one thing i've learned as a new mommy is that swaddling is the key to sleep. at least it is the key for michael to sleep. my friend jessica introduced us to swaddle designs swaddle blankets - quite possibly the best swaddle blankets EVER. they have a product called the "Ultimate Receiving Blanket" and it is awesome. the key to it is that it is bigger than any other receiving blanket you can get - so it makes it much easier to "make the burrito" as we say.
so my friend beth got me some baby socks called trumpettes back when we found out i was prego. they are quite possibly the BEST baby socks ever! plus they come in the cutest patterns...LOVE THEM. here are a couple pics and a link to where you can go get some.
ok folks. its been a century since i've posted on the blog, but no time like the present to get back into the groove of things. since i last posted, i got pregnant and had a baby! michael dominick berarducci arrived on march 26, 2009 and is the light of our lives. here is a picture of michael and mommy.
This week is Baltimore's Restaurant Week. All the participating restaurants have pre fixe menus that include an appetizer, entree and dessert for $30...pretty good deal especially for the higher end restaurants. We have two reservations this week - one at Roy's Hawaiian, and Asian Fusion seafood place and then tomorrow night we are going to Flemings, a Baltimore steakhouse.
Roy's was absolutely incredible. I had a Pacific Blue Marlin called Kajiki and it was just amazing. I am not a fish person and this fish was phenomenal. It was a white fish and very mild. It was served with this green "jade" sauce with some stir fry vegetables and rice.
Tomorrow night we'll wait and see if Flemings is just as yummy!
tonight i made roasted red pepper cream sauce. it took awhile, but it was worth it. we had it with some fresh tortellini. it was fabulous. here is the recipe:
1. roast 3 red peppers. they roast better if you quarter them. let the peppers cool in a bag and then take the skin off.
2. chop up the red peppers and cook with 3 TB EVOO, 2 TB chopped garlic and 1/4 c fresh basil. let this simmer for 10 minutes - it should smell delish.
3. take this concoction and process it in the food processor until it is good and blended.
4. return it to the skillet and stir in 2 c of half/half and a 1/4 c of romano.
5. add in 4 TB butter. melt butter and simmer for about 5 min.
serve over tortellini, ravioli or any type of pasta. it was way good. sorry, it was gone before i thought to take a pic.
inspired by my parents tomato plants, tony and i decided to start up a couple of our own. we have been watering faithfully and have several tomatoes but they are all still green. hopefully in a couple more weeks we'll have some tasty red ones for our salads and sauces :)
while we were waiting for the fireworks...lots of boats passed by on the Potomac on their way to the show. here are a couple that we thought were interesting...
We had front row seats!
For the 4th of July, Tony and I went down to DC to watch the fireworks from Bolling Air Force base. There was hardly anyone there! Here are some pics we took of the show. It was fabulous - although the weather wasn't cooperating. We got rained on a couple of times - but it was worth it!
a colleague and friend of ours bought us some calla lily bulbs as a housewarming gift. they are blooming and beautiful!
in honor of our independence we bought and hung a flag.
this week we are dogsitting my brother-in-law's boxer, sammy. i think that once you have two dogs, adding more isn't that big of a deal. but it is a big difference to have a 70-80 lb boxer bounding around - compared to newman and riley she definitely is a little bigger. but she is really sweet. here a a few pics of her, newman and riley clowing around.
on saturday a colleague of mine had a boat party at his marina to celebrate his birthday. it was hot, but as soon as the sun went down the combination of beers, boats and blue sky was great.
tony and i decided to head down to main street ellicott city, md on saturday. man, it was hot. but we didn't want to sit in the house all day. ellicott city is definitely what main street america is all about. we scouted some potential cupcake shop locations - but weren't sure about it. the traffic was ok - the shopkeepers told us that traffic was low because of the heat. there was only one other bakery that had cupcakes - and they only had two flavors. it was a nice afternoon.
while kath and i were in kusadasi turkey, i picked up a kayseri carpet. kayseri is a region in central turkey. the carpet that i bought was a 6x9 wool on wool with a beautiful blended medallion pattern. i was super nervous about bringing it back into the states, because i had to go through customs and pay duty on it. i decided to bring it home with me instead of shipping it. anyway, i just love it and now i think i might be addicted to these types of carpets...not so good for my wallet. this one is semi-old and the carpet man, hakan from Design Carpet Gallery http://www.designcarpetgallery.com. hakan said the carpet was around 40 years old, putting it on the younger side of semi-old, but still in the vicinity. it was really unusual because it had very light sage green and muted blue in the pattern -- which we could hardly find anywhere!
before we visited, i had some some preliminary research on the types of carpets and the regions - but we got a fantastic education at the grand bazaar in istanbul. we used istanbul as our test drive. we heard from several people that buying in kusadasi was better b/c it was smaller and easier to diget. we were also told that it was somewhat less espensive than istanbul. i was really glad that we did our research in istanbul...we must have visited 5 or 6 different shops.
I have had a cupcake fascination lately. i really want to start my own cupcake business. tony volunteered to taste test every cupcake i make...isn't he sweet? honestly though it just seems like it would be a really fun business to have. and i think the ellicott city/columbia area would be perfect. that and i love to bake. i think the only dilemma would be that i would have to work like a dog to make it work...although, i already work like a dog, so it is not like i would be changing much. but at least the end product would be sweet and edible instead of, well, not sweet and edible. i have been following a few blogs recently:
52 Cupcakes - This lady actually lives in the DC area too! She is a blogging maniac.
Sometimes I wonder how everyone finds so much time to blog. I mean, I get home and after dinner and doing more work, all I want to do is vegetate in front of the Food Network.
Cupcakes Take the Cake - This is a blog all about cupcake shops. How cute!
Delleicious in DC - This is a blog dedicated to DC area cupcake shops! I need to study this.
Tony says I need a business plan, but really what i think i need is to START BAKING! No time like the present.
Here is a picture of me with the camp staff in at the Linyanti camp in Botswana.
Elephants swimming at Chobe.
Wild Dogs in the Linyanti.
Bull elephant making a rukus in the road.
Chobe elephants enjoying a mid-day splash.
A walking safari in Selinda area.
A BIG hippo.
On Safari in the truck.
Me and our safari vehicle.
Leopard and Impala kill in tree
Male lion in the Linyanti.
Same lion.
Young elephants.
Tent at Pom Pom Camp.
Self portrait in Selinda.
Elephant at sunset in Selinda.
Tony with bull elephant in Linyanti.
Victoria Falls, Zambia
Beautiful Victoria Falls
Elephant bones in Savute Channel.
for kath's birthday we went to the spanish tapas restaurant jaleo in arlington. it was yummy.
Tony and i have been all consumed in preparing for our upcoming botswana safari. a couple weeks ago we recieved our safari package from our travel agent "Eyes on Africa" - highly recommended by the way. Marguerite was very patient as we changed our minds about 10 times - and she worked with our budget - which for as much as we've spent, very budget minded for Botswana.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, we are going on the Migration Routes luxury mobile tented safari offered by Wilderness Safaris. For the areas of Botswana we are visiting, we went to Passport Health, a local travel clinic to determine which shots would be needed. We learned that our primary care physician cannot administer the "exotic" vaccines. So we went to the primary to get Hep A, Hep B and tetnus and at the travel clinic we got Typhoid and Malaria. Luckily, that was all we needed. I was nervous that we may need Yellow Fever or Rabies - but we managed to escape those.
So, when we received our travel docs from Eyes on Africa - we can only bring one 12x10x24 inch soft sided duffel. This is VERY small - especially for me. But we are working with it. We also have to plan for different types of weather - they say its upper 50s in the evening and the 90-100F during the day. We also have to come prepared for possible showers!
Over the weekend, we both bought two pairs of convertible pants. We've been told, these are a must - especially since the early morning drives can be a little chilly. We can't bring any bright colors (ie: red etc) or any white clothing. The women are advised not to wear skirts -- and of course this is my mainstay during the summer. So I have gone out and got a couple pairs of shorts, some capris and then of course the convertible pants.
Tony bought an electricity converter tonight. We had to get a converter that would convert to 220V for our camera and camcorder batteries. We have been told we can bring a backpack and I think we may bring some normal luggage and leave it in Johannesburg with the safari company.
We don't need to get any visas where we are going. We will need a visa in Zambia, but apparently you can purchase one at the border crossing.
We are trying to prepare for the 15 hour flight. We are flying direct from Dulles to Johannesburg. Not sure how we are going to handle this one yet -- although, our airline has a 15 movie video library available from our seats - so hopefully that will keep us entertained for at least a portion of the flight. We will also probably bring some reading and puzzles...or something!
