Adventures in Pureeing

I’ll be honest, my mini-food processor has not been called into service very often. I did make basil pesto last summer, and there have been times where I have chopped up herbs and/or nuts, but that is really about it. I am not someone who made their own baby food (hoo-rah to those that do) or make up any non-traditional concoctions.

The dry spell ended this past week, and it was an…interesting…experience, to say the least.

My first adventure was initiated by our visit to Ben’s parents house over Labor Day weekend. They have a gigantic garden – probably twice the size of our entire lot – and about half of it was pumpkins. Unfortunately, they planted them about a month too early, so they have literally hundreds of ripe pumpkins…right now. So, when we headed home, we took about 15 pumpkins with us, which are all sitting on our front porch right now. (Quite the conversation piece in our neighborhood)

Ben had the fabulous idea that we should make pumpkin pie using fresh pumpkin, so he downloaded the directions and started cooking up the pumpkin. It wasn’t too bad actually, especially because Ben did most of the work and I just dumped in the rest of the ingredients. We ended up with two loaves of pumpkin bread and two pumpkin pies – a nice treat in September. And they were actually pretty tasty…we just had to add a little more sugar to compensate for the pumpkins not being true pie pumpkins.

My second adventure started about two weeks ago, when I randomly checked out the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfield. I saw it on the Express shelf, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a look. This past Sunday when I was planning my meals for the week, I decided that I should try one or two recipes before I had to return it. So this Wednesday I made Spaghetti Pie for dinner, which included broccoli and carrot puree.

First off, I cooked the broccoli, which elicited a huge “ewwww” response from Madi in the other room. Then, I went to puree it, and it just turned into a green pasty, chunky glop. Then I pureed some carrots, which didn’t end up super smooth either, but I threw it all in anyways. The broccoli went into the meatballs and the carrot went into the sauce, and my fingers crossed in hopes that Madi would eat it.

So, we get to the dinner table, and the very first thing that Ben says was, “there is a lot of green in these meatballs”. I shot him a “keep your mouth shut” look, but Madi went to eat the meatball, and she says, “what is all this broccoli doing in here – I don’t like broccoli”. Sigh. She did eat some of it, mostly the noodle part, but so much for the “hidden” vegetables.

I have some sweet potato puree ready to use in grilled cheese and a chicken nugget recipe, but I don’t think I am sold on the whole idea. Too much work for minimal reward, especially with my too-smart kiddo who can spot a green veggie a mile away. Back to the drawing board, I guess.