The great baby food making begins. I loaded up le bebe and le hubby in the family carrier ("Brownie" the Tahoe) and we were off to Babies R Us in search of what I would need to begin this great adventure. After much discussion...should I get the mini food processor-esque thingy? No - we have a mini food processor and a full size (which I haven't used once, but I digress). Do I get the magic bullet thigy? Nope - looks like a mini blender - pointless as I have a blender that is LA BAMBA! Should I get the steamer thingy? Nope - why get that when you can steam things on the stove and in the microwave? I do have to say that the glitz and glam of these items did their work in confusing me and I get all "may be I SHOULD buy that! You know.....just in case???" That's why I brought le hubby - he says things like "Just in case what? The stove AND microwave magically stop working?" or he says his favorite term that he got from Alton Brown "We don't need a 'unitasker', babe". After picking up all of the boxes and asking "do I need this?" "What's the diff between this and this??" (and for those of you interested, I DO use the word "diff"), I finally settled on this gem Let me just tell you that this is chock full of good EASY information. It's not all confusing and it doesn't make my eyes cross like when I google "baby food recipes" or "what to feed baby" I have yet to demo the dvd, but I read the first part of the book. It seemed to sum up my other research and didn't go rogue on me about the order of foods recommended by the pediatrics association. Plus it comes with a handy dandy laminated food "tip" card. I'll be referring to this kit plenty as I go forward.
So I started it. Thank goodness for mommies because I needed mine to walk me through making applesauce. She makes applesauce all of the time and has had her own snaffus so she could help me avoid them on my first attempt and thus avoid giving up after the first attempt of making baby food. According to the book you just steam, mush and voila! applesause! Not so, people! Not.so! I mean - I guess it's that easy, but...it required a little more finesse!
First there is the big debate on what kind of apple to use. Braeburn? Fugi? Red Delicious? Granny Smith? Granny Smith was immediately out. Too tart. I imagined sticking a lemon into his mouth would get the same reaction as a Granny Smith. I wanted to go with Braeburn, but my mommy was in town and bought us some Red Delicious. Good nuff for me.
Next debate. To peel or not to peel? According to the wise great grandmother, it all gets blended up so it doesn't matter, but according to grandma (my mom), the peel adds a lot of fiber which can be hard on a little tummy, right? According to Daddy, the peel is where the vitamins are! According to my thoughts.... I change lots of diapers each day. No peel it is this time.
I cored and peeled 2 Red Delicious. Sidenote....I used this exciting apple corer tool (a unitasker as mentioned above). It was a total crock. It doesn't really work unless you have a perfect apple with a perfect core. It basically left me with like 1/3 of what I would have been left with had I NOT used said utensil. In the trash it went leaving me with that much more space in an already jammed up utensil drawer (1 of 2 I might add)
After I cored and peeled the apples, I quartered them - note that you can dice them, quarter them, whatever you want. It makes really no difference but in my now extreme knowledge of applesauce, I think it would probably cook a little more quickly if they were cut into eighths. Next, I put the apples in my pot on the stove - I used a small pot. I also have to say that I used the stove instead of the microwave option because I've decided that I'm a total fah-reak (as sissy calls it) show and I don't want radiation waves going into my kid's food. Totally fine with them in mine though! The book also "suggests" picking the either the stove or microwave method and sticking to either or so that it becomes easier as a routine. Whatever to that - I think it's easy to switch back and forth if you want, but that's because I'm SuperMommy.
Here's where the applesauce making becomes more of a science. You add just a little water. I didn't bother measuring out because MY mommy said just to add enough to cover the bottom of the pan. She also suggested that since I'm being a fah-reak (and she said it just like that and rolled her eyes, but not in a mean way - in a funny way)about everything, I shouldn't use tap water haha. I should use my Brita water. Good call Granny JoAnn. Good.Call. So what I did was pour enough apples to come up about 1/4" onto the bottom of the apples. You can leave the lid on or off. Doesn't matter. I put the stove on medium low. If it were numbered 1-10 on my dial, I'd venture to guess I would have been about at 3. We stood around and yukked it up, she holding a wooden spoon, and me wondering if it was too early to pour a glass of wine. Then about 5 minutes in, we peered over the edge of the pot and poked the spoon at the apples. At this point, the apples still had plenty of water in the pot with them.
"You have to remember" she tells me "the apples have a lot of water in themselves already, so that's why you don't want to add too much to begin with"
A few minutes later, we pushed at the apples again. According to the book, once they're soft enough to pierce with a fork, they're done. They're soft enough to do that, but Granny JoAnn says to wait longer. She's the expert. We look in about 2 minutes later and see the water is almost completely gone! So I pour enough in to cover the bottom of the pot again - not to cover the apples. Just a little for the bottom of the pot. We start pushing at the apples again. Almost trying to mush them up in the pot. I had to add a little more water once again, but they were almost mushy enough to remove. This is far mushier than just piercing with a fork, in case you all were wondering. In the mean time I have prepared the mini food processor - it's something similar to this Black & Decker
Once the apples were mushy, we put them in the food processor and added water to try and make it a smooth texture - like applesauce. But it wasn't cutting the mustard, people. We had to break out my la bamba blender. We scooped out what was in the mini food processor and put it in the blender. Took the top off and started streaming a slow, thin stream of water (from the Brita, of course). It did NOT take much water. I put the setting on "liquefy" and HOLY APPLESAUCE BATMAN! I DID IT!! It looked like honest to goodness applesauce! We made it a thinner in consistency than what you'd get out of a Mott's jar, but not soup-esque. Follow me? Dang it people! I didn't have time to take pictures (or may be I forgot), but cut SuperMommy some slack, would-ya!?!? I'll take pictures next time!
Next, we filled up one of those cute little ice cube trays and put the lid on. The next morning I had a helluva time getting the cubes out and without SuperDaddy around with his super muscles, I probably would have had to put the bottom of the tray in warm water or something, but SuperDaddy got the cubes out for us. Supposedly, each cube is 2 servings. I put them in a baggy, wrote on it "APPLESAUCE 5/31/2010" and put it back in the freezer.
I have since tried it my own self and I must say it's delish - I would (and will) make applesauce again for the whole SuperFamily. Le bebe likes it mixed in with his disgusting rice cereal. Meal time is nice and messy, but it makes it more fun that way, right?!
Stay tuned....I think I might get crazy and try squash next!
