I Week in Venice

I have been very, very bad at running In the Wabe for the last few months. This blog is photo-based and I’m just exasperated with my camera! Hopefully when I get a better lens I’ll be more inspired to post here, but I feel I’ve hit a wall.

Things have also been really busy! We haven’t taken any trips since our vacation to Disney World but are trying to plan something now. I did spend a week in Venice (commuting 3-4 hours every day) for a literature class called Expatriate Writers in Venice. After visiting Venice so much I was beginning to tire of it, but this trip has renewed my love for the city! It was nice getting to explore more suburban areas and seeing how many artists were inspired by it.

I was a bit shy with my camera, which I’m regretting now.

This is my class! A few of us live here, but most of the class flew in from elsewhere in Europe. I’m second from the left.

A gondolier’s workshop in Venice. It was strange walking up on this–if you haven’t been to Venice you wouldn’t know that there’s absolutely no wooden buildings there! Everything is so close together that that’s just too dangerous. This workshop felt very out of place.

The Gritti hotel, a frequent in Hemingway’s Across the River and Into the Trees

Venetian cookies, flavored with lemon.

One night we had a literary salon where we dressed as the characters and authors we studied. I went as a horrible rendition of Ernest Hemingway! I’m about as far from Hemingway as you could get, but I like him and couldn’t resist.
Photo by my classmate Karla

Our wonderful professor, Dr. Toni Sepeda! She lives nearby but also has an incredible house in Venice as well as one in Turkey. There are a few wonderful articles about her travels you can easily find online. Her novel about Venice, Brunetti’s Venice, is available for less than $12 on Amazon. I’m very excited to be taking another class with her this semester (this one is not a field study but is just as much fun).

One of the beautiful hand-painted masks I bought as a Christmas present (I can say who for, though!)

How did I end up with pictures showing nearly no water? Here’s a photo of Venice I took a few years ago to rectify that:

Novels that take place in Venice:
The Aspern Papers by Henry James
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway
Many of Donna Leon’s modern crime novels
Don’t Look Now, a short story by  Daphne du Maurier
Italian Hours by Henry James, a travel journal

Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is one of my all-time favorites (and is far superior to Across the River…), but this does not take place in Venice.  Much of it does, however, take place very close to where I live!  I think it’s a wonderful novel to read for people who live here, especially those of us here with the military.

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

I love pineapple upside down cake, but I hate making entire cakes. I don’t like making a mess slicing pieces, and cakes don’t get eaten with only two people in the house. So I decided to make cupcakes!

Right after I made the batter I thought of the reason people don’t really make pineapple upside down cupcakes–the puff at the top of the cupcake will make it weird when you flip it over! Thankfully this particular recipe doesn’t rise much; as long as you don’t fill the cupcake tins up to the top they should be fine! They don’t look as much like cupcakes as they do mini-cakes.

My dad told me how to make pineapple upside down cake, and I used a Better Homes and Garden cookbook for the yellow cake itself.

This is the recipe my dad emailed to me. Joseph commented that he types exactly the way he speaks.

Topping:
Brown sugar
Butter
1 can pineapple slices (reserve juice)
Maraschino cherries
Pecans (optional)

Melt butter and brown sugar for a few minutes in the oven. I spooned a small amount of brown sugar into each cupcake tin and wish I had used more because they weren’t as caramelized as I would have liked. Mine definitely did not add up to a cup like my dad suggested, so don’t be shy on the sugar.  I would guess a tablespoon for each cupcake would be good.
Arrange pineapple slices, cherries, and pecans if using them. I opted out of the pecans because I don’t like them much.
Pour cake batter gently and evenly–remember the fruit might be moved around a bit.

Cake:
¾ cup butter
3 eggs
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla
All reserved pineapple juice, plus enough milk to add up to 1 ¼ cups

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Preheat over to 375F. In a mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, beating until well combined. Beat 2 minutes more. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanill. Alternately add flour mixture and the pineapple juice and milk mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Gently spread into prepared and greased pans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes or 9-inch pans, 30-35 minutes for 8-inch pans, or 25-30 minutes for 13×9x2 pan. Let cool for ten minutes and flip onto baking sheet.

Here’s a bad picture I took a few years ago of a pineapple upside down cake I made. You can see I used a full cup of brown sugar, so it caramalized more:

Disney World & Co.

Apologies for my month of absence. I know that’s been happening a lot lately, but I haven’t cooked many things I’ve really enjoyed. I hate when a blog I like recommends bad recipes just because they took nice photos of it, so I only post things I absolutely love! I’ve been very frustrated with my camera’s lens lately, so I haven’t even been taking many photos of the recipes I do enjoy.

Joseph and I just returned from a week to Orlando, where we also planned a long layover in New York City. It was a wonderful trip, despite the 24 hour journey there and then another 28 hours on the way home! Neither of us had been to the US in a year and a half, so it was wonderful to feel a bit at home again. I’d forgotten how nice Americans are! I can’t believe people will move out of your way when you’re trying to get through, apologize for bumping into you, and smile when you cross them on the street. I really miss that living here.
We visited all four Walk Disney World parks, the two Universal Studios parks, and Busch Gardens (in Tampa). It is the perfect time of year–we hardly had to wait in line at all! The only time we had to use our Fastpasses at Disney World was for the Toy Story Mania ride, which had a three hour wait since it only just opened.

We got a wonderful flight, hotel, and rental car package through Expendia, so we were able to stay in the beautiful Peabody Orlando! It is a fantastic hotel, and we did get to see the famous ducks. My photo kind of looks like an illustration, doesn’t it?

Of course we went to Magic Kingdom our first day. I thought it would be a bit kitschy, but it wasn’t at all! I was also surprised by the number of single couples there–it seemed like they were all older couples or couple our age (many of who were on their honeymoons).

Cinderalla’s castle was still beautiful, even after I’ve seen real castles, including the one it’s modeled after!

Main Street, USA is pretty much my ideal town!

We had breakfast at the adorable Main Street Bakery. I had a very good cinnamon roll–I liked it much more than the Cinnabon one I had at Universal Studios later in the week.

Joseph on the Magic Carpet ride.

It’s a Small World has always been my favorite ride! Naturally my entire family can’t stand it from my having to ride it over and over again. Joseph said he wouldn’t ride it, but he compromised when I agreed to do the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (which I had said I wouldn’t do after I got ZERO points next to my five year old sister last time I went–I then made my mom take me on it again and STILL got no points!)

I really don’t like Disney and Joseph had to argue with me a bit to actually get me on this trip, but Beauty and the Beast is one of the only princess movies I liked growing up. Disney ruins books! I’m pretty passionate about children’s literature, so this kind of kills me!

I love Minnie’s house!

Minnie’s living room

Minnie’s gazebo!

The fireworks show was really wonderful! I didn’t realize the music and fireworks would line up so well.

Our next day was Animal Kingdom. I didn’t really want to go because I remembered it as being boring, but I enjoyed it a lot! We saw Finding Nemo: The Musical, and it was truly incredible. Don’t skip out if you’re heading to Animal Kingdom! The show is amazing and I enjoyed it much more than The Lion King.

Expedition: Everest was a great ride! We love roller coasters and had been craving a serious ride after all the easy ones at Magic Kingdom. We had no idea this one would be so intense.

All of Disney is so detailed! And clean. Everything is so well-organized and I’m overall just amazed at the parks, especially after going to Universal Studios later in the week.

Spaceship Earth

“Norway” at EPCOT’s World Showcase

Disapproving of fake Venice in Epcot!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which will always be “MGM” in my mind. I wish there had been more attractions about older films. I can’t believe there is nothing about even Wizard of Oz!

Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster (real prints cost min $19 at Disney World!). I love how calm the little girl behind me is!

50’s Prime Time Cafe, where the staff plays up being your “Aunt Susan” or “Cousin Ricky.” Some of the waiters and waitresses were hilarious! I was so looking forward to this restaurant, but unfortunately our waiter was kind of a dud.

I had never been to Universal Studios before this trip

The Simpsons outside of a store built to look like the Kwik-E-Mart. I enjoyed The Simprons Ride a lot. I came in a bit angry that they had gotten ride of the Back to the Future ride but quickly got over that.

Curious George play area and one of my favorite photos from the trip

World’s smartest!

Then Curious George came to entertain us as we waited in line for this:

The Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit just opened a few weeks ago. Naturally, the wait was incredibly long–an average of about three hours! Thankfully we were there on a Tuesday so we only had to wait an hour. When you sit down you get to select a song to listen to as it moves, and it’s perfectly aligned to the ride. Yes, that is a 90-degree lift!

I was so excited to visit Suess Landing! Everything looked like it was made of taffy

The Cat in the Hat choked Joseph a little

So exciting! I sneaked a view of what looks like it’s going to be Hogsmeade through a fence–it looks wonderful!

That night we saw Cinque du Soleil’s La Nouba at Downtown Disney. It was absolutely incredible! I highly recommend it.

On our last day we went to Busch Gardens in Tampa, which feels like a zoo with a few huge roller coasters spread throughout.

A sleeping tiger!

Aldergators!

Joseph next to a napping hyena. I wanted him to crouch down closer to it, but he got out of there pretty quickly. The hyena wasn’t fully asleep, and the glass looked thin!

We planned a long layover in New York City so we could get out and explore. All I’d ever really wanted to go to NYC for was the shows, but we didn’t have time for that this time. We just walked around Manhattan for a few hours and plan to go back again some time

I’d been wanting to go to Magnolia Bakery for years! I was afraid it was a bit overhyped, but the red velvet cupcake I had was absolutely incredible! It makes me never want to bake again!

Times Square. I don’t really get what the big to-do is about!

Joseph in Central Park.

Italy With Friends

Sorry for my absence–my internet was down at home for a few weeks. Shortly before I left I gave In the Wabe a bit of a facelift. What do you think?

One of my best friends Aly recently visited with her sister Maddy and we had a blast traveling around together. Aly & I have been friends since third grade but hadn’t seen each other in over a year. She and Maddy are both over six foot and play volleyball at Trinity University in San Antonio.

They spent a few days in Venice, and I picked them up at the train station there. We spent three days around the area before I sent them off to Verona and then Innsbruck, Austria. Then we met up in Milan and they headed to Monaco alone before leaving from Venice.

We picnicked at Lake Barcis, which I posted about a couple months ago–swiss cheese, mortadella, salami, and cantaloupe.

Maddy and Aly.

Aly’s gelato at one of my favorite gelaterias. Hers was vanilla cream ice cream, whipped cream, fruit, nuts, and chocolate sauce.

One day we headed to nearby town of Sacile. I’d never been but a lot of Americans I know live there. It is such a cute and picturesque little town and even has a river running through it!

Maddy and Aly. Aly was standing a step above her in the photo.

How have I gone three years without any photos of bikes leaning against buildings?

Aly and Maddy

After their two days in Verona and Innsbruck we met up and spent three days in Milan, the first at Lake Como.

It took us almost three hours to get to Bellagio on the ferry! We were expecting it to be around 90 minutes, so that really put a damper on the trip. All in all I didn’t really like Lake Como much. Maybe I’m jaded because I’ve lived here too long, but it felt too touristy and just was not very interesting.

Me, Aly, and Maddy at the top of the Milan Duomo. This cathedral is one of my favorite buildings in the world! The first time we went Joseph and I spent about three hours staring at its intricacies.

This photo is from when I took my family to Milan in December.

Maddy and Aly

Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, photo from December

Maddy and me

Inside of the La Scala opera house

My birthday was July 23 and Joseph gave me this beautiful necklace! It’s the “Journey necklace” which I think is pretty popular in the US right now. I’ve worn it nearly every day because it matches everything!

There are seven diamonds. Joseph bought it so that when I wear it I’ll be wearing 21 diamonds total, with the 14 in my wedding rings. 21 diamonds for my 21st birthday! What a romantic :p

Key Lime Pie

The second half of my day’s adventures in pies–Key Lime Pie! Burnt out from making the banana cream pies in my too-small kitchen, I used a prepared pie crust. This recipe is very, very easy! Really, anyone could make this. I didn’t even have to write down the recipe! I halved it and ended up with six miniature pies, and they all disappeared within the day (Joseph had four, I had two). I think I’ll keep this around as a go-to when we’re craving easy sweets.

Key Lime Pie from Allrecipes.com

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust (or 12 miniature ones)

3 cups sweetened condensed milk

½ cup sour cream

¾ cup key lime juice

1 Tbs grated lime zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime rind. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Garnish with lime slices and whipped cream if desired.

Banana Cream Tarts

It’s been a big week for pies and tarts around here! I have been dying to make my grandmother’s chocolate pie again (I need to post the recipe here!), then decided to do some sort of berry pie; I asked Joseph what his favorite pie was and he said he liked banana cream pie and key lime pie. I’d never had either, so I had to make them both instead, on the same day!

Banana cream pie is now my absolute favorite dessert! I am going to have to make these again next week; hopefully the meringue will fluff next time.

I made these in my six-inch tart pans with removable bottoms.

Nilla Wafer Crust
40 Nabisco Nilla Wafers, finely crushed. I placed mine in a bag and beat them with a rolling pin
¼ butter or margarine, melted
1 Tbs sugar

Throughly mix wafer crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press into even layer against bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate or three 6-inch tart pans. Bake at 375F (190C) for 6-8 minutes.

I ended up having to make a completely different pastry crust from scratch half-way through cooking the cream because this recipe only filled three tart pans.  Maybe I just make my crust extra-thick, but you might want to prepare to have extra cookies in case you run out of crust.

Banana Cream Pie from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook
Pastry shell of your choice
4 eggs
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
2 ½ cups half-and-half, light cream, or milk
1 Tbs butter or margarine
1 ½ tsp vanilla
3 medium bananas

Prepare crust of your choice. Set aside yolks for filling and whites for meringue.

Preheat over to 325F (165C). For filling, in a medium saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in half-and-half. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly; reduce heat. Cook and stir for two minutes more. Remove from heat. Slightly beat egg yolks with a fork. Gradually stir about one cup of the hot filling into yolks. Add egg yolk mixture to saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil; reduce heat. Cook and stir for two minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Keep filling warm and prepare meringue.

Arranged sliced bananas along bottom of crust. Pour cream on top and spread with meringue. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack one hour. Chill for 3 to 6 hours before serving. Who am I kidding? I ate these immediately!

Meringue
4 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp cream of tartar
½ cup sugar

Beat egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl until soft peaks form, about one minute. Gradually add sugar, beating on high speed about four minutes more or until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks and sugar dissolves. Spread over hot pie filling.

Tips: Learn from my mistake–do not use a plastic bowl! I’ve made meringue successfully once, with a glass bowl. Always use a thoroughly dried glass or metal bowl. My meringue did not form stiff peaks, partially because I don’t have a proper beater (I use a little bitty electric egg beater! I’m waiting for when I move to the US and can buy a KitchenAid Artisan mixer!), but mainly because I only had plastic bowls. It tasted just the same but didn’t look quite as nice.

Next up: the Key Lime Pies I made on the same day!

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

Congratulations, Joseph!

Congratulations, Joseph! This week my husband graduated from college! He know has a B.S. in computer science and information technology. To celebrate, I threw him a small party–only the two of us were invited.

I picked up this gelato cake at a local gelateria. It wasn’t much of a cake, though–a lot of chocolate gelato on top of a layer of vanilla. On the bottom and a very thin sponge cake that served as a sort of a crust. Around the outside was a hazelnut spread.

The living room was decorated in confetti, streamers, balloons, and a “Congratulations!” banner.

Say hello to my new purse–the Coach Small Leather Sabrina Satchel.

I don’t know what’s come over me or why I’ve suddenly become such a fan of Coach leather (I’ll pass on their fabric bags, thank you!), but I am really in love with this purse. I can’t wait to get some photos of me actually holding it, as that’s when it looks its best.

This is one of those “What’s in your bag?” memes bloggers often do. I carry around my keys, a cardigan, John Frieda Frizz-Ease, Trident Citrus Twist gum, a “calculator” pouch that holds Neosporin, band-aids, and chapstick, my blue iPod Nano, Hand sanitizer, a pen, a book (my new purse is small, so this has been my go-to since most of my reads are too big to comfortably fit), and my Coach wallet. Not pictured is my camera, which is obviously taking this photo.