Turtle Soup

No, that's not a play on words. I'm not kidding. We made turtle soup this week and it was an interesting experience. 
Ethan caught several turtles and decided that he wanted to see what they tasted like. We've both heard of turtle soup, but never actually knew anyone who's eaten it (that we know of anyways), so HE decided to try it. You start by using your wife's meat cleaver to behead your subjects (make sure it's one she doesn't want back, because it just may not stand up to the tough little guys).  Now, you need to watch out, because these things have crazy reflexes and will keep trying to bite you even after their heads are long since severed. Okay, next you have to detach the breast plate from the bottom of the turtle using a sturdy saw (warning, those crazy reflexes will kick in here, and the little guy will try to kick your hands away as you're doing this, watch out for the claws!) Now you can proceed to harvest the neck, leg, and loin meat from your victim. Basically, the easiest way to do this is just to cut the legs and neck off and then say to heck with the loin meat because in order to get it off the underside of the shell, you'd need to pull the spine out with a pry bar.
Now that you've butchered your turtles, here's what you do for your soup.

What you need:
Turtle meat
chicken broth
assorted veggies (carrots, onion, celery, etc...)

What to do:
Boil your turtle's legs and necks in the broth until the meat is tender enough to remove from the bones. Two turtles will produce about this much meat:
Return the meat to the pot, along with the veggies. Cook until everything is done, and then enjoy!
Okay, well unless you like to eat fishy tasting leather, I would recommend skipping that last part. I finally worked up enough courage to taste it, and it wasn't terrible, flavor-wise. I chewed and chewed that little hunk of turtle and after some serious chewing I finally spit it back out and looked at it. It looked just like it had before it went into my mouth. At least I can say I've eaten turtle, but can you?

More Baby Finger Foods

Well, maybe I'm the only one out there who is desperate for baby food ideas, but just in case, here's a few more things Erik likes to eat. 
 ENGLISH MUFFIN PIZZA
What you need:
English muffin (preferably whole wheat), sliced in half
Spaghetti Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Pepperoni (or lunch meat, or whatever you want to top your pizza with)
What you do: Spread the sauce on the english muffin, then sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the top of that. Top your pizza with whatever you've chosen, but make sure it's cut up into small enough pieces for you baby to handle. Place on a baking sheet and put in the broiler until the cheese melts. Cut into bite size pieces for a smaller baby, or leave whole for an older one, and serve.

 BAKED POTATO
What you need:
1 potato (I've been using sweet potatoes for this, but you could use regular ones as well)
What you do: You can just bake your potato like you would do for any old baked potato, but if you're like me you never plan that far in advance. So, I slice my potato into ~1/2 inch slices, spray them with cooking spray or brush them with butter(or oil, or whatever), and then bake them at 350 until they are soft enough for Erik to chew (15-20 mins). Once they've cooled enough to eat, I cube them up and they're ready to go. These store well in the fridge and taste yummy the next day
 ITALIAN TOFU TREATS
What you need:
Firm tofu, cubed
spaghetti sauce
bread crumbs (either pre-seasoned, or you can mix in some garlic and onion powders, basil, oregano, parsley, etc...)
What you do:
Roll the tofu in the spaghetti sauce, then in the bread crumbs. Bake at 350 until they are warm and crunchy.