Soft Foods and Short Hair

Joseph had two of his wisdom teeth removed last week, so he spent a few days on Jell-o, pudding, and macaroni and cheese. I had a bit of fun making him pudding cups!

This one has crumbled Nilla Wafers on the bottom, a layer of chopped bananas, pudding, and cool whip. I stirred the cookies into the pudding and let it sit for a few minutes to soften before he ate it.

In other news, I cut my hair! I donated 10.5 inches to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, which gives wigs to women suffering from cancer.

Before:

After:

Naturally curly:

I am very glad to have hair off my neck for the summer! I had been wanting to cut my hair for months, and donating it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths gave me the incentive to actually do it. I like it this length and think it will stay this way for a while!

Tonight I’m looking forward to throwing a small Twilight Zone marathon. Joseph has never seen seen episode! I loved when weekend marathons would come on television–I spent hours on end watching episodes with my dad. My all-time favorite Twilight Zone episode is It’s a Good Life, about a young boy named Anthony who makes people disappear if they don’t pretend to be happy all the time.

So creepy!

Venice and Verona with Ellen

My friend and sort-of-cousin is making her way around Europe and visited me for a week. We became friends one summer before we realized we share a cousin. I hadn’t seen her in three or four years be we got along very well while she was here!

Her first day here we went to Venice. Ellen’s photo

Later in the week I took her to Verona, which is only about two hours away by train. I had been to Verona twice, but each time was on a tour so that I’d only spent a couple hours in the city alone. This day we were there for six and a half hours and really got to sight-see!

The Verona Arena, a Roman amphitheater.  In the summer the arena holds operas!  We saw La Boheme a couple years ago and are planning on going back in August, though we haven’t decided yet which performance to see.

The first stop was of course “Juliet’s balcony,” which is a balcony attached to a wall. It definitely never belonged to the Capulet’s, and as far as I know the balcony wasn’t even attached until the 1930’s. The first time I went to Verona, in February 2007, we saw the “real” Capulet and Montague castles–side-by-side on separate hills, they were over an hour’s car ride away from the city where the balcony is located. Something about that isn’t right.

In Juliet’s courtyard under her balcony there is a statue of her; you’re supposed to stroke her right breast for good luck.

Castelvechhio Bridge

Ellen hangin’ out in Castelvecchio

Me on a small drawbridge that was right next to a large drawbridge

We had to ask some French tourists to take this photo so we could send it to our parents! Ellen’s photo

More on the outfit in the above photos?

Note: this photo was on a separate day!
Dress from H&M, cardigan from J. Crew, t-strap flats from Anthropologie

The links in the right toolbar suddenly aren’t appearing!  I’m not sure what happened–one day I looked and they were gone.

Picnic at Lake Barcis

I am a horrible, horrible blogger! I primarily blog elsewhere, so In the Wabe is always second to me, and I let the posts I need to make add up for far too long before I actually type them out.

A few weeks ago Joseph and I took a trip out to Lake Barcis for a picnic. I’m not sure why no one around us was screaming of excitement–the lake is turquoise! I’ve never seen such bright water. It reminds me of the “lakes” and “ponds” at amusement parks, where the dirty water is died to look blue.

Barcis is in Northern Italy, at the foot of the Alps.

Joseph with our picnic. The basket is Martha Stewart; I bought it at Macy’s last summer.

Our delicious picnic! I really go all out when it comes to picnics–caramelized baked chicken drumettes, cheesey green beans, potato salad, and strawberry pastries.

Caramelized Baked Chicken, from Allrecipes.com
These were very, very simple and delicious. Perfect for picnics, but don’t forget something to clean your hands with–these are sticky!

3 lbs chicken wings
2 Tbs olive oil
½ cup soy sauce
2 Tbs ketchup
1 cup honey
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbs corn starch
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Place chicken in a 9×13 inch baking dish. Mix together the oil, soy sauce, ketchup, honey, garlic, salt and pepper. Boil on stovetop with 2 Tbs corn start a few minutes, or until thick. Pour over the chicken.

Bake in preheated oven for one hour, or until sauce is caramelized. I used drumettes instead of wings and baked at the temperature and time suggested on the bag

Cheesey Green Beans–one of the greatest parts of my childhood. I looked forward to these every time I went to my grandmother’s, and they still don’t stick around in my house for long.

Two or three cans of green beans
One small onion
Velveeta

Drain green beans. Chop one onion in rings and place on top of green beans in a casserole dish. Bake in microwave for 10 minutes on high; stir in the green beans and bake for another 10 minutes. VERY IMPORTANT: drain the juices from the green beans. Even if it looks like there aren’t any juices, press some out or the cheese will be too runny! Slice Velveeta in 1/4 slices; place on top of green beans, cover, let melt, and stir in.

Potato Salad, another family recipe. If you don’t normally like potato salad, this is the kind for you! This is the recipe my grandmother sent me–in my family there are no exact measurements in any recipe. You just add things until it looks right

4-6 potatoes
4-6 boiled eggs, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 Tbs dill relish
2 Tbs sweet relish
mayonnaise
salt and pepper

Boil potatoes with skins on about 30 minutes or until tender when pricked with fork. Peel skins off and cut into small pieces. Add eggs, onion, and relishes. Add mayonnaise to taste. Use both hands to mix all together (I sometimes just use a fork) and partially mashing potatoes–just keep squeezing mixture until the consistency you like. You may then need to add more mayonnaise.

After our picnic we walked around the lake for a while, and I found this flower with I liked because the petals looked like they were made of little strips of paper.

I always tell him he’s very handsome, but for some reason he won’t believe me

I never spend a day in the sun without my big floppy hat and SPF 85