Breakfast, lately

The jet lag is finally wearing off after our trip home to the States. It was a good week or so of the baby and I having a "who can sleep more" contest. She won. So in an effort to get back to "normal" I'm trying out some new recipes. As usual, I have to modify them for what is available here, something I think I'm finally used to. Although I've been making things for meals throughout the day, here's what breakfast has looked like lately...
Strawberry season is in full swing so here are some strawberry muffins (and some One Good Woman coffee)
Next up are Mushroom and Cheddar Frittata Cups with home fries... Now for the recipes...

Strawberry Muffins
I used this one to start but the batter was too thick and I wanted to make a few changes...

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 to 1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

1tsp lemon zest
3 tsps sugar
1 tbs cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture. Add vanilla. Gently stir in strawberries and lemon zest.

Spoon batter into muffin pans.

Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes.

Makes one dozen muffins.

As for the frittata cups, they were an early morning idea I had while lying in bed. I've seen similar recipes (South Beach, maybe?) but this one is all my own.

Mushroom and Cheddar Fritatta Cups

I only have a 6 muffin tin, but you could easily double this for a bigger pan. I could see this being an easy brunch dish!

7 eggs
1/4 cup milk
handful sliced mushrooms
handful grated cheddar
butter for the pan
salt and pepper to taste

pre heat oven to 350
grease the muffin pan
in a bowl whisk together the eggs and the milk
gently pour the egg mixture into the individual muffin cups
evenly divide the cheddar and the mushrooms between each cup and sprinkle each over top
salt and pepper each cup
Bake for about 20 minutes or until brown on top

Consider these recipes a make up kiss for not blogging enough. I'll try to not stay away so long next time... : )

the 10lb life changer

I'm guessing on the weight since it's been a few weeks since the last weigh in, but here she is!

Ramona Sabine Wray Dworkin was born on Ocotber 25th at 9:25pm. It was quite an ordeal, which I won't go into here (visit the baby blog for that saga) but I'll just say that it was 2 days of waiting, contracting, and screaming for drugs. Here are some "Egyptian" details from the experience...
*Ira had to go to the hospital and reserve a room the day before (I was induced)
*we stayed in a suite where they brought a fruit bowl each day
*nurses that don't speak English
*baby girls get their ears pierced at birth, therefore everyone thought she was a boy (and still do)
*you have to pay for all the services up front
I'm sure there are other things that I'm either forgetting or blocking out, but those are some highlights. It was really fine all around. She's perfect and lovely and we are loving every minute of parenthood.
That being said, please forgive my long absence from the blogs and thank you (most of you) for not harassing me too much about it. I am back! I can't promise regular postings, but when I get a moment where there's a nap that I'm not participating in, I'll be posting. Although, as promised when I found out I was pregnant, all baby blabber will be reserved for the other blog. Also, I'm planning on posting crafting, knitting, and sewing on that blog. So if that's your thing, check it out.
We leave in 2 weeks for our trip home for the holidays, can't wait!

Jenna and the Giant Peach

Ok, I know this is a lame blog post, and I've been a slacker AGAIN. But Ira brought home the biggest peach I've ever seen and I had to share! This also leads me to talk about how OBESESSED I am with the juicer and the blender/food processor we bought a couple weeks ago. I am pulverizing anything I can these days. Here are some of the fun things I've been making; smoothies made from everything from Mango to Peach to Guava, Homemade salsa, pear ginger juice, orange juice, plum apple juice, pommegrante/apple/pear juice...but I would say the crowning glory would have to be the watermelon mint granita we had with dinner the other night. Just watermelon, mint, and ice, yum!

Our week in Paris

Ira and I spent a week in Paris en route back to Cairo. Although we had both been there before, I thought we managed to find a balance and do lots of things we hadn't done before...
DISCLAIMER: My French spelling sucks and I am too lazy to look it up or ask my fluent husband. We landed early in the morning on monday and made our way to the hotel by bus. We stayed at the Edouard IV in Montparnasse. We couldn't check in right away, so we had a little bite to eat at one of the cafes next door. After getting up to our room (small but very clean) I needed a shower and a nap. Ira pretended that he didn't need a nap, but cut to 4 hours later when we were both waking up from some much needed rest. After that, we went to the Pompidu Center. I had never been there before, it was great. And the view was not to be believed. After that we had a lovely little dinner right across the street from the museum. We then made our way to another little spot for some dessert.
The next day we went to the Musee D'Orsay, one of my favorite places on earth. I love the old converted train station, it's just a magnificent space. We then walked to the St. Germain area for a late lunch. We took the metro back to the hotel because my pregnant feet couldn't take any more walking at that point. We stopped at the cafe for some ice cream for me and a beer for Ira. We had an early night, I'm pretty sure the pregnant mama was asleep by 9pm.
Wednesday we went to one of my OTHER favorite places on earth, the Rodin Museum and gardens. I had special memories of this spot when I was there with my Aunt Barb several years ago. We got there too late to go in the museum but had a wonderful couple of hours in the rain exploring the gardens and dreaming on the benches. Ira and I were lucky enough to go inside and it was just as spectacular as I imagined it would be all those years ago. I think I took more pictures in there than any other place we visited. It was a bright and sunny day this time, I can't decide if maybe I liked it more in the rain...I didn't want to leave, but eventually my hunger won out and we had a fabulous lunch, probably my favorite of the trip. I ate a huge cheese plate that I'm still thinking about weeks later. After lunch we walked down the street to the Quai Branley Museum. It was a very interesting space. It had a lot of great pieces of African art and Ira wanted to go there to see a Tarzan exhibit. He was less than thrilled with it, but we were glad we went anyway. Next, we were off to the Eifel Tower. We had intended to go up but the lines were so long! So we settled for admiring it from below and taking pictures. It was kind of funny, most days we ate lunch so late that we didn't even need dinner. But I always needed dessert!
For our last full day we went to the Musee Dans La Rue, a modern gallery space. Ira was way into the graffiti exhibit they had. It was very...thorough. Let's just say that I spent a good part of 3 or 4 hours sitting on a bench while my darling husband soaked it all in. : ) Don't get me wrong, it was a great exhibit, I just got the general idea and then I was ready to move on. But Ira loved it and I'm glad we went. Next, more cheese for mama! I made my way through another massive cheese plate (with some help from Ira) I spotted a pastry shop right next to the cafe so of course we had to stop in. We left with 3 kinds; apple, apricot, and peach. We walked along the Seine and looked at all the strange and interesting things the booksellers were shilling. We stopped in a little shop where I wanted to buy everything : ) It was lovely making our way past all the bridges. Where were we heading?? The ferris wheel!! I know it's cheesy and the French hate it, but we were so excited to go up in that thing. Ira was filming a movie for the baby. We got in and then once we got up towards the top we both started freaking out a little bit. I'm pretty sure at one point I looked over and Ira had his eyes closed, haha. It was so high! And you're in this rinky dink little thing that doesn't really have sides to it or anything. But we survived. And I ate apple pastry while looking down on the Louvre and the Eifel Tower, it doesn't get much better than that. After we safely disembarked the big scary ferris wheel, we got some churros. I know. We are ugly Americans. But they smelled sooooo good! And I'm pregnant so I get an ugly American free pass. After gorging ourselves on fried dough, we sat on chairs in the jardin tulleries and looked up into the trees, one of my favorite things to do. We walked towards the L'Arc du Triomph. We got someone to take our picture but you can't really make it out in the back round very well. Anyway, it was a perfect last evening in Paris. The next morning we had one last lovely breakfast (I am still wishing for the fresh squeezed orange juice, and the grapefruit for that matter) and then it was off to the airport. We can't wait to go back someday with the baby!
The slide show is coming, as usual be patient.

I'm back, baby!

Hi everyone! How are you? I know, I know, I have been a baaaaad blogger. But here's the thing. I figure that you all knew I was having a wonderful time at home in the States and I didn't feel the need to tell you about all the ice cream and sushi I was eating. I had a fabulous summer. Spent lots of time with family and friends and saw 8 movies! I just can't get enough of the coke slushies.
So, back in Cairo. It's really hot. I've been staying in because after two long flights and a week in Paris walking everywhere, I was very swollen in my ankles, feet and hands. I decided I needed a couple days to shrink back to normal and hydrate. Not to mention, scrub the flat. The dust and sand infiltrated while we were gone. I'm trying to attack it slowly but surely. So now I'm just waiting for all of our friends to get back. We are really the only ones who are back. Unless people have kids (they started school this week) it's really best to stay away from the heat as long as possible. But since I'm going to have this baby in 8 weeks (!), I needed to get back earlier than we would have liked. I did have lunch with Gordana and Veli yesterday, and then baby sat Veli, which involved watching Mary Poppins and eating organic lollipops I brought back for the boys!
Alright, that's all for now. Look forward to more regular updates, at least until Baby Dworkin shows up!

*first picture is the "Bickhart Beach Babes" girls weekend for my grandmother's 80th birthday
*second picture is of my baby shower thrown by my best friends
*third picture is of my brother Connor and me on the haunted mansion ride in Rehoboth Beach.

week one

I've been home a little over a week and apart from missing Ira all the way in the Congo, it's gone by really fast. The flights were hard and it took my pregnant body almost a week to recover. I had swelling in my legs and feet, some sort of weird pain in my knee that didn't go away for a few days, and a twinge in my hip that I'm still dealing with. I have to say thank you to the Air France guy who let me have my own row on the way from Paris to Dulles, even though the rest of the plane was packed. I can't imagine what kind of shape I would be in if I wouldn't have been able to put my feet up for 8 hours. But I arrived in one piece, stayed at Kelly and Andy's the first night, went to breakfast with Kelly and Laurie the next morning (Lox, bagel, and cream cheese!) then Kelly drove me halfway and we met my dad in Maryland. The rest of the week was filled with dinners and lunches catching up with friends and relatives. Then, this past weekend, I went to Rehoboth Beach with my mom, grandmother, Aunt Nancy, and cousins Elizabeth and Sarah to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday. It was 3 days of shopping, eating, beaching (when the weather would cooperate), and lots and lots of giggling. I don't miss Egypt yet, other than Amanda and all my friends. Maybe in a few more weeks...

Bye-ro Cairo

Yeah, I''m weird and bye-ro isn't a word but it rhymes so I'm going with it. This is the last post from Cairo for at least a couple of months. I will still post from the States, for there will be lots going on and fun pictures for you to look at I'm sure! So let's see...
Suitcases? Barely started packing.
Flat? A mess.
Gifts? Not done getting them yet.
Why am I blogging instead of doing these things? Good question.