planetdanika

This is a great article about ways to make Halloween healthier. Fortunately, Lucy doesn’t even eat candy yet. But I’m taking notes for next year.

Lucy says “Mama” now. And “Dada” too. It melts my heart (along with about 300 other mannerisms of hers). She knows what these words mean and says them with intention. The other day Daddy dressed her and then brought her to where I was and set her down. He then went to the bathroom and shut the door to take a shower. Lucy crawled to the closed door, started crying and said “Dada.” She also clearly understands the words “milky” (as in breastmilk), “no” and “kiss”. She LOVES kisses.

Tomorrow, she’ll be 9 months old. As much time in the world as she was in my womb. On Friday, she visited the doctor for her routine checkup. She got a clean bill of health and the doctor raved about what a sweet and good-natured baby she is. Her weight was lower than we thought- almost exactly 19 pounds and right at the 50th percentile. We think she lost some weight last week when she was sick and feverish. Her height was 28 1/2”, 75th percentile and her head circumference is in the whopping 90th percentile (she takes after her dad on that one!).

The changes in her understanding of the world are fascinating to watch. She is developing at such a rapid pace and it’s quite thrilling to see her make connections. I’m sure she’ll soon be walking and talking and then before we know it she’ll be off to school. But for right now, I’m loving every second of it.

It’s that time of year. Time to change gears in the kitchen and make some fall foods. Squash, pumpkin, potatoes, soups. Last week at the farmer’s market I picked up some leeks and decided to make a potato leek soup to use them up. I’m not a huge fan of creamy soups as I find them too rich. So my goal was to go a bit easy on the cream without losing flavor. I think I struck a good balance. Although I will say that pureing hot soup is not one of my favorite kitchen tasks!

Potato Leek Soup
Source: Adapted from a recipe on www.cookuk.co.uk
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb leeks
1 lb potatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup milk or cream (I used about 1/3 cup of whipping cream and 2/3 cup of 1% milk)

First, clean and chop the leeks. I soaked in cold water to clean. The easiest way to chop the leeks is to slice each leek lengthwise twice and then chop all the leek from top to bottom. Melt the butter in a pan and add the chopped leeks and garlic. Fry them over a low to medium heat until the leeks are soft. This will take about ten minutes. Stir frequently so that none of the ingredients brown.

Peel the potatoes and chop them into cubes. Add all the remaining ingredients to the pan with the exception of the milk/cream.

Bring the soup to the boil and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, pure the mixture. Just before serving, pour the milk/cream into the soup and stir well.