2009 November

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Archive for November, 2009

Washing Rice Before Cooking for Baby Food

Nov 30, 2009 Cereals

We promised Anyvic that we would post about washing rice (see our post here). A few visitors wanted to know if they needed to wash the rice prior to making homemade baby cereal and if so, could they then dry it out prior to grinding.

Here is what we do and what we know. I never wash rice unless it is basmati or long grain brown rice. I always wash basmati and most of the time the brown rice too. Some types of rice, like arborio and short grain brown rice, are meant to be more sticky so no washing at all for these types.

When making homemade baby cereals, I have never washed any kind of rice. I have always ground the rice I make for cereals so sticky/starchy is not much of an issue. My little ones never ate a lot of rice for cereals rather, we used it to thicken and to mix with other foods. Texture was not a concern.

People who wash rice mostly wash it due to the level of starch. Washing rice will lessen the starch and give you a more dry and less sticky rice. As a sanitary measure, it really is not necessary to wash rice though many people do it for this reason alone. For baby food, I would measure out the rice, dump it in a fine mesh sieve and weed through it for any foreign bits prior to grinding. As the kiddos grew older, I stopped grinding and then went back to washing as I usually did.

Let us know if you do or do not wash your rice. We’d love to hear the reasons behind your rice practices too!

Baby’s First Christmas and more – Try Etsy!

Nov 29, 2009 holidays

If you’re looking for some really lovely handmade items for baby’s first Christmas, visit Etsy!

We love Etsy because everything is handmade, by people like you and me. The Etsy site states “Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.” A few years ago, we fell in love with some of the crafters who make felt toys for little ones. I continue to browse and buy amazing items from the awesome talented folks who set up shop on Etsy. Consider these lovely little “shops” for baby’s first Christmas items:

Heartfully Handmade – beautiful Christmas onesies

For Stitches Sake – Check out the Christmas and Winter themes handknit beanies.

ButtonWilloe – Adorable clay ornaments (check out sweet Baby’s First Christmas ornaments and the turtles!)

Ornaments by Deb - Beautiful hand painted and designed ornaments.

Friends of Socktopus - Personalized sock monkeys and other adorable sock animals. LOVE the Sweater Owls!

Kiddy Kouture – FELT play food is totally awesome.

If you have favorites on Etsy, do share them with us!

Lego and Duplo Special Offers –

Nov 28, 2009 Uncategorized, holidays

Our kiddos still love Legos but have graduated to the 1000303030 piece sets. UGH! These sturdy blocks are great for building motor skills and big imaginations! With a deal like this, we’ll be adding more!