Every Mom has her fears. Some Moms fear germs. Other Moms fear accidents. (Picture a Mom chasing after her child with anti-bacterial soap in a completely baby-proof room.) But alas, I can’t judge. For some odd reason I have an even stranger fear:  a fear of finger foods. That’s right, finger foods. I have become so comfortable with baby food purees that making this transition to finger foods is flat out scary.

So what’s a new Mom to do? Well, I sent out an email titled “a call for finger food help” and the advice came pouring in from friends and family members. Thankfully, I discovered some really interesting and healthy foods for my baby. The key was to start SOFT!

My friend from Oklahoma (who has two kids) recommended bananas and avocados, the “gateway” finger foods that would lead to a world of finger food opportunities. Soft and mild flavors worked well. I chopped them up in tiny pieces and my son was able to grasp them with his fingers and place them in his mouth. Even though he only has a few teeth, he was able to gnaw on the fruit, salivate and swallow. My friend from Ethiopia recommended potatoes. So for my next venture, I roasted organic fingerlings and sweet potatoes, cut them into soft chunks and served them to my baby to enjoy.

So I asked myself the question, how can I turn chunks of soft fruits and vegetables into a dinner that my husband will enjoy? The answer: stir-fry!

Ingredients:

½ pound of organic tofu or chicken

2 large handfuls of organic baby carrots

2 organic yellow squash

1 head of organic broccoli

1 organic mango

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 organic lime

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Cooked brown rice

Fill a pot with enough water to barely reach the bottom of a metal steamer or steaming basket (this is for the finger foods). Heat to boiling.

Meanwhile, dice the tofu or chicken into bite-size pieces. Chop the baby carrots and yellow squash into ¼-inch thick pieces and break up the broccoli into small chunks. Place ¾ cup of the mixed vegetables aside (for the baby).

Peel the mango and chop it up into pieces small enough for your baby to handle. Place ¼ cup of the mango on a baby dish.

The water should be boiling now, so add the baby’s veggies to the pot and steam for about 5 to 7 minutes, until the vegetables are soft enough for your baby to handle. When soft, remove and allow to cool before serving.

While the baby’s veggies are cooking, heat the oil in a wok or frying pan over high. When hot, add the tofu or chicken and stir fry until cooked through. Remove from pan and add the veggies. Stir fry for a few minutes and then add the mango. Continue cooking until veggies are crisp yet tender. Toss back in the tofu or chicken along with the lime juice and soy sauce. Stir until all is heated through. Serve over cooked brown rice.

In my house, this dinner was a crowd pleaser. Both my husband and baby loved it! And I must say that it was fun to watch my son going after all of the colorful and vitamin-rich finger foods. So, there you have it — a healthy and economical stir-fry for my husband and a nice variety of finger foods for my baby.  And in closing, a quick shout out to my family and friends for helping me “take the fear out of finger foods.”

Whole Story

From GRIST

A recent article in the New York Times documented the growing competition among New York chefs for the highest-quality food from local farms — whether it’s heirloom cabbages or pastured poussins. Opining that “top chefs can’t be lip-service locavores any longer,” writer Glenn Collins offers this mini-food fight as evidence of a “farm-to-table revolution” among restaurateurs.

These chefs’ approach fits nicely into the haute cuisine concept that the chef’s job is to hunt down the absolutely perfect ingredient. The fact that more chefs are looking in their relative backyards may somewhat be a testament to the fact that globalization of the food chain has reduced the variety and diversity of food. It used to be that chefs would explore the farthest reaches of the globe for the obscure and the delicious. But now, the obscure and delicious is more likely to be grown in a peri-urban farm than on a tropical plantation.

I recently spent a morning with a Philadelphia chef who takes the concept of farm-to-table a step further. Mitch Prensky has contracted with nearby Blue Elephant Farm to produce exclusively for his well-regarded restaurant Supper under his direction. In turn, Prensky will limit the fruit and vegetables he uses to the output from Blue Elephant — pickling what he doesn’t serve fresh to his customers. He fully intends to continue cooking from the farm all through winter — Philly has an almost perfect climate for year-round hoophouse growing. What he can’t get from Blue Elephant, he gets from other local providers — including beer, which in Philadelphia results in a fabulous selection of microbrews. The seafood he serves, while not local, is sustainable — a lamentable rarity in high-end restaurants.

A graduate of New York City’s French Culinary Institute who’s cooked at New York’s famed Lutece and Provence restaurants (and an early stint as kitchen assistant for Jacques Pepin), Prensky hasn’t gone locavore to make a political point. As he likes to say, “I’m just here to make you dinner.” Working with a single farm has enabled him to achieve something that all chefs desire: total control. And he’s not stopping with fruit and vegetables. He’s working with the farm to add meat and poultry (Prensky makes his own charcuterie), and ultimately expects to produce cheese and other value-added products off the farm. He even is toying with the idea of his own CSA for a few select customers; included in the box might be his own pickles or other “homemade” products.

Some may wonder about the benefit to the farmer from this arrangement. Luckily for Prensky, Blue Elephant is not your typical farm. Organic in spirit if not certification, it’s in some ways a hobby farm, owned by a wealthy couple who keep a low profile — Prensky wouldn’t tell me their names — but Prensky’s ambitious vision may result in this “hobby” becoming a booming business.

This unconventional partnership represents an alternative model for high-end restaurants and small farms. Take a closer look, through this slideshow:
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Organic Recipes, Organic Food, Local Food, Small Farms, Family Farms, Edible Landscapes, Shop Local – OrganicToBe.org