nutritional yeast flakes on w/w bread
banana
borscht veggies (beet carrot, celery, onion) w/ olive oil, dill, and black pepper
organic brown puffed rice & soya milk
rice & tomato sauce
pear

5 June
avocado hummous on w/w bread
banana
beet & potato salad (w/ cider vinegar, olive oil, and ground coriander) <--this is a northern African recipe I recently discovered
broccoli-rice with a smidge of tomato sauce
tofu

7 June
quinoa with tomatoes, carrot, mushroom, celery, cabbage, and onion
w/w toast with all-fruit jam
w/w toast with marg and marmite
sweet potato
banana
garlic-ginger-chili millet with shallots and cilantro (fresh coriander)
roasted beets with olive oil, lemon, shallot, rosemary, garlic, and black pepper
tofu
digestive biscuit

10 June
w/w toast with all-fruit jam
w/w toast with marg and marmite
banana
tofu
broccoli-rice with a dab of tomato sauce
smoothie (banana, soya yoghurt, kiwi, mixed frozen berries)
digestive biscuit

11 June
w/w toast with all-fruit jam
w/w toast with marg and marmite
banana
tofu
broccoli-rice with a dab of curried dahl
Aloo Bhajia (curried fried potatoes)
smoothie (banana, soya yoghurt, kiwi, mixed frozen berries)

say what?

say what?, originally uploaded by chloe & mark nightingale.

Happy first birthday, Bert!

shameless

shameless, originally uploaded by chloe & mark nightingale.

Yes, that's a pantiliner in Bert's mouth. He loves them.

Anyway, the other day, I went out and picked wild garlic and stinging nettle tips. I got about a carrier bag of each of them. I've made wild garlic and walnut pesto, nettle soup, nettle and wild garlic soup, pasta with wild garlic and mushrooms, and wild garlic pancakes.

Stinging nettle tastes like spinach, although a little more metallic (possibly due to it's high mineral content?). Wild garlic greens taste like green onion crossed with chives crossed with garlic crossed with onion. So, oniony, in a green way. The bulbs, which are so small, I didn't bother to pick many, taste like green onions crossed with garlic. Or maybe chivey.

All the food tastes pretty fantastic, except for the nettle soup, which was rather plain. I had a couple of the pancakes with margarine, but most of them were eaten in soup. I just learned about pancake soup. It's a German-thing and it is a very tasty German thing.

I am all out of nettles, but I froze a whole medium-sized ziplock bag crammed full of wild garlic and I still have about a handful of fresh ones leftover for something tomorrow. Fried with rice, perhaps?

I am going to eat more nettle-wild garlic soup now. OM NOM NOM.

Hot Potato

My iBook hard drive died. I was in the middle of updating Galvanic Mag. Seriously! Anyway, I bought an iMac refurb. It was supposed to arrive on or before today, but I looked at the tracking and now it says it's supposed to arrive tomorrow, subject to change. I'll work on the new Galvanic Mag once it arrives and I get all settled in with it. In the meantime, I was reading my middle school diary and found this gem:

We played
hot potato
I won a box
of
cracker Jacks
hot
Potato
is so
Stressful