Lilac's orange dinner

Am I normal? What a question or pondering to make you feel completely insecure. What is normal? Another one to boggle the mind. The reason I'm lamenting on these big issues is because of Lilac, my baby daughter. Life for a woman is full of shoulds: you should lose weight, maintain a youthful appearance, look after your skin, find a good husband, balance a career and motherhood etc. etc. but once you have a child it starts to feel as though the suggestive modal verb become obligation, as in you must. I don't particularly want to encourage Lilac to play with her food or snack between meals, this is my choice but I still feel as though I'm going against the norm, (at least here in North America and my native UK).

"You simply must do that", said my doctor, (talking about letting babies pick up and eat their food rather than feeding it to them on a spoon). "It encourages confidence and dexterity and lets them feel that they are in charge of eating instead of making mealtime a battleground". OK, score one, I agree with all that. "It helps them develop their pincer grip and hand to mouth coordination", said a friend. "Can't they do that with toys", I asked, "Well yes..." strike against. "It's tactile, it helps them explore textures", good point there. "We don't live in France", said another friend, (commenting on my statement that most babies in France don't really follow baby led weaning), "let them learn etiquette later". Hmmm...

The point to all this is that I have decided that I don't want to follow what we are led to believe, (by the media) everyone else is doing without making my own decisions, like most mums. For me personally, I don't want Lilac to be snacking endlessly and then not eat her dinner. Eventually I would like her to chew with her mouth closed, not talk with her mouth full, take small bites, eat with a knife and fork and sit nicely in restaurants, patiently awaiting her dinner because she is hungry, (partly selfish reasons there). I believe it's never too early to start on these principles. You may not agree with any of this and that is fine, but it's the way I and Lilac's daddy was brought up and we're OK (ish).

So, I make Lilac little meals and then puree them. This one, in particular was delicious. I would happily have eaten a plate full myself, (perhaps not in puree form though).

It's funny that following a recipe for a baby meal can lead to a culinary discovery. Orange juice with pork, apricots and carrots is a very good combination. As for babies' supposed preference for bland flavours, this dispels that straight away. The juice provides a tangy, slightly sour element to the sweetness of the carrots and apricots. For a baby meal, the balance of flavours is very mature. Then again, the recipe is French (from this book) and reading the detailed descriptions of what babies eat for lunch at creche in Bringing up Bebe, you can see that lucky young baby gourmets are the norm...

Recipe: Pork with apricots

Adapted from Bebe Gourmet

The original recipe uses chicken and produces enough for many meals. I adapted for about 3 - 4 meals

one 2" piece of pork tenderloin, cut into small pieces

1 large carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

1 shallot, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 apricots, cut into chunks

1/2 cup orange juice

a little dab of butter

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and add the shallot and carrot. Fry until golden and soft. Add the pork and apricots, stir well and fry until the pork has browned, then pour in the orange juice. Let the mixture simmer over low heat until the meat, carrots and apricots are soft and the juice has slightly evaporated and thickened. Add the butter, stir into the mixture until the sauce becomes glossy and remove from the heat. Allow to cool and then puree into whatever consistency you like for your baby.