Christmas Cookies for the Teachers

Baked some Christmas Cookies for SMALL FAN's school teachers using the Chewy Oatmeal Cookies recipes from my previous post. Then I made some icing using egg whites and icing sugar and decorated it. Looks quite good right?

By the way, here's the icing sugar recipe that I got from All Recipes.com, I modified it a little and the icing was enough for 60 cookies, it was really really easy to work with and it dries up quite fast. Will definitely using this recipe again when I need to decorate icing:

Royal Icing

• 2 Egg Whites
• 2 cups of Icing Sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Beat egg whites in clean, large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar and vanilla extract. Beat at high speed until thickened. NOTE: When dry, Royal Icing is very hard and resistant to damage that can occur during shipping/handling.

Homemade Baby Food: Red Pepper Risotto

Red Pepper Risotto

• 1/4 cup or 50g of long grain rice (I used brown rice instead)
• 300ml or 1 1/4 cup formula milk
• 75g red bell pepper
• 75g zucchini
• 50g celery (I opmitted this as I don't have it on hand)

1. Place the rice and milk in apan, bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
2. Discard the core and seeds from the pepper and trim the zucchini and celery. Rinse and wash the vegetables and chop them into small pieces.
3. Add the vegetables to the rice mixture, bring to boil, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the rice is soft.
4. Pree the rice mixture until smooth
5. Spoon a little into a bowl and serve. Freeze the remainder.

Verdict: Baby FAN doesn't really like this, I think may be due to the bell pepper, the taste can be quite strong.

Homemade Baby Food: Cheesy Pasta

Cheesy Pasta

• 1 carrot
• 1/4 cup of frozen corn
• a few broccoli florets (about 4 or 5)
• 50g or 2 oz dried pasta shapes
• 1 cup formula milk
• 50g or 2 oz cheddar or mild cheese

1. Peel the carrot, rinse and chop broccoli and carrot into pieces.
2. Place the prepared vegetables, corn, pasta and milk in a pan, bring to boil and then simmer, uncovered for 12 to 15 minutes, until the pasta is cooked.
3. Grate the cheese and add to the vegetables, stirring until the cheese has completely melted.
4. Process or mas just enough to give the desired consistency. Then spoon a little into a bowl. Test the temperature and cool if necessary before giving to the baby.
5. Freeze the remainder.

Variations: I actually cooked the pasta separately from the vegetables. Then I puree the vegetables and make it into a sauce before putting in the cheese. Once the cheese has melt, I pour the sauce over the cooked pasta and serve it to my boy. He loves it. Then I puree the pasta and mix it with the sauce for my baby girl.