They Let me do This?

State of the Zoe (7 Months)

Dear Zoe,

Your seventh month went by so fast that we’re not quite sure what happened.  One day we were at the beach celebrating 6 months, and then suddenly we were here at number seven. 

We learned that you’re a great car rider around town and for short trips.  Our trip to the beach, though…let’s just say it wasn’t much fun once you woke up.  You cranked for a little bit, and that was OK, but then you started screaming.  And then you kept screaming.  Eventually Mama moved the dogs to the front seat and climbed back there to entertain you while we were riding up 95, and at least that worked a little bit.  Suffice it to say that we may not be a in rush to take another road trip with your anytime soon.  Don’t worry, we’ll do it again.  We may just wait until you can entertain yourself a little bit better.

This month you also started having a lot of trouble napping.  You’re easily distracted like Daddy, and you have a hard time sleeping when there’s stuff going on.  You always used to take snuggle naps with Mama and Daddy when you were home, but that wasn’t helping you at daycare.  We decided it was time for you to enter an intensive Napping Boot Camp so you could learn to sleep in your crib.  It went well, and it went really fast, too.  We miss the time snuggling with you, but now you sleep for longer and you’re happier when you’re awake.  Plus, it means that Mama and Daddy can actually clean up the house a little bit while you sleep and hopefully nobody will nominate us for an episode of Hoarders now. 

Daddy had to go away for work during your seventh month, and that made him very sad.  It was an important trip that he needed to make for his company, but he missed you so much.  You weren’t feeling well the day he left, so Mama stayed home with you.  The two of you waved goodbye to me when I left for the airport, and I didn’t want to go.  When Daddy came home a few days later, he raced through the airport and may have broken a few traffic laws so he could get home before you went to bed.  When I got there, you were so excited to see me and looked so surprised, but your little feet were kicking away.  I stayed on the floor and played with you until it was time to go to sleep, and then I took the next day off work so I could keep you home to play with me.  I missed you so much, but we had so much fun when I got home.

There was a lot of good in this month, too.  You learned to clap, which made Daddy very happy.  I’ve been trying to get you to do that for a while, and you suddenly started to one evening while I was away.  Fortunately Mama got it on video so I could see it.  You’re trying so hard to get mobile, but you’re just not quite there yet.  You hate being on your tummy, so you don’t like to work on crawling for very long.  But you’re pulling yourself up to standing, and always trying to get up off the floor.  When you do, you look so proud and happy.  We’re thinking there’s a very good chance you may skip crawling altogether and just head straight for walking.  That scares Daddy very much.  In the meantime, you’re settling for scooting around the floor on your booty.

You keep getting stronger, which has made things interesting.  Daddy tries to warn people, but they don’t always believe him until you rip something out of their hands.  It does mean that you can hold your own bottle now, which is rather impressive considering how heavy the glass ones can get.  Last night Grandad said we need to stop letting you lift weights for a while, and everyone is taking their guesses about what sports you’ll play when you get older.  Little do they know that I’ve already enrolled you in a secret training program for government assassins, and that you will have no time for such silly games.  Let’s keep that one quiet for now, though. 

We’ve started taking you out to dinner with us, and you do a great job.  You’ve been to Akai Hana (Mama and Daddy’s favorite sushi place), Uncle Kevin’s restaurant Acme, and just this morning we took you to Elmo’s Diner, which is a place Daddy used to work.  You’ve done a great job every time, and I think I’m going to have to write a post just about all the odd things you’ve eaten already. Your first experience with cheese looked like love at first sight.

You’ve had a couple of dinners with Papa Jim and Mimi Jane, you still go to Saturday morning breakfast and Sunday family dinner at Grandmama and Grandad’s, and you’ve even had your first two picnics.  One of them was at Duke Gardens, where you mostly just stared at the guy with bad hair making his kids practice a Ram Muay with him over and over.  Daddy had a hard time not laughing, but figured he better keep it quiet in case that guy was for real.  Seriously, though, who makes their entire family hit the pads at Duke Gardens?  While wearing jorts and sporting early-90s Trent Reznor hair?  You probably won’t ever understand that last sentence, but it’s relevant. 

In your seventh month, Mama and Daddy have spent a lot of time marveling at how big you seem.  You’ve become such a fun and happy little person.  I think I can sum it up the best by comparing the ways that I’ve missed you the two times I had to go away for work:  The first time, you were only a month old and I felt terrible for being away from you.  The second time, there was actually a “you” to miss.  You’ve got your personality, and you like to play games with us.  You’ve figured out so much about your world already, and it’s so amazing to watch.

Happy seven months, Zoe.  I’m so lucky to get to be a part of your life, and you amaze me every day. 

-Love, Daddy

Daddy Night

I remember one of the questions I was asked during my return trip to Daddy Boot Camp.  One of the new dads-to-be asked me how you get to a point where you can go out together and leave the wee one behind.  At the time, I told him that you had to figure out how to walk away individually first, and then you would know what it took for you to both be away from them.  What I didn’t tell him, since I hadn’t really figured it out myself at that point, is that you have to both get times away from the family so you don’t lose your damn mind first.  You can worry about date night later.  For a while we would just try to trade off moments here and there where the other parent could be “off duty,” but they were inconsistent just like everything else at that point.  We started to realize that the best solution for us was to have something scheduled where we knew we could count on some time to unwind.

We already had something built in for Rebecca, since every Saturday morning I take the dogs and head over to my folks’ house for breakfast and she gets a few hours in an empty house.  I’ve done that for years, and the plan had always been that Zoe would start making the trip with me and Mama Morning would be born.  It’s become a fun routine for Zoe to join the trip and get some time with Grandmama and Grandad.  She hangs out and plays with them while we cook, takes a little nap, then gets up for a bottle and a little more visiting before falling asleep on the ride home.  In not too long, we may even be soliciting her input on our omelet fillings.  Well, maybe that can wait a few more years given the items she frequently mistakes for food.

Rebecca tried to return the favor by taking Zoe on Sunday mornings to meet her mother for breakfast, but with her (R) not being much of a morning person, it wasn’t really easy for her to do.  We talked about other options, and then Daddy Night was born.  Tuesday used to be Yoga=>Beer=>Grill night around here, which we had recently resumed with Rebecca’s mother picking Zoe up from daycare and then Rebecca getting her from her parents’ house after class while I went home to start dinner.  It was easy enough to shift that so Rebecca just goes over to have dinner there after yoga, and I get a couple of hours to myself in the house.  Just trading one brand of meditation for another, right?

It’s important that the time you get suits your personal style of relaxation, or it ends up just being time to kill.  For Rebecca, sleeping in and then having a quiet morning to read or do whatever she feels like around the house is the best gift I can give.  For me, an evening is better since my relaxation rituals tend to involve loud music, food, and beer.  I had to learn not to try and make anything too complicated for dinner, as the time I had goes awfully fast.  So now I try to pick an enjoyable but quick meal, and then treat myself to a reward beer and probably watch some tv that she doesn’t enjoy (currently Game of Thrones).  It’s a little island of calm for me, and it can serve as the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” when I’m feeling fried. 

The only hitch to it is that I sometimes feel guilty for looking forward to that time away from my family.  I feel like I shouldn’t be that excited for them to be gone.  Then I go back to a conversation that I’ve had on several fronts:  being the best parent you can be stems from being the best you that you can be.  I feel like it’s my responsibility to show Zoe how to be a decent and complete human being someday, and I don’t feel like I can do that if I completely lose track of myself. The daily cycle can be so exhausting (as all parents know, I’m guessing), and sometimes I feel like an automaton in constant motion, looking for something to do.  That version of me is really good at getting shit done, but I’m not so certain he’s a great parent.  Daddy Night recharges me so Zoe can get a father who has energy to do more than just clean up the house, cook, and do laundry.  It lets me give her an actual Daddy who can play with her and teach her things.  If it occasionally requires a cheap tallboy or two before dinner to accomplish that, then so be it.  Hell, it could be much worse (NSFW, just in case you’re unfamiliar with the source material):

State of the Zoe (6 Months)

Dear Zoe,

So much has happened in your sixth month. So much that Daddy has had a hard time keeping up with your blog. Sorry about that, I’ll do better in month seven. I can’t believe we’ve had half a year with you now, it seems like it can’t have gone by so quickly. Then again, there are times you seem so much older. You’ve grown so much.

Your sixth month saw you grow into a connoisseur of puréed foods, loving peas, mango, and sweet potato. Then, after sampling a slice of baguette at Papa Jim and Mimi Jane’s, you’re now more interested in food you can hold and eat. Just when Daddy was figuring out a system to make and freeze purées in bulk, but it’s fun to watch you turn things over in your hand before deciding to just jam it in your mouth any way it will fit. We may need to invest in a more efficient cleaning system, though.

You also took a road trip to visit your great-grandmother and namesake with Grandmama and Grandad and Daddy. We drove up one Saturday morning to Mimi’s house and visited for a little while. Then you took a nap on Daddy before we all went out to lunch. Some folks might have been a little nervous about taking you to a fancy restaurant, but you did a great job. You even let me feed you your sweet potatoes while we all ate. After lunch you took a little walk with Grandmama and came back with your new favorite toy, Kitty Cat. She’s little and purple and a Gund and your entire face lights up when you see her. Daddy had a Gund when he was little, and still does. They’re kind of a family tradition, so it’s happy to know you’ve got one now.

You took your first trip to the Museum of Life and Science this month, which was always one of Daddy’s favorite places to go while he was growing up. Mama took you with Miss Casey and Davis, and you got to meet a new friend in Miss Christine’s daughter Kate. You saw butterflies and rode the train, and I can’t wait to take you back.

This month was the first time time Mama and Daddy took you out to dinner. We were a little nervous since you can be kind of…loud, even when you’re happy. You tend to shout out your excitement, and you even roar sometimes when you’re particularly fired up. Ms Xochitl says that you scare the other babies at daycare when you do that, and they cry. Daddy thinks that’s kind of awesome, but he probably shouldn’t. Anyway, you did such a good job at dinner. You had just made your first visit to Mama’s school, and you walked around and met everyone, even managed to smile for them all. Then we took you out to dinner and you stayed happy and playful the whole time. You gave Mama a big kiss before we left that made all the folks sitting outside say “Awww,” which you should take as a good thing. It made Mama pretty happy, too.

You’ve grown even bigger this month. Not just in your size, but how you act. You can sit up on your own now, and you’re scary strong for a baby. When you get a hold on something, it takes a damn fight to get it back. The older boys at daycare are starting to learn that the hard way, I hear. You learned to wave, and now you wave at everything and everyone. We took your first trip to the beach, at Daddy’s favorite beach house. Your friend Miss Heather came down with her husband to take pictures of you (and both of those are stories Daddy will tell in full on their own), and you waved to them and splashed in the ocean and generally were smart and beautiful and perfect. I may be biased, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

You’ve stopped sleeping through Sunday family dinner now, and spend the whole time getting passed around between your cousins and Grandmama and Grandad. Everyone lines up for a chance to hold you and play with you, and you’re so happy to be with them. You’re a very lucky girl with so many people who love you, and we’re so very lucky to have you.

Happy Half-Birthday, Zo. I don’t know what I did to deserve you as my little girl, but I’m glad for whatever it was.

-Love, Daddy

Look at the Sky

When Zoe was a just over a month old, Rebecca took her for a little walk around the neighborhood.  Zo spent almost the whole time staring up at the sky, so Rebecca took this picture:

We didn’t get many more of those pictures as the weather turned cold(ish, it wasn’t much of a winter), and we thought it best to keep Zoe healthy and warm indoors.  We took her out for a few walks on the random nice days, but she was often asleep.  I had forgotten this picture for a while.  The other day while I was driving her home from daycare, I looked in the mirror to check on her and expected to see her playing with her toys.  She wasn’t.  She was absentmindedly holding one of them, but she was staring out the window, looking at the sky.  Ever since then I’ve noticed that while we’re driving, this is what she does.  She plays for a minute but then turns her attention up and out to see what the sky has to show her that day.

It’s funny.  “Look at the sky” is kind of a running joke in our house because it’s something my mother always says.  Whether the sky is blue, stormy, starry, or the rainbow at sunrise/set, if it’s striking, she’s always looking and making sure we all see it too.  I can’t really joke too much about it, though, as I’m the same way.  Every morning when I first walk out the door, I stop and take a moment to look at the sky.  Sometimes I’ll be at a stoplight and look up to see the clouds and light looking just right, and wishing I were the kind of person who could capture that moment in a photo.  Instead, I end up being the kind of person who gets distracted at a stoplight and needs a gentle reminder that green means go. 

I guess Zoe got that from us.  Now, when I get her out of bed in the morning, the first thing we do is walk over to the window so she can look out at the world.  Sometimes she just looks for a moment and we move on.  Sometimes she reaches out and puts her hand on the glass for a while, letting me know that she’s not quite done looking at the sky. 

State of the Zoe (5 Months)

Dear Zoe,

Once again, so much has happened in the past month that I’m not really sure where to start.

For starters, this was the month you discovered solid food.  You weren’t too keen on the rice cereal, and we couldn’t really blame you, but you were pretty excited about the peas and sweet potatoes.  You always make a face after the first bite, but then you remember that you like them and start to get excited. You get so excited that you like to grab the spoon and start feeding yourself.  Sometimes you actually do get them into your mouth, but it often ends up looking like this:

Daddy is very happy that you’re so excited about food, though, and I’m working on which ones I should make for you next.  It’s very exciting for me to get to cook for you already and to see you so happy about eating it.  Plus, the time you jabbed your pea puree spoon up your nose gave birth to a fun new game called “Pea or Booger?” 

This was also the month that you started figuring out how to manipulate things with your hands.  When you’re holding a toy, and it’s not facing the way you want, you use both of your hands to turn it around.  May not sound that exciting, but you’re about 4 months ahead of schedule on that one.  We also practiced grasping your toys instead of slapping at them, and you’ve got that down.  It’s fun to watch you concentrate and slowly move your hand out to take a toy from me.  Mortimer the Moose is one of your favorites right now, although you like it better if Daddy does the Mortimer voice for you.  You like to play, and you like it when we read you books.  On the Night You Were Born tops your list right now, but it may have something to do with the big, cuddly polar bear you get to play with while we read it. You stare at the pages, and then back at Mama while she reads the story to you, and you get to hold the fuzzy bear the whole time.  You love your jumper, which is great for Mama and Daddy too.  Sometimes you start to get tired, but if we say the magic words “Jumpy, jumpy, jumpy!” you start hopping up and down again. 

Your fifth month also brought us a scare.  Two of your cousins contracted whooping cough, and we were worried you might have it too.  It’s a very scary thing for a baby to get whooping cough, but we got you medicine and Mama stayed home with you for five days.  Apparently you didn’t get this big without being a healthy girl, though, as you ended up being ok.  We were all so relieved when the tests came back clear. Plus, the doctor who checked you out said you were too strong for him to hold while he was examining you.  That made Daddy all kinds of proud.

You love to look at the sky when we drive, or when we take you for walks.  When Daddy gets you up in the morning, the first thing we do is walk over to the window so you can look out and touch the glass.  You also love dogs, which is a good thing in our family.  You’re learning to pet Serrie and Guinness without grabbing their fur, which they really appreciate.  When we go to Grandmama and Grandad’s you like to visit with Jake and Dolly, too.  You’re still not so sure about Yunqi, which I just take as additional confirmation that you’re a smart kid.  You’ve continued your fascination with Daddy’s beer glass, which I’m starting to worry could give someone the wrong idea.  We took you to Broad St Cafe for dinner so you could meet Chuck and Lee, and you greeted them by trying to steal their beers as well.  I guess we’ll blame that habit on me. 

This next one is a little difficult to address, but I’d rather you hear it from me.  Apparently, your Mama thinks you’re Weird.  Which is OK, she thinks Daddy is Weird too, but I should probably explain that.  Mama was really sick during your fifth month, and lost her voice for almost a week.  You seemed as confused as anybody by the notion of Mama not talking, but there was nothing she could do.  To compensate, Mama sent Daddy a lot of texts during that week.  One night while I was making dinner, she texted me to say “Your kid is weird.  Just sayin.” I responded to her that you’re her kid as well, to which she replied “But the weird is all from your side. ;)”  I feel that it’s important for you to know that you are at least a carrier for Weird, and possibly full-blown Weird yourself.  If you are, Mama is probably right that Daddy is to blame.   I just want to let you know that there’s nothing wrong with being Weird.  Daddy has been called Weird his whole life, and he’s still a productive member of society.  You should be proud of your ability to make remarkably authentic-sounding fart noises with your mouth.  And when you discover that you can make a new, non-farty, noise, I understand your need to try out variations of said noise for the next few hours.  I do the same thing.  Not caring about your vertical orientation?  Hanging upside down while playing with your toys is perfectly normal.  It may just be your infancy, but if you do grow up to be Weird, Daddy has your back.  We can face this together.

This seems like an awful lot to fit into one month, and I agree.  However, some members of your family are trying to force in another development.  It seems there are some folks that are determined for you to crawl.  You don’t need to rush into that.  Mama and Daddy are more than happy to be responsible for your movement from location to location right now, and you don’t need to be too eager about the whole crawling thing.  I will admit that Daddy got a little curious yesterday during tummy time to see how far along you are, though.  So I moved all of your toys to the far corner of your blanket, and waited to see what you would do.  You stared at them for a minute, tried to move yourself without much success, and then you looked down at your blanket, grabbed it with both hands, and pulled it in until you brought your toys to you.  Smart and Weird.  That’s my girl.  

Happy five months, Zoe.  You’re such an amazing little lady.

-Love, Daddy

(Vintage) PhotoBooth Phriday: 12/27/2011

She’s a little catatonic here, but I think she’s just evaluating her feelings on the shifted angle and its inherent statement on the duality of man:

Makin’ Baby (Food) - Roast Sweet Potato Puree

I was more excited about trying this one than I was about the peas, but the sweet potatoes take a little more time.  This recipe calls for roasting them rather than steaming, which is how I prefer to cook sweet potatoes for any kind of mashed/pureed application anyway.  I just feel like roasting helps concentrate the flavors, plus it’s a much more hands-free cooking method.  I just planned it out so the potatoes could cook while I had other things to do, and then spent a little time to finish things off. 

First off, the economy comparison.  While I was looking for “first foods” of the sweet potato variety, the only option I found was from the Tyler Florence line of baby foods called Sprout.  Far be it from me to question the dude who was schilling for Applebees a few years back, but this was a 2.5oz pouch on sale for $1.29.  I bought 1.8lbs of organic sweet potatoes (two potatoes) for $1.99/lb, and ended up with 11 2oz servings.  That keeps this one at the previous average of ~30¢/serving, which kicks the crap out of Tyler’s offering.  Economic Win.

Now, on to the process. Before you do anything else, get your oven heating to 425º.  As mentioned above, I started off with two sweet potatoes in the 1lb range each and gave them a quick wash and scrub with a veggie brush, then poked them all over with a paring knife to let the steam escape.  This is a key item when cooking potatoes of the sweet or not-so-sweet variety, as the actual cooking occurs due to the moisture within the potato being heated and forcing its way out in the form of steam.  If you provide escape points for said steam, it can disperse evenly and gives you a fluffier end product.  Just thought I’d share. 

Once the oven is preheated, you’re going to roast the potatoes for 45-60 minutes, or until you can insert the previously mentioned paring knife without any resistance.  The potato on the right was a bit larger, so it actually needed 75 minutes to finish up.  You don’t want to overdo it, though, so start checking early.  Just for reference, this potato is not done cooking:

This potato is done cooking:

Now it’s time for a couple of Pro Tips!

Pro Tip #1:  line your baking sheet with foil so you don’t have to scrub that sticky mess when you’re done.

Pro Tip #2:  after the potatoes are done cooking, let them rest for 15 minutes before cutting them open.  The flesh will pull away from the skin, and it will be easier to scoop it out.

This is how a potato looks if it’s rested before you split it:

At this point, go ahead extract the potato flesh and add it to the food processor.  Following the same process as the peas, puree it on its own at first and then add water/breast milk/formula to adjust the consistency.  I ended up adding 1/4cup of water, which I think was a little too much.  Maybe start with a tablespoon and go from there.  Either way, this was the final product:

At this point it was time to portion it out and freeze it for later.  I broke out my trusty metal ice cube tray, but this presented a few difficulties.  The first is measuring out portion size.  The second is trying to get the puree into the tray with minimal mess.  This leads us to our next Pro Tips!

Pro Tip #3: use a digital scale to measure portion size.  You can place your ice tray, or other container, on the scale, tare it out, and then measure 2oz servings for each cube.  If you want to be super-precise, which is my preference, tare it to zero after each serving.

Pro Tip #4: instead of trying to spoon or pour your puree into an ice tray, use the old Ziploc piping bag trick.  Just fill a 1-quart zip-top bag with the puree, seal it while pushing out any excess air, and then snip off the corner.  You can then use it to pipe the puree directly into each cell.

Just fill the cells with single-serving amounts of puree, freeze it, and pop them all into a sealed container for next time.

So, to sum this one up:

Wash two sweet potatoes (roughly 2lbs, total), prick them all over with a paring knife, and then roast them at 425º for 45-60 minutes, or until you can pierce them with a paring knife with no resistance.  Let them rest for 15 minutes, then split them and scoop out the flesh.  Puree in a food processor with a tablespoon or so of water/breast milk/formula until it reaches the desired consistency.  Portion out into single servings, then refrigerate for up to three days or freeze for up to three months.

Not sure what’s next on the list, but I’ll be sure to post whatever it is here…

(Vintage) PhotoBooth Phriday: 12/15/2011

More of a “feature” shoot for Zoe:

Makin’ Baby (Food) - Pea Puree

I’ve been planning to make Zoe’s food all along, but she started eating solids so early that I was a little behind schedule.  We got her started with the standards of rice cereal and applesauce, and then we decided to try out a couple of new flavors before I actually made any on my own.  I bought some organic sweet potato and pea purees at the store for us to try for her “first tastes,” and both were big hits.  We followed the standard process of only introducing one new food for at least three days, just to make sure there were no adverse reactions.  Once I knew she liked them both, it was time to try my hand at making them myself.

My reasons for making baby food instead of buying it are probably the same as for everyone else who makes that decision.  First, there’s the economy factor.  Those little jars of organic pea puree were on sale when I bought them, so it was ~70¢ per jar.  That’s worthwhile to find out if she likes it, not to mention that the organic options still come in the reusable glass jars that Gerber has abandoned.  But over the long haul, that can get pricey.  The pea puree I made, while not producing nearly as much as expected, still averaged out to less than half of that.  I spent $1.99 on a 16oz bag of frozen, organic baby peas.  I used maybe 6-7oz of peas (2 cups by volume), and I filled those three little jars.  So we’re looking at 30¢ per serving, tops.  I’ll take that anytime.  My only regret is that I should have just made the whole bag, but I’ll do that next time.  It’s still a learning process, and this is important to me.  We live in an area with ready access to organic foods for grown-ups, babies, hell, even for the dogs.  But I like knowing that I’m keeping an eye on exactly what she eats, and this lets me do that.  I feel like providing better food for Zoe, and Rebecca, is one of the ways I express my love for them.  And when you see the difference in the homemade stuff versus store-bought, it’s night and day.  Those purees I purchased were an olive drab in color, and seeing the bright green of what I made tells me that this is just better food, period. 

Enough of that, let’s talk about how the baby food gets made.  I used 2 cups of frozen peas, and it made ~6-7oz of puree.  To start, I put about an inch of water in the bottom of a saucepan and brought it up to a boil.  The volume of water should really be driven by the type of steamer you have, as it’s important that the water and food not come in direct contact with each other.  Steaming cooks things gently, while being simmered in water can leach away nutrients.  Once the water was boiling, I dropped the frozen peas in my steamer and set it over the pot.

I checked them at 5 minutes, but it took 7 until they were done.  Zoe got excited watching the steam coming from the pot, but I tried to keep her at a safe distance.

To check the peas for doneness, which just never looks like a real word, I scooped a few out onto a plate and mashed them with the back of a fork.  You’re looking for something like this:

At that point, I transferred them to a food processor and buzzed them until they were mostly smooth.  There were still some rough bits in there, though, so I added ~3 spoonfuls of the reserved steaming water and and pureed it down. 

I still wasn’t sure if the consistency was right, this being my first time, so I decided to enlist the help of a subject matter expert.  After careful review, the current state of the peas was approved (please excuse the poor flash management on this shot).

I even tried a little myself, and it was pretty damn tasty.  So, to sum things up:

Steam 2 cups of frozen baby peas over boiling water for 5-7 minutes, or until they can easily be mashed with the back of a fork.  Transfer said peas to a food processor and puree while adding a few spoonfuls of the steaming water to adjust the consistency.  If you increase the amount of peas you should clearly add more water to get your consistency right.  If the peas are piled fairly deep in your steamer, you should also stir them a few times while steaming to make sure they cook evenly.  Portion, pack up, and store in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 3 months.  If you’re lucky, they’ll look as pretty as this:

Now that we’ve conquered peas, the next stop is sweet potatoes.  Stay tuned…