Nagymama Comes to Town + Homemade Bread

Saturday

Arthur woke up at 6:30 on Saturday morning. Miklós staved off his hunger with the rest of the spinach purée, until I got up and used him to relieve my uncomfortably engorged boobs. For his afternoon snack, he got some homemade whole-milk yogurt mixed with crumbled tofu and shrimp. He seemed to like it alright, although is still not a fan of swallowing the shrimp.

Happy to have another admirer!

It was an exciting day for everyone: Nagymama was arriving! Miklós's mom got here right after snack time, and she and Miklós took Arthur along with them to have their own food at a restaurant downtown. It was Arthur's first time at a restaurant (unless the three coffee shop visits count), so I was curious how it would go. Luckily for everyone involved, he fell asleep almost as soon as they set off, and remained sleeping for the duration of their meal.

His nagymama was completely besotted with Arthur, of course, and took him for another walk in the late afternoon. And she helped to feed him his solid dinner: a ready-made baby food purée consisting of sweet potato, carrot, chicken, and broccoli! The chicken and broccoli were both new for Arthur, but he seemed to like the purée quite a bit. I also gave him a little bit of the bread I had made, and he seemed to really enjoy that as well.

So, on Saturday, Arthur ate:

• spinach

• olive oil

• shrimp

• tofu

• yogurt

• chicken

• broccoli

• sweet potato

• carrot

• homemade spelt bread

Sunday

A 6:00 wakeup for Arthur. Poor Papa did his best to keep him satiated with more of the chicken/broccoli/sweet potato/carrot purée until he could get to my boob.

Ho ho ho!

It was a busy day for Arthur; after his first breakfast, he had a bath, and after his second, a very long walk with his nagymama. After lunch, Arthur and his papa took the mamas in their lives to Mama Café, where Arthur enjoyed playing the "ho" game with Nagymama while the adults enjoyed lattes. Not sure whether we should be concerned that he keeps calling the adults in his life hos, though.

Then, Mama and Papa had a proper date at a proper restaurant, while Nagymama stayed home and babysat Arthur. She was able to keep him entertained for about an hour, and fed him the rest of the purée he had had in the morning, but the little dude began to get hungry and tired after that, and she had her hands full trying to keep him from crying. I think he was very happy when we got home and I could give him some boobage, at which point he could hardly decide whether to nurse or to fall asleep.

But Miklós and I sure had a nice evening! Special time in the morning, coffees at a café, dinner at a restaurant...it felt almost like the days when we were young and childfree and could do what we wanted when we wanted. I did feel bad for Arthur when we got back, though - he was very ready for dinner and bedtime. So we tried to get that to happen as quickly as possible.

On Sunday, therefore, Arthur's solid intake was not as diverse as usual, and he only consumed:

• chicken

• broccoli

• sweet potato

• carrot

So, on Sunday, we had a proper restaurant dinner experience! On Saturday, Miklós made another one of his specialties, lecsó. I wanted to contribute to the dish, so I decided to try my hand at homemade bread! I'd made simple yogurt + flour + baking powder instant bread in the past, and that's pretty good, but I wanted to try my hand at a proper, yeast-based bread for the first time. I found this recipe which seemed beginner-friendly and had great reviews, and pretty much just followed it, though I swapped a packet of instant yeast for the active dry yeast, and used a mixture of white and whole-wheat spelt flour. I didn't have a Dutch oven, so just cooked it in a stainless steel stovetop pot, and used foil instead of a lid. It felt a little soft after I finished the recipe as stated, so I stuck it back in the oven for a bit longer, out of the pan and directly on the rack. And it turned out pretty well for a first try - nice and yeasty! Next time, I might try making it into a baguette, maybe with some mix-ins liked roasted garlic, olives, nuts, and/or herbs, and putting it in a glass baking tray. So many possibilities! Anyways, here's how I made it:

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Simple No-Knead Bread (makes 1 medium loaf)

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour (I used half whole-wheat and half white spelt flour)

• 1 ¾ cup water (I did make sure it was between 38 and 43 degrees Celsius, as the recipe stated, but I think it doesn't matter if you're using instant yeast like I was)

• 1 packet instant yeast (7g)

• 1 tsp salt

• additional flour, as needed

Instructions

1. Mix together the flour, salt, and yeast in a large mixing bowl.

2. Slowly add in the water, mixing with a spatula until you have a sticky dough.

3. Cover the dough with a clean towel or plastic wrap, and put in an area away from drafts (like in a cool oven) for at least 5 minutes or overnight.

4. When the dough has tripled in size, uncover it and flour the counter.

5. Place the dough on the counter, sprinkle more flour, and roll it around a few times until it isn't sticky anymore and can be formed into a loaf. Form it into whatever shape you like (and will fit in your dish!)

6. Line an oven-safe dish (I used a stainless-steel stovetop pot) with parchment paper and put your loaf in the dish. Cover with a lid, or, if you don't have one, with foil.

7. Put the dish in a cold oven. Turn oven on to 230 degrees Celsius, and let bake for 30 minutes.

8. After 30 minutes, remove the lid/foil.

9. Bake an additional 30 minutes, or until it's light and golden all over, or, if using whole wheat flour, brown and crispy on the outside.

10. If needed, remove from pot, and bake another 10-15 minutes directly on the oven rack to get crispier sides and bottom.

11. Let cool 5-10 minutes, and enjoy!