When one pays five dollars for a piece of fruit, one can be excused for having some rather high expectations, right? But I knew that things weren’t necessarily going to go well when the cashier couldn’t identify said fruit and spent five minutes paging through what appeared to be a 2-inch-thick Fruit and Veg picture dictionary.
I trundled my prickly little piece of goodness home and plunked it in my decorative fruit bowl, in an attempt to my kitchen look like a Gourmet magazine photo shoot and give the apples an inferiority complex. After a few days of admiring my horned melon, I finally worked up the nerve to slice into it and have a nibble.
Findings? A loud and resounding ‘meh.’
Imagine a cross between a cucumber and a deeply mediocre kiwi fruit. Refreshing, pulpy, seedy and slightly sour. Sure, it’s looks like the Bjork of the produce aisle but it tastes more like Sarah McLachlan. Or at least what I imagine her fruit counterpart would taste like.
For five stinking dollars I want mouth-gasms! I want previously untasted flavors! I want something that doesn’t taste like a cucumber dressed in lemon juice!
Fruit that is worth five dollars you say?
Kumquats
A million dollars? Yes. But they’re like little tiny grape oranges! This is how you eat them: dipped in dark chocolate ganache (read: chocolate chips that you melt with evaporated milk). Eat them whole, skins and seeds and all. Soooo goood.
Lychees
Okay, these are just kind of good. They have the texture of olives and somehow manage to taste like canned fruit despite being fresh. However! They’re gorgeous and fun to pick apart. Put a big bowl of them on the patio table and pick at them with your girlfriends while drinking wine.
Jackfruit
I became addicted to jackfruit while backpacking through Thailand. Despite looking like a flower, it tastes like bubble gum. Truly! If Willy Wonka invented a fruit, this would be it.
Passion fruit
Would you judge me if I told you that passion fruit is best consumed with a bit of sugar and a shot of vodka? Like, cut open the hard outer shell, stir the pulp to loosen it from the sides, add a teaspoon of sugar and a shot of vodka and glug the mixture right out of the shell? Yum!
Or I guess you could add it to yogurt or top ice cream with it. If you’re into that.
Other fruit that is not worth five dollars? (in my humble opinion) * (smells like stale vomit) * s (hard, white, big seeds) * (you bore me) * (so pretty! so exotic! so bland!)
Have you ever tried a horned melon? What strange fruit or vegetables do you like?
One of my favorite things about traveling (or, umm, life in general) is stuffing my greedy little face with new delicious things. , so my international gastronomic experiments are usually a bit limited, but can we talk about some of the best ones? Good, I thought so.
Brazil: Branquinhos I’m prrrreeeettty sure ‘branquinho’ translates to «tiny white.» Well, either that or «ball of mellow, melty goodness.» I have fond memories of standing in a tiny Brazilian kitchen, rolling these into balls with my curly-haired host sisters.
I can’t find a recipe online but I suspect it goes like this «Mix together some sweetened condensed milk and butter. Cook. Drop spoonful of goopy delicious goodness into some sugar and roll into a ball. Promptly eat seven and make yourself sick while watching South American soap operas»
Vietnam: Bun Chay The first time I ate this was in Hue, Vietnam when my friend and wandered off the proverbial beaten path and into a broken down bar along We sat in plastic chairs in the shade, drank frighteningly strong coffee and nibbled on this: a fantastic salad of cold rice noodles, bean sprouts, pickled jicama and carrots, peanut sauce and fried tofu.
My mouth is filling with saliva as I write that. Yuuummmmmmdroooollll. if you’re keen to play along at home. Or, if you live in the Twin Cities, hit up for the best Vietnamese this side of the Mekong.
New Zealand: Pavlova Light, sweet, kind of a pain to make. But who cares? I will very happily whip egg whites till my arm falls plum off if it means eating a slice of New Zealand’s national dessert topped with whip cream and some passion fruit. Or some deliciously under ripe kiwis. Or strawberries. You can try your hand it at, .
Taiwan: Stinky Tofu When I first smelled the Stinky Tofu vendor outside of my apartment in Chung Li, I was fairly sure that a sewer had overflowed. Or that a dead body was about to be discovered. Or a dead body was about to be discovered in an overflowing sewer.
However! As bad as it smells, that’s as good as it tastes. Fact. Don’t let that . I used to buy a carton of these fried tofu cubes topped with sri racha and pickled vegetables from a street vendor every day for dinner. That is, until my students started pointedly asking me what I’d been eating. Awkward.
If you’re feeling adventurous, here’s that you can make yourself!
Taiwan: Dan Bing
It’s only a matter of time till someone starts selling these amazing crepe/onion/egg/burrito hybrids and becomes a millionaire overnight. Imagine at an onion laced burrito (made with rice flour), a thin layer of scrambled egg, your choice of bacon, cheese or onions and an unidentified brown sauce.
And now imagine that they cook it in front of you in 30 seconds and you can buy two, plus a latte for $1.50. And then you can eat it on your Hello Kitty scooter. Awesome, right? tells you how.
Brazil: Pao de Queijo
When I was teaching in Brazil, my daily walk to work passed by the world’s most adorable bakery. Coffee and warm, cheesy, carb-y goodness became part of my daily routine. Finish class, eat three pao de queijo, sit on the balcony overlooking the park, drink a coffee that would keep me up long enough to make calls home late into the night. Lovely!
I can’t wait to try to make my own with .
Greece: Greek Yogurt I’m still not sure how I was able to leave Greece under my own leg power. I rather expected that someone would have to roll me over the border. So much amazing food around every corner. ! Various ! Ouzo! 8 million different cheeses! My travel journal from my month in Greece mostly consists of detailed analysis of my meals. Well, that and my increasingly awesome tan.
Greek Yogurt makes an amazing breakfast – and obviously no recipe required (Greek yogurt + fruit + honey + walnuts). For a long time I felt like it was too decedent for weekday breakfasting, but lately? I’ve been feeling decadent.
New Zealand: Avocado Toast I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I have had four pieces of avocado toast already today. It’s 3:22 pm as I’m typing this. Maybe this gives you an insight into the depth of my obsession with avo toast. Again, no recipe – just really good toast, plus mashed avocado (usually one fourth of an avocado per slice of bread) and a bit of salt.
Of course, avocado is most perfectly paired with The Best Bread In The World, NZ’s own . But, if you’re stateside, is a semi-decent stand in. So. good.
Despite only turning 1 yesterday, Cameron has been in full on toddler mode for the past 2 weeks. She has been constantly doing the following things: Read the rest of this entry »
I’m thinking about having my first blog giveaway… but I haven’t decided WHAT I will be giving away.We’ll just call it a surprise!Just rest assured… it will be cool, and handmade. If you want to enter, leave a comment here, and leave a comment on the Teresa Collins Design BlogOne entry for posting here… and one entry for posting there. Have fun. Enjoy..Entry ends Monday the 29th 5pm MT.
DH and I took yesterday off from work because his sister is in town to help us with some landscaping work/garden clean up. I managed to negotiate him dropping Cameron off in the morning so I could sleep in. We have these new curtains in our room and roller shades (instead of those crappy white blinds) and the room is pitch black even in the sunniest of mornings. Boy, is it hard to get up when the entire room is shrouded in darkness!
Because we hung out at a neighbor’s house the evening before normal chores, like putting together and labeling Cameron’s daycare bottles, didn’t get done. DH packed Cameron off and whisked her to daycare, only to find that no bottles were in her bag. I had actually thought about that but didn’t mention it to DH when he got up. Rolling over and snuggling into my pillow was a much better idea. Plus, he’s a pro so he wouldn’t forget, right? Obviously wrong….
I have been toying with the idea of phasing out bottles for Cameron. My plan was to eliminate the 11 AM this week and the 3 PM one next week. Guess what? We went cold turkey instead. I took it as a sign from above and didn’t bother to zip over with the bottles. Instead her teachers would feed her from a sippy cup and my hope is that eventually we can just phase the 50/50 formula/milk split to 100% milk and then just have sippy cups for snacks and meals.
Cameron will be 12 months next week (I know!) so the timing seemed good. I have a feeling I’ll leave the AM/PM bottles for a while longer until she is completely comfortable with all types of finger foods. How about the rest of you? How have you or do you plan to phase out bottles?
We really are in a wonderful stage so don’t let the title of this post fool you! But like all parents, nothing is ever perfect. First of all, diarrhea was the name of the game with the antibiotic she has been on for the double ear infection. What did that result in? A truly terrible case of diaper rash. Cameron has had very slight cases over the last 10 months but this….this defies words. It it everywhere. And it’s not just red, it is truly a rash with the bumps and the swelling. Poor thing. She has been tolerating it well but aside from putting diaper rash cream on every day, is there something else you would recommend?
Another challenge with Cameron is her lack of napping at daycare. Yes, I know I sound like a broken record but it is starting to really impact our evening time. Cameron has usually been napping just once a day and an hour isn’t enough. On the weekends she sleeps 2 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. 1/5 of her normal time is miserable for her, me and DH. DH whisks her home and put her right to bed, usually around 4:30 PM. Cameron sleeps for an hour and I go wake her up. Wake a sleeping baby? Damn right. I refuse to impact her 7 PM bedtime. I need downtime too! Cameron is clingy and whiny and doesn’t want to eat anything other than her bottle, fruit and goldfish. If I leave the room for a minute she starts full on bawling. It’s distressing. Any advice?
Cameron is also going through a big mommy phase. I am trying to mitigate it as much as possible by passing her off to DH but it’s harder in the evenings because of how tired and cranky she is. Has anyone successfully managed the mommy phases? I at least don’t want her to cry when passing her off!
Lastly we are starting to see the refusal and throwing of food off the highchair tray. I put some pasta down in front of Cameron the other day and she picked up the entire clump and threw it right down. I’ll also see her sneak her hand down next to her side to drop other pieces of food onto the chair itself. Smart, crafty little girl. I read Child of Mine and want to adhere to its recommendations that I as the parent provide the food and it is up to Cameron to eat. But I totally cave because I hate to see her eat nothing for dinner which is oftentimes what would happen if I didn’t put out more Cameron friendly food. How have other parents handled this? Keep in mind she’s only 11 months….is it really time to start those food battles?
You guys know I totally dork out over . Okay and . Annnnnd . But let’s not be elitist here. Don’t you think the things we eat need a few squees of joy from time to time? Let’s take three seconds to coo over all this food cuterie.
Ninja egg!
A tiny gingerbread house! That lives on the edge of your cup!
Tiny pigs. Carbs. Two birds, one stone.
That’s one metaphor that has taken it to 11.
Bee cake!
I want to simultaneously live here and eat this.
As though cupcakes need help to be cuter?!
I would get these for my wee cousins, but I’m pretty sure
Cameron has her first case of pink eye. I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping we could have avoided this milestone for many more years. DH is bringing her to the doctor this morning and he’ll be on baby duty until I get home tonight. I think this is the first time he’s had her alone for an entire day (vs. in the mornings and evenings when I’m traveling) so please wish him luck. I’m more concerned about having to put drops in Cameron’s eyes. This is a baby who refused to take sugary sweet Tylenol or Motrin. I can’t imagine how bad it will be to keep her eye pried open while squeezing drops into it. Fun times, I’m sure.
Probably the worst part? I didn’t know Cameron had pink eye so we went to ’s birthday party and interact with 3 other babies. Sorry, moms! I did the responsible thing and emailed them and I hope that there wasn’t too much cross-contamination of germs. Update: Cameron looked fine this morning except for a scratch underneath her eye. So we dropped her off at daycare per usual with the hope that we don’t get the dreaded pick up call.
We’re slowly introducing milk in Cameron’s bottles. 2 ounces milk, 4 of formula. After a week I’ll go to 50%, and so on. She should be close to 100% whole milk by the time we go for her 12 month well appointment. In other fun eating news, Cameron is now refusing to eat anything that is jarred food related (yogurt is out, for example). It looks like the 8-10 jars we have left are going to get donated. We’ll also probably end up with at least 1/2 of a tub of formula too. I hate throwing out that stuff…it’s so expensive.
Standing…always standing. That is Cameron’s new mantra. Cuddling with mommy? No way. And let’s not forget – she can do it by herself. No help necessary or wanted. It has resulted in quite a few head bumps and bruises but that’s why they make skulls so hard, right? Last night was the first where Cameron decided she wanted to stand in the tub while taking a bath. Aside from some initial nervousness about slipping and whacking her head I actually kind of preferred it. It was so much easier to soap her up in all the right spots. Bath toys have become a must and the little squirters are the best.
Finger nail clipping has become a pain in the ass. Cameron has a couple of scratches on her face because it’s a battle for me to clip even one nail at a time. I miss those days of clipping away while she was breastfeeding. Does anyone have any advice on how to make the nail clipping process a little easier?
Another challenge for us is hair. Cameron has the mullet going but because her back hair is curly you can’t tell. But I’m more concerned about the hair falling down into her eyes. Daycare sent her home with a Pebbles ponytail (with a rubber band!) and I took it as a message. The only problem is that I can’t find good hair fasteners that will stay put and not interfere with napping or be a choking hazard for the other kids when it eventually falls out. I’m adamant about not cutting her hair. Not because I want to be like Celine Dion or Kate Hudson but more because once you start cutting bangs you either need to keep doing it or deal with the pain of growing it out later. Goddess In Progress and I’m hoping once Cameron’s hair gets longer things will be easier. Anyone else have advice?
Yesterday Cameron’s daycare was closed until 9 AM. I am still flabbergasted that a minor ice storm (aka wintery mix) on Friday night resulted in a complete shut down until today. At least I was able to get Cameron to daycare at a reasonable hour and could chug through the rest of my work day. Many other parents weren’t so lucky. Question for my readers, how do you decide who stays home with your kid(s) when they are sick or daycare is closed and you both have to work? DH and I have been trading off depending on work schedules. But we both hope it is a rare occurrence in general.
My friends know how much I love a «meet cute» movie which is why Lifetime is such a good movie channel for me. DH makes fun of me constantly for it. Usually I don’t tape the Danielle Steel or other crime/romance stories but I love, love, love the contrived work/romance situations. The required ingredients include: couple meets cute, series of misunderstandings, multiple montage scenes, some kind of big speech, and happily ever after epilogue scene. If I’m really lucky then it also includes a dance scene. Movies that fall into this category include: 13 Going on 30, The Cutting Edge, Enchanted, etc. So I was thrilled to come across a commercial for . Before you ask, I only see these commercials during Project Runway or re-runs of How I Met Your Mother. If you like cheesy movies as much as me I recommend you add it to your DVR list. Totally cute!
I’m about halfway through a great book about kids and eating that recommended: . It’s already helped re-adjust my mindset about feeding Cameron. The biggest takeaway for me? Cameron is responsible for eating. Yup. Seems like common sense, right? But between breastfeeding, pumping, bottles and all the rest I ended up in a bad place thinking that I needed to be able to control how much and when she eats. Now I know better. So thanks to Laura for her recommendation!
I recently opened a savings account with BigFinance. DH and I already had a checking account but because of a few special offers and other considerations (despite a piss poor interest rate) I decided to open a savings account too. When I set it up online I didn’t have DH’s social security number handy so I opened it by myself and planned to add him later. The catch? I can’t just add him online or through the phone. Nope, they have to mail me a form that we sign and send back and about two weeks later he can see the savings account information online. I’m also annoyed because they sent me a separate ATM card. Um, why can’t it be linked to my current checking account? So I have to carve out some time to call and figure it all out.
In good bureaucracy news I receive my new passport. I think it took about 3 weeks total between mailing the completed form and receiving my new and old one back. So I have to give it up to the US State Department. Good job guys! Now if I have to flee the country I don’t have to file for an expedite. Question: have any of you gotten passports for your kids? How does that work? I assume exactly the same way but it expires faster?
Enough randomness for the day…I’m off to go wrangle BigFinance. Wish me luck!
When DH and I took Cameron in for her her doctor told us that we should start pushing the sippy cup more because starting at around 11 months we should begin phasing out bottles.
I mentioned at the time that the thought of removing bottles made me very nervous. I’ve already blogged about my stress and when it comes to Cameron eating and I’m not sure if being unable to monitor the exact consumption of ounces is a good thing or a bad thing for my peace of mind. Regardless, the idea of dropping bottles has been percolating in my head since that appointment and I have spent time thinking about which bottles and how I will drop them. Unfortunately I have made no progress in coming up with any decisions or plans.
Last week Cameron was sick and since she felled me with the same illness I completely understood (retroactively of course) why she didn’t want to drink any more than 10 ounces a day. Our new challenge this week is that Cameron has refused to drink more than 1-2 ounces for her first bottle of the day. It’s possible that it could be due to teething…soon our little munchkin will have 6 (!) teeth or she could be voicing her preference to drop the first bottle of the day from her feeding schedule.
As a first time mom I have no idea. 10 months is a little early to start dropping bottles (right?) but I need to start my planning process if this refusal of bottles continues. How have you handled dropping bottles from your baby’s eating routine? Cameron still isn’t eating enough to cover her nutritional needs via the finger foods so I assume I need to be significantly supplementing through baby food. Or is that a bad assumption? Somehow this struggle with changing eating patterns is doing nothing for my resolution to stress less about what/how much Cameron eats. Help!
Edited: Mommy, Esq. wanted me to tell everyone that Cameron gets breakfast at daycare around 8 AM and is usually awake around 6:30 or 6:45 AM. In case that influences your responses!
This weekend I stole a few hours to do some shopping for Cameron. It is so much more fun to shop for her than myself! Kohl’s was having a great sale with some stuff up to 70% off for kids. I hadn’t even been planning to go into the store (isn’t that always the way?) but I had something to return and Babies ‘R Us was very lacking in fleece PJs and socks.
As of today all of Cameron’s 9 month clothing has been put away and she’s been moved into her 12 month clothes. I love it because it means all new outfits for me to enjoy. Cameron could care less, of course…the pants are still a bit long but she can still crawl around with no problem.
Yes, she really is adorable, isn’t she? No, I’m not biased! We’ve had to start putting clips in her hair to keep it out of her eyes. It usually only lasts an hour or two before falling out. But at least she doesn’t pull it out herself.
Our friends, Pat and Nikki, sent along this adorable Adidas outfit. Cameron is ready for her professional sports career to start! As you can see, the squinty look has become a favorite of Cameron’s when the camera is whipped out. She’s quite the ham.DH and I try to present a lot of options for finger foods but Cameron always prefers her carbs. I can put a new kind of food in front of her and she will only pop it in her mouth if it is carb related. Otherwise it takes 6-7 introductions for a new food before she puts it in her mouth to try it. Then it is a 50/50 chance if Cameron will actually like it.
Despite her pickiness with finger food Cameron has always been fascinated with Charlie’s food. One day, we let her indulge herself. Watch and enjoy!
