Sunday, November 15, 2009

baby food, flying, and sucuumbing to pretty gadgets


1. flying with baby food
apparently it's ok to bring jars of baby food onto the plane. however, the TSA will probably use its fancy machinery to test the food. the sealed jars were given a quick exterior swabbing, which was then placed in a machine. for what? i have no idea. they also did a pH type test on the vapors of the opened jar of food. i was given a pat-down. oddly enough, neither matthew nor leon were subjected to similar treatment.

2. 5 teeth coming in all at once and baby-led weaning
i freaked out a few months ago when leon bit off a chunk of apple and gagged for longer than i would like. i wouldn't call it textbook 'choking', but it scared me half to death. now that there are more teeth, and i've gotten used to the gagging (thank you, tamiflu!), i think it's time to try more finger foods.

3. the expensive gadget dilemma
sure, i guess i could do everything without a $150 beaba babycook, but knowing my cooking-resistant ways, i probably wouldn't. just the thought of buying a steamer and using up all those pots and spoons and colanders (and washing them) makes me tired. there's a reason why i prefer one-pot recipes. so, i have a $50 gift card to williams sonoma, and am considering buying the beaba soon. as matthew pointed out, it wouldn't really save me much money in the long run. but it steams! purees! reheats! but will i use it? will i regret it?

9 comments:

joyce said...

hi erica! i have a few friends who have that very gadget. one complaint i heard was that it's a pain to clean, and one can't make a whole lot at once.

evencleveland said...

Man, tough call on the baby-food maker. My cousin has one and loves it, but you do use it pretty frequently because it makes small batches. And five teeth! Holy cow.

That's too funny about the airport pat down - Sean's on the do not fly list, so he gets subjected to the oddest array of treatments every time we fly, poor guy.

Frances said...

I vote YES, get the Beaba! I'm ready to buy one, and I don't even have a baby.

V said...

Hi Erica! I don't know anything about baby food, but I remember this post from Karen Cheng on the topic of making it:
http://www.karencheng.com.au/2009/11/05/baby-food-beginnings/

Catherine said...

At first the gadget sounds wonderful, but then Joyce's comment on batch making might disuade me. The times I cooked food for Lucy I froze quite a bit. It's extremely time consuming to have to make up daily batches of food that needs steaming and pureeing and mixing, let alone in a smaller vessel.

I remember buying Audrey an organic pumpkin and after the high cost and then the peeling, cutting, steaming, pureeing (with breastmilk too), I got only a handful of meals out of it! I know a meal prepared daily would be ideal, but this time I have been feeding Audrey Only Organics jars.

Beyond 12 months they tend to eat more adult food anyway, just cut into smaller pieces. I steam Audrey carrot sticks, and peas, now.

Though, having just read the link left here by Viv I am motivated to cook again.

Very odd airport report. Maybe he(?) took a fancy to you?

Sara said...

1. ah airport fun. the machine tests for bomb chemical residues (who knows, you might have explosive baby food ;)

3. I had the non cooking version of that blender in France, it was the first thing I could find when I decided I MUST have a blender right.now. (I cant remember why). It worked pretty well for blending, and was quite easy to throw in the dishwasher.

erica said...

oh, of course, bomb chemical residues! i still think that they should pat down the baby and other relatives. to only do the mother shows a lack of conviction.

catherine, good point about 12 months and up. perhaps i would be better off investing in a nice steamer. don't ask how we've managed so far without one.

i wonder if williams sonoma offers a cooking demonstration with the beaba. it would be nice to see this contraption at work.

melissa said...

my sister-in-law has a similar baby food maker. she is not much of a cook either and has found it to be a useful gadget. she did say that only being able to do small batches was a drawback, though.

we just started little hugh on solids and have been boiling/steaming and then using a hand blender. hand blenders rule.

Catherine said...

A hand blender is a great idea, as at least you can use it for soups and other things later on. Second time round I have not been tempted by short-term use gadgets (and barely-worn baby shoes like I did for Lucy!).