Feeding Baby No. 2: What I've Learned Since Baby 1

File this under "If I can do it, you can too": I'm making baby food for little J! Jacob's solid food journey began five days ago, although I'd been thinking about it for months. Maybe because Ella, who started out so well, has turned out to be rather challenging at meal times (I don't want to say picky eater because when she's in a good mood and it's food she likes at the moment, the girl can eat). After all, isn't the second baby the guinea pig for all the things you wish you'd done differently with the first? Haha! I'm half kidding.

Food struggles are one of the worst things we're dealing with now with E. We've tried everything it seems, including these excellent suggestions from Janet Lansbury, but it feels like there's too much baggage and so many bad habits to unlearn for us to be sincerely no-pressure about what she eats. I'm only marginally hopeful that it will end well, thanks to encouraging articles and my stubborn optimism. My hope is that, with J, we have a chance to develop some new habits to replace the old and that will carry over to our preschooler. A chance to start fresh

Been Baking: Blondies

Taking a break from my self-imposed break to tell you about these blondies, because I need to have them in my life and I just might forget how to make them again if I don't write about them somewhere.

My new baking strategy is use what you have and make it work. So thank God for the Internet and Google. I've been wanting to make Food for the Gods, which someone told me were blondies with mutes, but we were out of nuts, so I decided to make blondies. Then it turns out we didn't have vanilla, but—thank you, Google—it wasn't too hard to find a suitable substitute: almond extract.

So these are a take on the wonderful Simply Recipes' blondies, with the recipe doubled, the butter browned and the vanilla swapped with lovely almond extract.

Recipe for Success: Stop Planning, Start Doing

I don't think any house should be without an oven, but that's just me. I'm not a fantastic baker (unlike my neighbor who is an unassuming but undiscovered Cake Boss), but I've loved to bake ever since I was little when my mom would let me mix the batter and lick the spoon. I miss those innocent days before people cared about salmonella and sugar content. 

When we moved to our new townhouse, we had to give up the oven my mom had passed down to me. I agreed, but only on the condition that we'd get a new one to fit the smaller space. A year passed and due to financial limitations, the promise was still only a promise. Then we got the money (a gift from my mom—I love you, Mom!), but couldn't buy it until we were absolutely sure we didn't need the money for something else. (You'd be surprised how often that happens when you have a child.) When we finally bought the oven, it took weeks before we could have it installed—wiring problems, worker problems, we'll do it tomorrow problems. Then it was installed but I had three projects on my plate and deadlines to meet. Then work loosened up and we didn't have any darn vanilla. When we got the vanilla, we'd run out of brown sugar. When we'd gathered all the ingredients, E just wouldn't take a nap.

It seems like, as with most of my projects, having the perfect conditions is just wishful thinking.