failures

Anya's latest joy this week is opening and shutting doors and cabinets, and then rifling through contents of said cabinets. This means we really, really needed to get off our butts and put in some cabinet latches. So yesterday, I headed down to the local ACE Hardware and picked some up. There were a few choices: the ones that require a magnetic key to open (expensive), the kind that you squeeze 2 prongs together to open (mid-range), and the cheapest push-down latch ones. I opted for the mid-range choice, thinking they would be better than the cheapest ones, and magnetic ones would be overkill. What a mistake. After installation, once I opened and shut the cabinet doors a dozen times, the prongs became misaligned. The plastic was so flimsy that every time I want to shut the door now I have to wiggle them back into shape so they will fit through the slots and latch. They'll work until I get something better, hopefully this weekend. So if there are any moms and dads reading this who haven't baby proofed, do not buy the "Child Safe Cabinet and Drawer Latch". But on that note, anyone have latches they are really happy with? Do I need to just suck it up and get the magnetic ones?

Another lesson learned yesterday: do not put potatoes and spinach in the food processor. I set out to make Anya some meal cubes of spinach and potatoes, as she is a fan of the combo. I oh-so-lovingly steamed fresh potatoes and a big bunch of spinach, let it cool, and then tossed it all in the food processor to make a semi-smooth consistency. Apparently this was a bad idea. The starch in the potatoes had some reaction with the spinach/steaming liquid and ended up making a perfect glue. The consistency was very similar to mochi. It was incredibly difficult to remove from the food processor bowl, blade, and my hands and Anya certainly would have choked on it. Weird. I don't know if it's because I steamed everything or if it was the type of potatoes I used, or the fact that I used the food processor. Who knows. I'll probably try it again, since a jar of spinach and potato baby food isn't cheap (well, one jar is, but several meals isn't). I ended up steaming some more spinach and served it with some mixed grain baby cereal for dinner, so our precious baby didn't starve last night.