Cheers,

Jen

Good grief.

If you care about social media, or don’t give a rat’s arse, read Eat Sleep Social. Insightful dude.

Fresh from the oven, placed beside "The Cake Bible" for scale.

So so easy, and so much fun. Use the standard Tollhouse cookie recipe, but instead of butter, use butter-flavored shortening. I like the Crisco ones that come in bricks because one brick equals the 1 cup of butter you need. Using shortening means the cookie is more prone to rise rather than spread. And you want this cookie to rise!

Other tweaks: I used both dark and milk chocolate chips for a little texture variety in the chips and scaled back a bit on the walnuts for fear of it tasting too dry (wasn’t an issue). I also added a shot of bourbon, and was heavy handed with the vanilla. It gave the cake a more adult dimension, for lack of a better word.

To eat? Grab a pizza cutter and a big glass of milk.

Glad I didn’t. This is one yummy chocolate cake and, as many comments note, even better after a night in the fridge. Meaning it’s perfect for a wedding cake that must be baked a day or so in advance.

Here’s the raw data from a test run:

And if you want more from me…er…wait until the kid turns 1.

Strawberry Merguines

This is a pile of meringues — strawberry, I think — from a bake shop in Galway called Gourmet Tart Company. I didn’t get to try them. It was too late in the day when we got there and the shop girl told me that they sell out of these amazing confections by noon. And regardless, they wouldn’t consider selling them past noon anyway because the consistency would have been shot (too chewy).

I’m feeling inspired. I want to recreate these meringues I never tasted. My dear friend Lisa is coming into town next week…the same one with which I made those scones eons ago. Perhaps she’ll join me in the challenge? I’ll keep you updated. In the mean time…aren’t these just divine?

***Ooh! Edited to add this link to Travel Sweet. Apparently I’m not the only one to have been denied a meringue on a quality contingency!

Long story short: For the first three months of Baby E’s life, she was not enthused about taking the bottle. Daddy C and some stalwart friends could get her to take the Dr. Brown’s every once in a while, but she would mostly just chew on the nipple and dribble the rest of the bottle out on her onsie. And as a result, Mama Me was freaked–freaked that I’d go back to work and my wee-one would starve and scream herself to death because I’d failed to introduce her to the bottle early  enough in my selfish desire to nurse and cuddle her.

So, like I’ve done with piping tips and fondant and baking pans, I proceeded to purchase just about every model on the shelf. A particular draw? Anything that sported the assurance:  “best of breastfed babies.” Picture me going through the store and sweeping an entire shelf of  “desperate mother” bottles into the cart and you’d have it about right.  Below you see the collection I amassed.

(Left to right) Adiri Level 3 and 2, Breastflow, Dr. Brown's (two variations), Avent and Playtex Drop-In

Before you get too concerned, fast-forward to the day after Baby E turned 3 months old. She batted me away and literally reached out to Daddy C for the bottle. Fiendish child. Though she still nurses, she’s taken bottles like a champ ever since.  But I thought others might benefit (and save a little money) from a run-down of my panicked purchases.  So here goes:

Adiri Natural Nurser — The most boob-looking of all the variations. It takes some jeers from baby Web sites for being gimmicky and, yes, I totally bought into the premise that the more it looked like a boob, the more likely it was to fool my baby. But though I don’t think she’s actually fooled, this is one of only two bottles types Baby E will take at the moment. Up until the Adiri, she was drooling her milk out when she wasn’t screaming at the intrusion. But from the first moment we put the Adiri to her lips, we had success. It’s essentially a torpedo with a hard back end (you fill it on this end), a semi hard middle for gripping it and a soft top third that the baby can press against her little cheeks with milky glee. Each bottle is a different level. We’re currently on Level 2 – Blue.

Breastflow – Next to Dr. Brown’s this one had the most going for it on the technical front. The nipple is actually a two-layered affair and it falls into the “so weird it must work” category. The outer layer is a soft squishy silicone that, again, the baby can smoosh against her face. But this has an inner layer that is a harder, silcone, tube-like device. The intent is to mimic the whole nipple experience for the baby. When the baby latches on, bearing down on the harder silicone inside makes the milk flow up and fill the space between the inner and outer nipple. So I suppose the baby gets the sensation of sucking on a full breast. I have no idea if it really entices babies. Baby E tried it for about a week and never did more than bite on the nipple and then scream at me for teasing her.

Dr. Brown’s — These bottle have a cult following! When I was registering for baby gear, every mother I knew practically grabbed my hands and pleaded with me to get Dr. Brown’s. From what I gather, they are lifesavers in the colic department. Baby E never experienced colic anywhere near the degree to which it plagues other babies. Which is a good thing because Dr. Brown’s were little more than a chew toy for her. I even tried the large-mouthed,  “more natural” nipple. No dice. Looking back at her first bottle experiences with the Doc, I realize that what we thought was her “taking a bottle” was really her “wearing a bottle.” We’ll see if she comes back around to the good Doctor when she’s a little older, but until then I’m happy not to have to clean that fancy venting system. Keeping track of those tiny brushes was pain.

Avent – A no-nonsense mom I know lent me the Avent when I was freaking out about Baby E’s bottle refusal, which is appropriate because Philips Avent’s tagline is “Sense and Simplicity.” Pretty much describes this unflappable mom. If they were to make a tagline for my bottle, it would be “Frantic and Freakability” or maybe “Sucker and Sellability.”  Clearly, this bottle and Baby E were not going to match up. Too much drama queen in her blood. Another wise mom who actually got Baby E to take/wear a bottle in the early days suggested that Baby E’s mouth was a little too small to take the nipple length of the Avent. As with Dr. Brown’s, we’ll see if this is the case as Baby E — and her mouth — grow larger.

Playtex Drop-In — I didn’t want this bottle to be a winner. I’m not a the best environmentalist, but at least I know that it’s wasteful to use and discard thousands of plastic inserts over the life of a bottle-fed baby. But a friend’s lactation consultant recommended the Drop-In combined with a latex nipple for hard-to-feed babies. Something about the texture of the latex combined with the way the drop-in collapses and creates more suction as the baby nurses being ideal. Another big selling point — the liners are pre-sterilized, so there’s a high convienience factor there. Also, compared to all the other “just like nursing” bottles on this list, the Playtex Drop-In Sytem is pretty cheap — about $12 for 3 4oz.-bottles and the liners run about  $10 for 100. And, yes, the liners are recylable. But did Baby E like them? Yes…of course she did.

(Left to right) The winners: the Playtex Drop-In with orthopedic latex nipple and the Adiri Level 2.

The original was a steel-cut oatmeal cake topped with whipped cream, fresh berries and maple syrup. The oatmeal is prepared,  poured into a baking pan, cooled in the fridge and then individual, square servings are cut out and placed under the broiler to get all the edges browned and crisp. It was oatmeal the way your mother never made it and I could have eaten by the brick. The way the berries and cream and syrup ran down into the cracks of the oatmeal cake, like water over stones…oh…so tasty.

My version adds some portability, though it admittedly lacks the same flair. Instead of a cake, I’ve turned it into a muffin and baked the fruit and syrup into it. I’ve omitted the cream, too (though in the picture, I’ve added a little half-and-half and maple syrup for kicks). I eat these hot or cold, and they can be frozen and reheated at work for an oaty pick-me-up.

Oatmeal-To-Go "Muffins"

The Recipe:

4 cups old fashioned oatmeal

4 cups water

1 tsp salt

1 diced apple

1/2 cup dried dates

1 cup crushed walnuts

3 Tbs. maple syrup (Grade B from Morse Farm)

Liberal dash of cinnamon

Brown sugar for topping (optional)

Oatmeal mash

Preheat oven to 350 F. Bring water and salt to a boil. Add oatmeal. Lower heat to medium and cook oats for approx. 5 minutes. Oatmeal mixture should be thick. Remove from heat and add apples, dates and walnuts (and feel free to vary the fruit and nuts to your liking). Stir in and then add maple syrup and cinnamon. Spoon heaping helpings into a greased 12-count muffin tin (approx. 1/3 cup in each hole). Sprinkle tops with brown sugar if you like. Omit if you’re counting calories. Place in oven for 25 minutes so tops can get browned and a bit crisp. Remove and let cool. Serve as you see fit.

Fresh from the oven