baby food & a baby shower

It's been a crazy couple a weeks for me.  The oral surgery for my wisdom teeth turned out to be more complicated than expected.  I developed complications from the surgery and can honestly say that I've never experienced worse pain in my life!  The surgeon was super nice and I almost feel like we're family now with him and his staff after all the many visits and calls.  My sweet husband and friends were awesome and kept me fed with some truly delicious soups, smoothies and other mashed foods.   My friend Cara has a one year old and shared some of her delicious gourmet homemade baby food with me- that's a lucky baby I tell you!  Everyday I feel better- thanks for all your well wishes.

On to more fun things...Saturday I hosted a baby shower for a friend and her darling little baby boy.  He's just a little over a month old now and certainly got plenty of lovin' and snugglin' from all the ladies at the shower. The shower was held at one of my favorite tea places in DC.  It's a Chinese tea house called ching ching CHA in Georgetown.  The teas are wonderful and everything on their menu is delicious.  Upon choosing a tea, the ladies at the tea house present you with a teacup and teapot especially suited for brewing the particular tea you ordered.  They then teach you how to properly steep the tea and drink from the cup without spilling your loose tea leaves and flowers.  I also had fun creating the invitations with Asian rice paper and the favors were customized fortune cookies in take-out boxes.  Here's a few pictures from the tea house.

Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup

Giada DeLaurentis is one of my favorite chefs and last night Eddie helped me make one of my favorite soup recipes from her new book, Giada's Kitchen. The soup has a comforting, velvety texture that's hearty yet not heavy. The sage and garlic really give off amazing, scrumptious flavor. Usually we puree only half of the soup so that there's some whole beans and garlic pieces mixed in, but last night we pureed it all and that was great too.  Also we serve crusty French wheat bread (instead of Ciabatta) on the side, but of course I had to skip that last night but I highly recommend you partake. Dipping the crusty bread into this soup is oh so yummy!  This soup is quick and easy to make and doesn't require a lot of expensive ingredients.  Good on the budget and the tummy!   

Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 shallots, chopped

2 sage leaves, stems removed

2 (15 oz.) cans cannellini beans, rinse and drained

4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 slices of ciabatta bread

Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Place a medium, heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the butter, olive oil, and shallots. Cook, stirring occasional, until the shallots are softened. about 3 minutes. Add the sage leaves, cannellini beans, and garlic and stir to combine. Add the chicken broth to the pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook gently until the garlic is softened, about 15 minutes. Pour half of the soup into a large bowl. Carefully ladle a third to half of the soup from the bowl into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth (be careful to hold the top on the blender tightly, as hot liquids expand when they are blended). Pour the blended soup back into the pot and repeat with the remaining soup from the bowl. Once all the soup is returned to the soup pot, stir in the cream, salt and pepper. Cover and keep warm over very low heat.

Place a grill pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle the slices of ciabatta bread with the extra-virgin olive oil. Grill the bread until is is warm and golden grill marks appear, about 3 minutes per side. Serve the soup in bowls with the grilled break alongside.

Food Network also has a nice video of this recipe too. Click HERE to watch Giada make it.

*Photo and recipe courtesy of DeLaurentis, G. (2008) Giada's Kitchen. New York, New York.

happy valentine's day

I feel really lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life and today I'm sending all of you my love! xoxo

Of course, there is one person that is especially close to my heart.  He stands at 6'2", is very handsome, has beautiful soft brown eyes, he's incredibly sweet and soft spoken, and still gives me butterflies when he holds my hand. He makes me laugh like no one else can, makes me smile when I don't think I can, and makes me a better person by just being in my life.  I feel protected and at peace when he wraps his arms around me and I lay my head on his chest, my favorite place in the world. He's my best friend, my soul-mate, and my husband. I love you Eddie!  

These beautiful roses are gift from Eddie!  They're so pretty and smell lovely today!

Also have to share a couple photos from our honeymoon in Thailand. This is what we saw when we opened the door to our honeymoon suite in Phuket.  So romantic...

champagne, chocolates, exotic fruits, a lovely card

a warm bath filled with flower petals

kissing swans made from towels, rose petals and orchids

chipmunk cheeks

I can't talk but I can write and say thank you for all your well wishes!  The good news is it's over and all of my wisdom teeth are gone forever (thank God they don't grow back) and that I did NOT lose permanent feeling in my lower lip! I was so relieved when I realized I could feel my lip. The bad news is that the surgery was difficult and I'm in a lot of pain.  The morning of the surgery I received a call from the surgeon's office that they'd made a mistake and realized that they didn't have an alternative anesthesia for me (I'm unfortunately allergic to the most common one) and so I'd have to be awake for the surgery!  This made me even more anxious so they had me come in early for a little pharmaceutical assistance in relaxing. 

I won't go through all the gross details with you but the surgery took about 2 hours and was very difficult. Unfortunately I was very aware of what was happening.  Eddie has been amazing and I'm so thankful for him caring for me. He keeps a record of when I take my meds and lets me know when to do what.  Wednesday night he really got some good parenting practice because I was like an infant needing care at least every 2 hours.  I'm rockin' a steady diet of applesauce, yogurt, pudding and ice cream.  I'm very swollen (think Nutty Professor or a chipmunk with full cheeks).  The surgeon gave us a forewarning that I would likely be in a great deal of pain, more than the average patient, because of the way they were impacted and had to be extracted in pieces around the nerve.  He was right, I have never been in more pain in my life, no exaggeration. I'm trying to distract myself with books, internet surfing, t.v., music, and sleeping when possible.

Did you know?... 

• mandibular third molars are called wisdom teeth because they typically appear between ages 17-21 or older, when people are supposedly "wiser". 
• it's been postulated that the skulls of our human ancestors had larger jaws and more teeth to help chew down foliage and to compensate for the lack of ability to efficiently digest the cellulose that makes up a plant cell wall.  As human diet has changed, a smaller jaw was selected by evolution, yet the third molar (wisdom teeth) still commonly develops in human mouths.  
• Other findings suggest that a given culture's diet is a larger factor than genetics in the development of jaw size during human development (and thus the space available for wisdom teeth). 
• Different human populations differ greatly in the percentage of the population which form wisdom teeth, ranging from 0.2% in Bantu speakers to nearly 100% in Mexican Indians.  The difference is related to the PAX9 gene and perhaps other genes related to tooth formation.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_teeth

goodbye wisdom teeth

Tomorrow I'm having my wisdom teeth extracted and needless to say I'm not looking forward to it.  My regular dentist has been nudging me for a couple years now to have them checked out.  Now that engagement pictures, the wedding, classes, and honeymoon are over (no pun intended babe) now seems as good a time as any for undergoing an uncomfortable oral surgery.  

Last week I visited the oral surgeon and he "reluctantly suggested" I have them removed.  Reluctantly suggest, what's that mean?  He said that my xrays show signs that I ultimately might have problems with them in the future and need to have them removed.  But here's the kicker... Apparently my wisdom teeth are particularly difficult to remove due to their angle and the fact that the roots are hugging my lingual nerve like a opossum on a branch.  The oral surgeon says everyone has a slight risk but I'm in a high risk-group for losing permanent feeling in my lower lip!  This means that I might be a dribbler before 30!  He says I'm high-risk but not risky, so hopefully I will be fine.  Also, he said that as I get older the chances of losing permanent feeling in my lip would only increase.  I know he's very talented and came highly recommended so I'm going to hope for the best and get it over with.  At least I'll be completely knocked out and hopefully not feel or remember a thing.  

My sweet husband will be accompanying me and nursing me back to health.  The fridge and pantry are stocked with Jell-O, Danimals yogurt (just for added fun), tomato soup, Cream of Wheat, and let's not forget the ice cream!  Wish me luck!

meet effie

Yesterday was a beautiful day in DC! It was about 65 degrees with beautiful blue skies. We went for a nice bike ride on the C & O Canal and then strolled through Georgetown. It was obvious that we weren't alone in our desire to be outdoors, soaking up the sun and unusually warm February weather. The canal paths and Georgetown were flooded with people enjoying the outdoors. One of my favorite places to do yoga is in Georgetown and after a good, sweaty yoga session I love to sit and relax on the wall of the canal located just outside the front door of the studio. Although we didn't do yoga Sunday we did perch ourselves on the tall brick wall along the canal and enjoyed people-watching, chatting and getting our dose of Vitamin D. Ahh, sun!

Biking around the city is by far my favorite way of getting around and I don't know what I would do without my girl, Effie. She's a silver-blue, F400 (hence the name Effie) Cannondale mountain bike and is the best bike a gal could ask for. I ride her to work most days and have had many awesome adventures with her. She's been in the rain, snow, sleet, hail, sun, mud, sand, rocks, grass, water,...and never skips a beat! She even did a triathlon with me a couple years ago. You rock Effie, thanks for the great rides!

i'm blogging?

Yes, I'm starting a blog.  I've been thinking about doing this for awhile now and have decided to stop second-guessing it and just get on with it.  What am I going to blog about?  Well, I don't know yet and I'm thinking it's probably going to be pretty random.  My topics are likely to reflect what's cooking in my kitchen, crafting/sewing projects, health topics, movies we've watched, DC outings, my thoughts, etc, etc.  Come to think of it, it's likely to be pretty boring but I'm going to do it anyway.    Besides, sometimes the everyday things turn out to be more interesting than we think.  I appreciate details and the simple things in life.  And I think that's what life is all about- a collection of all the little moments pieced together to create a larger story.