Hummus for Babies (That Parental Types Might Sneak a Few Bites of Too)

Rachel here.

So, we've got an eater on our hands. I mean, M has been eating since day 1, obviously, but something has changed recently. The kid wants food, like the mama and dada kind, and her patience for being spoon fed just any old jar of baby food is disappearing before our eyes (unlike a good number of her jars of said baby food). I have been slow to get on board with this new development, clinging a little bit to the simpler mealtimes of picking a vegetable and a fruit, maybe mashing it in with some tofu, and watching her gobble until she turns her head away, full. John has been quick to meet her burgeoning interest in new foods, offering her little tastes of most things he eats and giggling with delight as she nods her head in affirmation of deliciousness.

So, in short, these are the days of beans (This was obviously where I was headed, right? No? Well, keep reading). Using her very refined pinching skills, M has been enjoying black beans. A little while back she was eating her beans and I was eating mine in hummus form on carrots when she started reaching towards my lunch and grunting. If I've learned anything in the last 10 months (holy crap! ten months? TEN MONTHS!) it's to selectively resist my grunting child, saving said resistance for dangers and, in the process, my sanity (she will grunt diligently until satisfied). So I dipped a carrot in the hummus and offered it to her, only to watch her eyes grow wide while she slobbered the stuff off before demanding more while nodding fiercely in testimony to the awesomeness of hummus. I gave her a few more licks and then returned the hummus to the fridge, noting its saltiness. While we're all for flavor when it comes to M's meals, we are also interested in holding off on the salt. Cumin is good, salt is to be staved off as long as possible for its health detriments from where we're sitting. Anyway, as I closed the refrigerator door I vowed to try my hand at making M some hummus of her own, filled with all of the yumminess but none of the salt.

Fast forward to this weekend and I can proudly declare victory. Oozing with raw garlic and lemon, tahini and cumin M devoured my homemade hummus today at lunch. She then took the tub (ok, I let her have it) and dumped the rest of the batch on the floor. In terms of a 10 month old's valuation system, I consider this a raging success. She liked it so much she wanted to eat and play with it and that's about as big a compliment a mama can get.

Hummus
2-3 cloves garlic
25 oz. garbanzo beans (If using canned, buy without salt and rinse thoroughly. If cooking your own, cook well.)
Tahini
1 tspn cumin
1 large lemon

method
In food processor fitted with steel blade, mince garlic until very fine. You may need to scrape the sides and give the blade a few more spins. Add the garbanzo beans, all of the tahini (I bought some made at our local and fabulous grocery store, but no matter where you got it from add it all), the cumin and the juice from the lemon. Run food processor until all is smooth. Voila!

If you wanted to make this for adults, which I did with part of mine after removing most for M, add another 1/2 tspn cumin, 1 tspn onion powder, salt to taste, a drizzle of olive oil and then water to thin for dippability. The part I reserved for M I left thick so I could roll it into balls that would withstand her pinching fingers. Both versions are pretty darn yummy.

Meatless Mondays: Couscous and Tofu Salad

Rachel here: Quality and quantity are where it's at these days in our house. As we emerge from the shadows of new parenthood (ok, as we try to...), one of our focuses is on eating better. As I told my brother S in my bon voyage post to him as he prepared to leave for college, eating well--for me!--really facilitates taking care of myself in general. We also aim to be realistic, though, and know that there are definitely days in each week where either the energy to cook or the time (M reserves the right to demand to be held at any moment) might fail to manifest. This is where today's post comes in: a big, healthy salad that we ate for several days, thereby satisfying both the quality and the quantity requirements.

ingredients
1/2 c. couscous (before cooking)
12 oz. extra firm tofu
1/4+ tspn. kosher salt
1 small lemon
olive oil
soy sauce
1 small white onion
1 ear corn
2/3 of a large carrot
1/2 large heirloom tomato

method
Crumble tofu and marinate in 1/4 tspn. kosher salt, the juice from the lemon, and a few dashes of soy sauce and olive oil. Saute until crisp and let cool. Chop the onion into large pieces and saute until browned and sweet. Cool. In a large bowl, combine the couscous, tofu, onion, corn, carrot (I shred mine) and chopped up tomato. Add salt and pepper as needed to adjust the flavor. When I served it I added avocado, but the salad is good without it. If you're going to serve it with avocado, don't add it until right before serving so that it doesn't brown. Enjoy!

Cookie Craze

Janet here: A cake can sit on my counter for a month and I can walk by it untempted. Put homemade cookies on the same counter, and I suddenly find reasons to walk into that room and oops, a cookie is in my mouth before you can say "chocolate chips." Simply put, homemade cookies are my downfall.

They're also my go-to activity for pick-me-ups. Rainy, disgustingly gross day? Bake a batch of cookies. Feeling as if the family is a little at odds? Bake a batch of cookies. Blizzard outside and the house is feeling cozy? Bake a batch of cookies. As far as I am concerned there is little that a batch of homemade cookies can't fix.

When Rachel and I discussed baking cookies for this week's blog, we decided to make a cookie we'd never made before. I decided I would NOT make something with chocolate, despite every fiber in my body suggesting otherwise. (A day without chocolate is, in my opinion, a day wasted.) I also went to a cookbook I've never used. I bought Mrs. Fields' Cookie cookbook after I worked in a mall selling clothes. I had just gone back to work and we didn't have enough money for childcare so I sold clothes three days a week so I could spend the fourth day working on my freelance writing career. It was a mindless gig with some fun women, made all the better by my daily visit to the Mrs. Fields shop for a warm cookie. While not chocolate, I will say these cookies are pretty damn tasty. What's your go-to baking activity when you're feeling down? Let us know ... while enjoying a homemade cookie of course.

Creamy Lemon Macadamia Cookies
makes 2 1/2 dozen

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 large egg
2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 1/2 cups (7 oz.) whole macadamia nuts

Method

Heat oven to 300 degrees
In a medium bowl combine flour, soda and salt. Mix well with wire whisk and set aside.
In a large bowl, blend the sugars well with an electric mixer at medium spped. Add the butter and cream cheese and mix to form a smooth paste. Add the egg and lemon extract and beat at medium speed until fully combined. Add the flour mixture and macadamia nuts. Mix until combined. Do not overmix.
Drop onto the cookie sheets. Bake 18-20 minutes. Immediately transfer to a cool flat surface. Try not to eat six in a row.

Rachel here: So, for my attempt at a cookie I had never baked before, I went with something embarrassingly simple: sugar cookies. The shame is in no way connected to baking something simple (simple can be so wonderfully perfect), but rather that when I finished baking these cookies I realized that, in fact, I HAD tried to make these cookies before and, as was the case with this time, I am yet to turn out sugar cookies that are just right. Argh! The first time I used this recipe was a few years back during a holiday baking crunch when I was looking for a quick cookie recipe to bulk up my cookie reserve. Instead of vanilla I threw in blue food coloring. OOPS! The cookies came out too thin and umm...too blue. This time, I opted to try to the lime zest variation (since I'm pregnant and this has left me craving any and everything citrus). Again, though, my cookies came out too thin. I am officially at a loss. Has anybody else had this problem with sugar cookies? If you have, I would desperately love to hear from you with any tips for avoiding this problem in the future. Anyway, though a bit on the thin side, I have dutifully sampled and would still recommend this recipe (taken from my culinary bff, The Best Recipe), particularly if you plan on decorating your cookies (because then their thinness might work to your advantage in that you'll have more room for your frosting artistry). Anyway, seriously, leave feedback if you've encountered my sugar cookie dilemma or with any insights into avoiding it on my next attempt. In the meantime, enjoy!

Ingredients
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tspn. baking powder
1/2 tspn. salt
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup for rolling cookies
1 large egg (Just as an aside, I recently read that extra large eggs are painful for chickens to lay and so, beyond the fact that most recipes call for a large egg, this cemented my commitment to not buying extra large eggs. Though an animal eater, I am one with a conscience.)
2 tspn. vanilla extract
2+ tspn. lime zest

Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees with racks on the lower and upper-middle levels. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside. Cream butter and 1 c. of sugar until fluffy. Scrape down sides (if using an electric mixer) and add egg, 1 tspn. lime zest and vanilla. Mix until combined. Add dry ingredients and beat until just combined.
Combine remaining 1/4 c. of sugar with remaining 1 tspn. of lime zest. In your food processor, process until sugar turns green and zest is evenly distributed. No food processor? Bummer. I would try a fork to combine these ingredients, again aiming for green sugar. Roll 1 1/2 inch balls in the sugar mixture and place on baking sheet.
Butter the bottom of a drinking glass with a flat bottom that is roughly 2 inches across. Dip in leftover sugar before pressing down on each ball of dough until about 1/2 inch thick and 1 3/4 inches across. Dip glass into sugar as needed (every few cookies).
Bake, reversing positions after 5 or 6 minutes (about half-way through cooking). When edges are pale golden (after about 10-11 minutes) remove from oven and cool on tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to complete cooling.