fit to be wrapped

Magid, I repeat: some people can make anything sound risque. You can make anything into food. Do your worst.

Today, the Toddles and I drove out to Framingham in the rain, to meet a lovely mama who'd driven in to run errands and....drop off my new wrap. It's a hemp-cotton jersey fabric, undyed with a green vine in the middle (helpful, that), 4.3 meters long. Yowza, that's a lot of fabric. And it gets used surprisingly quickly.

Should I be surprised that the previous owner/maker of this wrap is another nursing mum? That her blog has the word 'natural' in the title? That her child also has an allergy? Okay, yes, the last one surprised me - other than that, I suspect that mamas crazy enough to wear their babies also share a number of parenting approaches, in a self-selecting sort of way.

A couple of meetings and one pick-up later, the Toddles, the Eldest and I were all home and looking at each other consideringly. I had chicken marinating in the fridge, and freshly made breadcrumbs. The plan was for lemon breaded chicken, but how, oh how to have my hands free and the kiddos happy?

Natch, we wrapped. I used a simple back wrap, though I rather wish I'd used this one, but I'll try that over the weekend. Wrapped on my back, the Toddles held his pig puppet firmly, and relaxed. Five minutes later, the chicken was in the oven and the Eldest was enjoying feeding bits of apple to his swaddled sib.

Heaven. And so simple! Thanks, mama, for making this possible. Next up, the ORANGE moby arrives....orange. My heavens.

On a different note, first round of edits on the book happened this week. Whoo-hah. Tough to edit something with so little text as a children's book, and it was a nice challenge. And so exciting to see things moving!
*************************************

Sound of small voices downstairs, clumping of blocks. Occasionally, a bigger Man voice passes through. Happy Y-chromosome chaos, while I'm wrestling with my column. Ah.

Then,
No, NO, NO!
(thwack)
(wail)
Eldest: Dad, he was breaking the blocks and I told him NOT to!
Toddles (wailing): bomp! BOMP!

I wonder if the Eldest realizes that his days are numbered, as spin-master. Already, the Toddles is starting to tell his own side of the story...ain't sibs grand?

**************************************
GF-Lemony Breaded Chicken

1 chicken
2 lemons
olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder
paprika
black pepper
safe breadcrumbs (I just whirl stale homemade bread in the food processor, spread over a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for ten minutes. Let cool, bag and keep in fridge/freezer)

The night before:
Wash chicken, dump in ziploc bag. Squeeze lemons and pour into a bowl/1-2 c masuring cup. Add olive oil until you have 50/50 olive oil/lemon juice. Toss in salt, pepper (to taste - how's that for helpful!). Close up ziploc bag and put in fridge, laying it flat.

Day Of Eating:
Use cooking spray to coat a baking dish.
Flip bag over a couple of times, so that both sides of the chicken spend some time in the marinade. 1.5 hrs before dinner, pull it out.
Pour 2 c breadcrumbs into a bowl (you might need a little more, a little less depending on how thick you like your crumb coating). Add garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, to taste (okay, okay - maybe 1 tsp paprika, 3/4ths tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp pepper).
Dip chicken into crumbs, coating both sides.

Note: because you have no egg for this recipe, the crumb coating is kind of thin. I pat extra on top of the chicken, once it's in the baking pan.

bake 375 F, for about 45 minutes. Check to see that it's done.

Note: don't have gluten-free, nut-free, vegan bread and the Imperfects are coming over? Ener-G makes a safe rice bread, sold at some Shaws/Star Market stores, and the Harvest Coop in Central Sq, Cambridge. Check the ingredients and label for allergy warnings, but as of 5/2/2007 the bread looked fine. Whirl in a food processor and bake on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes, 350 F or until golden brown.