Thankful

a few things I'm thankful for...

family dinners (I had a great night last night)
driers (we wash our clothes here and we hang them up. and then we wait daaaaaays weeeeeeks)
chips and salsa (I love chips and salsa and Ive had them a lot in the last few days and I love them even more now!)
my little french press and coffees with my mom
Harleys (I can't wait for next spring already...)
Visitors (I loved having my parents come and I am soooooo excited for Eric and Mary Ann to get here)
Marco (and his fruits and veggies)
Lacey (I like her. a lot. She pushes me and our friendship has continued to grow even though we are worlds apart)
warm weather (sitting on the terrace today during class was pure perfection)
wireless internet
family (I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone)
feeling so safe here (I realized today that I have only felt legitimately unsafe less than a handful of times this entire semester)
creativity (I love my major and am so thankful I get to work on this type of homework and get to be creative each day)
country music
hot chocolate mix I'm hoping Bethany is feeling generous enough to give me some tonight)

I can hear homework calling my name.
herrumph.

Stuffed Peppers

Its becoming kind of a challenge for myself to see what types of meals I can make that are flavorful, inexpensive (especially if it lasts me 3 meals like my tuna noodle casserole did!), but are still packed with nutrition, too. I love the challenge!

After visiting Marco at the market I had the perfect ingredients to make stuffed peppers (that weren't stuffed, after all).
-a HUGE red pepper for 80 cents (I only used half)
-pack of mushroom rice 1.40 euro
-3/4 cup of peas (from a bag that was about 1.20)
-onions and a couple slices of peperocino cheese (entire block was 90 cents)
I boiled the peppers, made the rice/onion/pea blend, smothered the chunks of peppers with rice, topped with cheese and baked for about 10 min. It was a great meal and I still have a plate this size left for dinner tonight!
I am heading out with Melissa and her priest (from her home parish in Rochester who is now living here) to tour a few popular/famous churches here. Melissa's priest has lived and studied here for many years and is very knowledgeable about Rome's Christian history... can't wait!!

more birthday...

Who is lucky enough to get 2 birthdays!? yeesh... thank you so much everyone! I received these beautiful flowers and my favorite combo of nutella and bananas from my best friend Lacey, who is actually studying in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands right now!! She had already given me such a sweet and thoughtful gift that I was stunned that these were from her! Thanks lace :)

Usually I love to plan, shop, and cook my dinners... but that went straight out the window Wednesday night when I received this :) chips and salsa!!

I had the best birthday, as you all know, so when I walked into our studio for my art history lecture Wendesday night to this HUGE box I was shocked. and SO happy!

29 (let me repeat, twenty nine) pounds of food. my favorite food. my favorite food from home. loooove love love love love thoughtful gifts like this... wooo I have the butterflies again!
Brownie mixes, cake mix, frosting, oatmeal (!), 3 bags of tortilla chips!, 4 jars of my favorite flavor of salsa, dove chocolates, twizzlers and more twizzlers, skittles, starbursts, nutella, and the softest little stuffed animal!! Eric deeeefinitely earned some brownie points with my room mates......... thanks again hun!
I had every intention to take a better picture of all of the food looking a bit more organized than this heap of food buuuut I was too hungry! haha I am loving the chips and salsa!

**You may notice that the cake mix box is open... Karen opened the box on the way home just to smell the mix... what can I say?! we miss food from home! **

Tonight: brownies. Tomorrow morning? Oatmeal and toast. ohhhh yeah!

missing home

I miss home today....... and I miss my mom and dad's cooking..... especially the casseroles and warm desserts so I whipped this up for lunch!

tuna noodle casserole
a la Bridget

another huge perk of my newly found obsession and love for cooking and baking!? making my favorite dishes healthy and knowing exactly what I'm putting into them! I loaded this one with peas (they were so sweet!) and sauteed evoo, garlic, onion, milk, pepperocino & ricotta cheese (because thats all I had) water and tuna until the pasta was ready. Tossed them together and let them cook a little longer....... delicious!

speaking of delicious...

look at this lineup from last night's birthday chinese dinner!

white and fried rice, chop suey (my new favorite!), cashew chicken, sweet and sour chicken, shrimp lo mein, and spring rolls!

And, of course, we devoured the tarts and cream puffs! The puffs were filled with a sweet hazelnut paste filling, pistachio filling, and a perfectly chocolate mouse. I liked the lemon and fruit tarts the best, but they were all so tasty! yum!!
Thanks again, to everyone, for making my birthday so special. The songs/serenades (haha you know who you are!), on-the-hour Happy birthdays!, facebook posts, cards, and emails... everything made me feel so special.

my birfday

iiiiiiiiiits my birthday! and wow! I feel so lucky and blessed! Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes already! I really appreciate it :)

I've mentioned that I have awesome room mates before... they are fun. spunky. talented designers. considerate people. great chefs. even better friends. and the most thoughtful people I know....

see! thoughtful, right?!
This is what I woke up to!!
all of my favorites!
cioccolata cornetto, a banana, and yogurt/cereal duo.

I worked on projects and decided to nap.....
and after that little nap I woke up to THIS!

streamers aaaaand watercolored streamers spelling out Happy Birthday Bridget. too cute!

if that wasn't enough, the 6 of them got me the best little treats that I have been eyeing since the day I got here!
little tarts and cream puffs!
Ive only tried one so far...
lemon custard with berries. it was so good!
tart and sweet and fruity. looove love love

in a couple hours we are having chinese and devouring these little sweet treats :) Thank you so much girls!

Ciao!

Remember these??

We flew over the Swiss Alps as we were flying from our week in Ireland to Rome and now we get to go back! I'll be taking an overnight train to Bern tonight and then will spend the week touring graphic design firms, famous poster collections, and paper mills, and end in Milan and Venice. Just in time to make it back home in Rome for my birthday! :)

Switzerland (Bern & Basel) >> Germany (birsfelden/Vitra Design) >> Basel >> Zurich >> Milano >> Venezia

cuuuute!

clothes.... check!
camera.... check!
new coat!? .... check!

Its going to be much colder in Switzerland & Germany this week so my parents treated me to a new warm coat! I loooove it! You can't really tell in the awful picture but its oatmeal and cream... ah. love love love :)

Type Project

As I've mentioned before (I think I have anyway...) our professors and the curriculum is written in such a way that our experience and the wonderful city we call home is integrated so thoroughly and completely in our projects. exhibit a.
My Advance Type class: Art Gr 475
Project: 1000 pacesWe were instructed to go to the Pantheon, which is right around the corner from studio, and walk 1000 paces in any direction/route documenting what we see, hear, feel, think along the way. From our 1000 paces we then had to create a set of 4 plates or compositions each with a bit different requirement. The first plate had to be type only, the second image only, the third type dominant, image recessive and the last one had to be image dominant. We also had to include 3D elements and information graphics...

I am loving the colors in this... they really reflect the colors of the buildings, the rusts, greens, golds, patinas, aged buildings...... I love the colors here in general. bene bene... back to homework!