Category Archives: Parenting

Happy First Anniversary to Baby Birds Farm and Cocina!

Just looked at the calendar and realized that it has been one year since the first post! Happy first blogo-versary to us!

Early Posts

I was just looking back at some of the old posts and photos. I think my photography has gotten a little better. In the beginning I mostly used my iPhone and Instagram filters. Some are really out of focus! Initially I thought I would be able to talk my husband into taking all the photos. Instead he opted to “teach me to fish” and taught me some of the basics of using our “big camera” and basic photo editing and processing.

I still love some of the earliest posts and recipes, like:

Tomato Time: Putting Up for Winter  putting up garden tomatoes

Family Traditions: Camping, Shooting Stars and PancakesJulia Pfeiffer

Stats: A Year in Review

I was also being a geek and looking at a year’s worth of statistics. I was curious about how people come to my site. Over the past year, my top three referral sources to date have been: 1. Search Engines (i.e., people looking for a specific topic); 2. Facebook; and 3. Pinterest.

The most commonly searched for topics have been “Belly Butter” or a variation, and some variation on “Healthy Banana Smash Cake.”

Top Posts

And, not surprisingly considering the search topics, my top 5 posts to date have been (in order of most viewed):

20120808-230621.jpg
 belly butter recipe for natural stretch mark prevention
(Trivia: yes, that is my belly in the above photo, pregnant with Little Bird #1. I am currently about as big with Baby Bird #2.)

Social Media and More

The past year of blogging has been fun. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time. I’ve learned a lot. I pretty much get to write about whatever I feel like or have been up to. I started contributing to another website, as well, The Boob Group. And somehow the “brand” has expanded to several social media sites. Each one seems to have it’s own character and purpose and I often post things on each one that I don’t share here on the blog or on the other sites. So, please connect with me on FacebookTwitterPinterest, the Baby Bird’s Farm Google+ page, and my personal Google+ profile.

Who knows what the next year will bring?!

Part Two: Making Cheese with Young Kids

Thought I’d share some quick pictures I took on the second day of making chèvre with my daughter. Check out my original post on making goat cheese for step by step instructions and the recipe. I recently shared how she liked to sprinkle in the chèvre starter and stir the pot. Today she spontaneously played cheesemaking with her toy pot and spoon, saying, “Stir milky.” She also enjoyed putting salt on a plate for rolling the logs. (Check out this post for more ideas on cooking with babies and toddlers.)

homemade chèvre hand formed logs

Here are some of the logs we made out of the goat cheese. Shown are one plain, two with black truffle salt and Little Bird’s cranberry. This batch came out a little dry, so I mixed in a few splashes of fresh milk along with some salt before shaping the logs. Can you guess which one Little Bird helped shape? She loved getting the cranberries ready, but once we formed the log she had a minor temper tantrum when I wouldn’t let her stuff the entire log into her mouth, squeezing it in both hands like a burrito.

Homemade goat cheese with cranberries.

She finally got to enjoy the fruits of her labor during her after-dinner cheese course. She’s Euro like that.

Making Cheese with Kids

Making fresh goat cheese (chèvre) at home is so easy even a young child can do it! My toddler LOVES to be involved in the kitchen and we believe it helps teach her healthy habits and attitudes about food. It is time to make a fresh batch of chèvre and here are some quick shots of Little Bird demonstrating how we enjoy making cheese with kids.

Making Cheese with Kids

In the above picture, Little Bird is holding a digital thermometer in the milk to make sure it is the right temperature. (I accidentally overshot 86°, and had to put it in a cold water bath to bring it back down. I learned the hard way, do not put your starter in milk that is too hot, i.e. over 90°, or it won’t set. It won’t “go bad” or make you sick but it will be more like buttermilk or runny sour cream than nice, sweet cheese.) Below she is sprinkling in chèvre starter.

making cheese with kids - adding chèvre starter

For all the details of how to make chèvre, including step by step instructions with pictures, please click here. And for more on how to involve very young children and babies in cooking, please read this post.

 

Updates and News

Hey all, I’ve got a few quick updates!

1. I’ve joined theboobgroup.com as a regular blogger. My first post, on Breastfeeding While Pregnant, was published this week.

Breastfeeding While Pregnant

2. Next, if you read my post on Our Baby Centered Approach to Introducing Solids, you may have seen that I recently joined a taping of the Boob Group podcast on “Breastfeeding and Introducing Solids” as a panelist. The podcast is now live and available here or through the podcast app on your smart phone.

Introducing Solids


3. And congratulations to Tamara, winner of our giveaway of three of our favorite natural morning sickness remedies! Although her selection was random, I was happy our winner is someone who can currently benefit from some relief. I hope at least one of the products helps her!

Win a Morning Sickness Prize Pack!


Win Mama Bird’s Natural Morning Sickness Remedies Gift Bag!

Want to win the natural morning sickness remedies pictured in my post, Mama Bird’s Big List of (Mostly) Natural Morning Sickness Remedies?

Win a Morning Sickness Prize Pack!

I’m giving away a prize pack of three of my most favorite! All you have to do is comment on the original post with which method you would most likely try, who you would like to give the gift to, or with what worked for you. You may enter once each day, starting NOW, and ending at midnight (PST) one week from now (Thursday, May 9th.) The winner will be selected randomly from the comments, using random.org. Remember to comment on the original post, not on this one, so that the comments are all in one place!

One winner will win one (1) package each of Psi BandsPreggie Pop Drops, and Ginger Chews (as pictured above.) The prizes will be mailed free of charge within the United States.

That’s it! No other catch or requirements. But feel free to share with friends and subscribe to the blog in the box in the upper right, “like” us on Facebook, and/or follow on Twitter and Pinterest!