Wendy Copley's Blog, page 14

Italy!

Over spring break, Zach and I went to Italy!

It was a big, exciting trip for us in a lot of ways:

First of all: um…Italy!

It was also the first time ever that we’ve been away from our kids together overnight. We’ve each been away from them separately many times, but together? Never! We have a 9-year-old people. It was about time. (The boys stayed with their grandma and grandpa in Iowa and had a fantastic time.)

We were also very fortunate that the trip was hosted by the company my husband works for which allowed us to travel in a style to which we are generally unaccustomed.

I’m not going to bore you with 500 photos, but here are some of the highlights:

The resort we visited — the Borgo Egnazia — was stunning. It was all white stone, white furniture and beautiful views through arched windows.  This was the view from the terrace outside our room. Those are ancient olive groves with hills (mountains?) in the distance.

We ate and ate and ate some more. I really don’t think we had a bad meal the whole trip. The night we arrived we went to a dinner where a guy was making mozzarella cheese right there. He would mix it up in this big vat, then slip it into the serving bowl when you walked up to the table.

The region we visited is known for these round stone buildings with conical roofs called “trulli”. Our second day there we ate lunch in a restaurant that was built in a restored village of trulli. It felt like we were in a fairy tale.

We also loved our visit to Ostuni, an ancient city built on a hill. Almost the entire city is painted white and it’s filled with narrow roads and twisty, arched stairways.

I took approximately one million photos while we were there, but I’m going to show great restraint and only post this one.

Arched passageway? Check!
Twisting stone stairs? Check!
Light blue doors? Check!
Little scooter parked at the bottom? Check!

There! Now you feel like you went to Italy too!

I also learned to make my own pasta. Guess what! It’s not that hard. I’ve been scared to make pasta for years, but now I’m not.  I’m probably not going to be making it on a week night or anything, but it’s on my to do list. I think I look a little crazy in the photo…Crazy for home made pasta!

After the group activities died down, we had a day to ourselves. We rented bikes and rode around in the olive groves for a bit before heading down to the Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic has the bluest water I have ever seen in real life. Apparently it is lovely to swim in in the warm summer months but because we were there in April we mostly just looked at the water, commented on how blue it was and chased my hat as it was blown off over and over.

And finally, here is a picture of gelato. Because you can’t go to Italy and not take a picture of gelato.

My Kids Ate It: Tomatillo-Braised Chicken Thighs

Do you see how green the sauce is on that chicken up there? It’s really green, right?

Well, I’m here today to tell you that my kids ate that chicken with the very green sauce all over it! That sauce has vegetables in it! It has herbs! It’s a sauce!

I can hardly believe it.

They weren’t so hip when they first saw it on their plates and, in fact, one or more of my children may have said “Oh no!!” when they sat down at the table. But after a little prompting, they tried it and to my astonishment, they both cleaned their plates.

Here is the recipe for this astonishing chicken dish:

Tomatillo-Braised Chicken Thighs

recipe courtesy of Cooking Light

Ingredients

12 ounces tomatillos (about 5 medium), husks removed
6 garlic cloves
1 medium jalapeño pepper, halved and seeded
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup unsalted chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
8 bone-in chicken thighs (about 1 3/4 pounds), skinned
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
3 tablespoons Mexican crema

Preparation

Preheat broiler to high.
Place first 3 ingredients on a jelly-roll pan; broil 9 minutes, turning after 5 minutes. Combine tomatillo mixture, cilantro, stock, and flour in a blender; process until smooth. (I used a food processor and it worked fine.)
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken to pan, meaty side down; cook 5 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over; top with tomatillo mixture. Partially cover pan; reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 9 minutes or until chicken is done. (My chicken thighs were large, so I needed to cook them much longer than the times listed here to ensure they were fully cooked. I suggest starting with the times here and checking  the chicken before pulling it out of the pan.)
Sprinkle with tomatoes; top with crema.

Modifications

As I mentioned up in the recipe, I needed to simmer my chicken longer than the 9 minutes the recipe indicated. Keep that in mind so you don’t put half-cooked chicken on everyone’s plate. I served this over a bed of rice to soak up the delicious sauce and then I placed a platter of sliced watermelon on the table as a side dish.

The Verdict

They kids liked this, but Zach and I looooooved it. The sauce was fresh, herb-y, tangy and just a little bit spicy. We were  both so happy with it that we’d like to add it to our regular recipe rotation.

What are you cooking for dinner this week? Tried any good recipes lately? Please link up in the comments!

The Week in Bentos: April 21-25, 3014

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend. Are you ready to see what my kids had for lunch last week? Let’s dig right in!

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Monday

Monday morning I was all about the quick and easy lunches, so I grabbed a couple of our EasyLunchboxes bento containers and set to work. Wyatt’s lunch had deli turkey in one of our square silicone cups, along with a few crackers to go with it in another. He also had an Easter egg with jelly beans, a half banana, radish chunks and strawberries.

Augie’s EasyLunchbox also had turkey, crackers, a half banana and some strawberries. I swapped in carrots and cherry tomatoes for the candy and radishes in Wyatt’s lunch box.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Wyatt had almost the exact same lunch he had Monday, but this time I packed it in a Laptop Lunches box: strawberries, radishes, crackers, turkey and a few chips. Bor-riiiing!

Augie had strawberries, cucumber slices, crackers and deli turkey. It was packed in our Lock & Lock 4-up bento and I jazzed it up a bit with  grumpy giraffe and happy kitty picks.

Wednesday

Wyatt’s lunch had strawberries with decorative leaf picks, freezer meatballs, the omnipresent pita crackers, carrots, black bean dip and a strawberry cereal bar. This was packed in the Yumbox and I also included a little dude appetizer pick so he didn’t have to eat the meatballs with his fingers. (Sorry — I don’ t have a source on the fork. It was a gift.)

I packed Augie’s lunch in our PlanetBox Rover and since I had some extra time, I spent a little time making it cute. He had crackers with a piece of dog baran tucked into them, freezer meatballs with letter picks to spell out his name, strawberries with leaf picks, grapes, carrots and hummus.

Thursday

On Thursday Augie wanted a Spider Man lunch, so that’s what he got. He picked out the lunch box, the decorations and all the food I put in it and he helped put it all together! He’s a great helper. The lunch was packed in a Laptop Lunches box and it consisted of snap peas, hummus, cucumber slices, white cheddar popcorn with a Spidey ring on it, blackberries with a spider ring, and two Spider Man peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Wyatt opted for school lunch.

Friday

Friday morning, I saw this photo on my friend Robyn’s Instagram feed and I immediately went into the kitchen to duplicate her folded-salami-with-cheese-in-it trick in Wyatt’s lunch. I also added wheat thins, carrots, a tub of black bean dip for dipping, blackberries and strawberries. This was packed in our LunchBots Trio.

Augie asked me to send his lunch in our little house bento box, so I pulled that off the bento shelf and set to work. When I pack this lunch, he likes me to make a few “people” to live in the house, so I started off by making this little panda family:

Mama and Dad were both cut and stamped with my Animal Palz cutter set and I added a little baby panda in Mama’s arms too. They each got head gear too — a bow for Mom and a baseball hat for dad.

The rest of the lunch was strawberries (separated from the sandwiches with a silicone divider to keep them from making the bread soggy), Persian cucumber slices, salami and wheat thins.

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Dude.

I just ate a jalapeno popper grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. It wasn’t fancy. It was quick and easy. And it was so, so good!

I don’t have any step-by-step photos, I didn’t measure out the ingredients and I only have that one beauty shot up above because…hello!…I wanted to eat it! But here’s how I made it:

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

1 big glob of 1/3 fat cream cheese (I’m guessing it was about 3 tablespoons)
a hearty sprinkle of grated low-fat cheddar (I’m guessing about 2 tablespoons)
6-7 pickled jalapeno slices, chopped
2 pieces of whole wheat bread
softened butter
garlic salt

Preparation

Pre-heat a non-stick skillet on a stove burner set to medium-low.
Mix the cream cheese, cheddar and jalapenos together until well combined. I used a fork to squish it all together.
Spread one side of each slice of bread with a thin, even layer of butter. Sprinkle garlic salt over the butter.
Spread the cheese mixture over the plain side of one of the slices of bread, then top with the other slice. The butter sides should be out.
Place the sandwich in the skillet and cover the pan with a lid. Let it sit, undisturbed for a couple minutes but don’t let it get too brown. Flip it and brown the other side — again covering with a lid. By this time the cheese should be pretty melty, but if the outsides are properly browned, and then insides are still a little cold remove the pan from the heat and let it sit another minute with the cover on.
Chow down.

Seriously — this was so tasty. A little spicy, a little tangy. Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside.

Do you ever jazz up your grilled cheese? What do you put inside?

The Week in Bentos: April 16-18, 2014

Finally! I have some more lunches to share with you! We were on the go over spring break and we even took a few additional days off, so I haven’t had many lunches to share lately. We got back from our trip last Tuesday, so there are just a few lunch photos from last week. Check them out:

This post contains affiliate links.

Wednesday

Wednesday was Wyatt’s first day back at school. We had tacos the night before, so as I was cleaning up the dinner leftovers I packed them into a Laptop Lunches box. He had pickled “no heat” jalapenos, tortilla chips, carrots, black bean dip, raspberries and a mixture of ground turkey and pinto beans with a little grated cheese sprinkled on top.

The jalapenos were a fortuitous mistake. I’d meant to buy regular jalapenos because my husband looooooves them on tacos and nachos and I accidentally bought the “no heat” jar. I didn’t even know they made such a thing! We decided to give them a go and even persuaded the kids to try them and they liked them!

Augie was sick, so he stayed home from school.

Thursday

I still had jet lag, so I was up bright and early on Thursday morning, leaving me plenty of time to mess around with lunches. I wanted to pack Wyatt an Easter bento, but he flat out refused to allow me to put any type of bunny in his lunch box, let alone a pink or purple one. I managed to convince him to let me do a Star Wars lunch as long as I didn’t make it too fancy so I went all Yoda on his bento. He had some taralli crackers that we brought back from Italy, raspberries with a Yoda ring, radish slices and meatballs with a green light saber pick. This was all packed in the LunchBots Trio.

This is what was left in his lunch box when I unpacked it after school. He ate the taralli and the radishes for his snack.

Augie was back to normal and had no qualms about bunnies, so I packed him this Easter-y lunch in the Yumbox. I started by poking an Easter bunny pick into a few of his meatballs, then I cut a few of his cucumber slices into bunny shapes. I tucked the scraps underneath along with a few regular cucumber slices. He also had carrots (for the bunnies to eat), raspberries with an Easter egg pick, a few Smarties candies (also from Italy) and some taralli.

….And this is what came home. I don’t know why the kids shunned the taralli in their lunches, because they’ve been gobbling them up for snack-time at home. I can never predict their lunch consumption, nor do I try….

Friday

I was up early again on Friday, so I had a little extra time to play with Wyatt’s lunch. I started by drawing a silly face on half a banana with a food-safe marker, then I made his sandwich (salami and cheese) look like a monster with a couple of eye picks and a jagged cut on the top slice of bread. I filled the side dish containers of the EasyLunchboxes container with sliced radishes and a little bit of caramel corn for a Friday treat.

Augie asked for a bunny lunch and the PlanetBox, and I was happy to hook him up with both. He had taralli, lemony sugar snap peas, a half banana with mediocre bunnies drawn on it (I used food-safe markers again), grapes and bunny peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The peas were a repeat of a dish I’d served at dinner the night before. I chopped up snap peas then tossed them with a simple vinaigrette of Meyer lemon juice and olive oil. Normally, Augie is strongly opposed to vinaigrettes, but I convinced him to try it because it didn’t have any vinegar in it and he liked it! And imagine my surprise when he requested the same dish in his lunch in the morning!

The bunny sandwiches were made using a new-to-me technique and I had mixed success with them. The bunny cutter/stamp set I was using was very small and I didn’t really feel like fussing with the small pieces of bread, so I decided to just use rectangles to save myself some grief. I tried just stamping the bunnies, but they were hard to see, so I colored all over the stamp with a food marker and then stamped it. If you look at the photo above, you can see that I got a little better with each sandwich. The only thing I thought looked really bad, was the crack in the bunny’s face on the lower left sandwich. The jelly behind it makes it look like a bloody gash across his face! Poor bunny!

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

The Week in Bentos: March 31-April 4, 2014

Here are the boys’ lunches from last week:

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

On Monday, Wyatt had a cereal bar, grapes, mini-meatballs, radishes, and pretzels. I also included a Lunchbox Love joke card with a note on the back (we had a bad morning).  This was packed in our Yumbox.

I packed Augie’s lunch in our LunchBots Trio: a cereal bar, strawberries, grapes, tomatoes and mini-meatballs with eye picks stuck in them.

Tuesday

Tuesday was April Fools, so I had to do something a little silly in Wyatt’s lunch. I mostly packed a normal lunch — bagels with cream cheese, radishes, pretzel and oranges, but I also included a little cup of plastic spider rings. This was all packed into a Laptop Lunches box.

I also played a little trick, by carefully cutting open a cereal bar, pulling it out, filling the wrapper with shredded carrots and taping it shut. This worked really well and Wyatt couldn’t stop talking about what a good joke it was. Score!

Augie was not interested in April Fool’s jokes, so I made him a Spiderman lunch instead. He had two Spiderman peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grapes, clementine wedges, cucumber slices and pita chips. I also included a couple Spiderman rings for decoration. This was packed in my little house bento box.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, I packed Wyatt a real cereal bar, bagels and cream cheese, radishes, strawberries and grapes. I put it all in an EasyLunchboxes container.

I used an EasyLunchboxes container for Augie’s lunch too. He had strawberries, grapes, turkey spirals, hummus, pretzels, and cucumber slices.

Thursday

On Thursday, the boys both took leftover pasta in thermal jars. Wyatt had a sidecar with a clementine and some pretzels.

Augie’s sidecare had cucumbers, pretzels and a clementine.

Friday

On Friday, I packed Augie a lunch in the PlanetBox: clementines, a half banana with his name written on it with food-safe marker, strawberries with leaf picks, grapes, cucumber slices, tomatoes made to look like cherries with more leaf picks, and a kitty star sandwich. The face on the sandwich was cut using the Cutezcute Animal Friends cutter.

This is my favorite lunch I’ve made in a really long time!

Wyatt had a school lunch.

We are off on spring break this week! See you in a few!

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

Learn to Make the “On the Farm” Bento Box from Everyday Bento — PLUS a Giveaway!

Oink! Cluck! Moo! Today I have my final video tutorial showing you how to make the “On the Farm” bento box from Everyday Bento! It’s been fun sharing these videos with you over the past few weeks. I hope you’ve enjoyed them!

This tutorial features a bento lunch filled with farm animals. I’ll teach you how to make an egg that looks like a little chicken, a cheese cow and a pig-shaped sandwich. Check it out:

Want to make this lunch yourself? Enter below to win all the supplies you need — over $100 worth of lunch gear!

One copy of Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go
A PlanetBox Rover Complete Set (your choice of bag and magnets!)
Cutezcute Animal Friends Cutter Set
AmeriColor 2 Pack Gourmet Food Writer Set, Black Marker
Fox Run Farm Animal Cookie Cutter Set
Small cutter set for bento boxes
Set of 8 animal shaped silicone cups — pigs, chicks, frogs and bears

Many thanks to PlanetBox and CuteZCute for sponsoring this giveaway!

To enter, follow the directions in the Rafflecopter widget below (this giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Week in Bentos: March 24-28, 2014

Last week was a bit of a weird one for lunches because I was sick (again!) and slept most of the week. My husband stepped in and made some lunches for Augie and Wyatt had more school lunches than usual. Here’s what things looked like:

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

First thing Monday morning, Wyatt asked if he could pack his lunch by himself. He promised he’d do it “according to the rules” (fruit, veggie, protein, healthy grain) but I wasn’t allowed to watch. I couldn’t WAIT to see what he does! He went with radishes, pretzels, a lot of salami, and an apple sauce pouch. When he was done, he asked if he could add a few potato chips too and I gave him the go ahead to put some on top of the apple sauce. I think he did a great job! (This lunch was packed in a Laptop Lunches box.)

I packed Augie’s lunch in our Lego bento box: strawberries with a bunny pick, pretzel sticks (in the smaller, white Lego box), cucumber slices, salami and a small Lego container of hummus. When I was done I realized I accidentally packed a rainbow lunch for him. Cool!

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Dad packed Augie a Star Wars lunch in the PlanetBox: strawberries, grapes with a Darth Vadar ring, chocolate chips, carrot sticks, a Darth Vadar sandwich and pretzel sticks. It’s hard to see, but there’s a light saber in with the pretzels, too.

Wyatt had lunch at school.

Wednesday

And on Wednesday, Dad packed another PlanetBox lunch: cucumbers, strawberries, grapes, chocolate chips, a star-shaped pb&j and more pretzels.

Wyatt had school lunch again.

Thursday

Thursday, I finally felt well enough to get up and make the lunches in the morning, but I kept it really simple. Augie had a Yumbox packed with salami, pretzels, cucumber slices and orange slices. He also had an apple sauce pouch.

Wyatt had leftover barbecue chicken in the LunchBots thermal jar, strawberries and a bun. I also threw a granola bar in his lunch bag. The idea was that he put the chicken on the bun to make a sandwich.

Friday

Friday, I was finally on the mend and I had enough energy to pack Augie a fun dinosaur lunch. I pulled out an EasyLunchboxes bento box, lined the main compartment with silicone leaves and put in a dinosaur pb&j that was cut and stamped with one of these cutters. I added some of the pretzel sticks that were in every lunch this week, along with some cucumbers and strawberries.

Wyatt had exactly the same lunch that I gave him on Thursday — packed in the same containers and everything.

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

Learn to Make the Dinosaur Bento Box from Everyday Bento – Plus a GIVEAWAY!

Today I’m sharing the fourth tutorial in my Everyday Bento video series! The video below demonstrates how to make the Dinosaur Bento Box from the book and it’s truly quick and easy to put together. I’ll show you how two easy details — a fancy dino sandwich and a spotted egg — can elevate a regular lunch to super cute status. Watch the video to learn how:

Want to make this lunch yourself? Enter below to win all the supplies you need — over $70 worth of lunch gear!

One copy of Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go
One set of EasyLunchboxes Bento Lunch Box Containers (Set of 4)
One EasyLunchboxes Insulated Lunch Box Cooler Bag
One set of Gourmet Writer Food Decorator Pens, Assorted Colors, Set of 10
One set of three EvriholderSandwich Crust Cutters, Dinosaur, Dolphins, Hearts

Many thanks to EasyLunchboxes for sponsoring this giveaway! EasyLunchboxes are the #1 best-selling lunchboxes on Amazon.com! Order through the EasyLunchboxes Amazon Store for FREE shipping!

 

To enter, follow the directions in the Rafflecopter widget below (this giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only):

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Things I’m Digging: Spring 2014

I’ve had a list of things I want to blog about for a couple weeks, so I’m going to knock all of them out in one big list-style post today. Ready? Let’s do this:

1. Bullet Journaling

I am completely addicted to this new way of keeping a to-do list/planner/journal: the Bullet Journal. I’ve kept a to-do list for years and when I was working in an office full-time I was a devoted user of my Franklin-Covey planner but I’ve never found a system that’s perfect for me. This one has everything I’m looking for all in one place: compact, simple to use, paper-based and it combines lists, note-taking and a calendar all in the same book. I’ve haven’t been using it long — just a couple of weeks — but it’s made a huge difference in how much I’m getting done every day. I’ve been knocking out all sorts of little things that keep slipping my mind as well as keeping track of all the parts of some bigger projects. I’ve also started a new habit of reviewing my planner at night before I go to bed, taking a few notes on the day and beginning a list of things I want to knock out the next day.

You can learn more about the system here:

2. Perler Beads

I picked up a big bucket of Pyssla Beads when I was at IKEA last week, thinking it might be something the kids would enjoy. Dang! I have never been so right about something in my entire life.  I pulled them out last weekend when Wyatt was complaining profusely about being bored (and about us kicking him off the computer). At first he wasn’t that interested, but when I printed out a few easy patterns for making Minecraft tools he was willing to give it a try.

I have never seen a kid get so into a craft so quickly! He was in love before we even finished putting the first pick axe together.

Since then he’s moved on to more complicated patterns — Pokemon characters are particular favorites — and he’s been choosing them instead of screen time after his homework is done most days. (This is huge, people!) I try to sit down and make my own stuff with him when I can and I’m happy to say I’m amassing quite the collection of obnoxiously bright coasters.  We’ve been finding lots of cool patterns at Kandi Patterns.

3. Lemon-Ginger Sundaes

I’ve been sick on and off since the beginning of February (nope! I’m not exaggerating!) and one symptom that’s persisted is a bad cough and the sore throat that goes with it. Basically, this means there is not enough ice cream in the world to soothe my throat, but I’m trying to get to it all nevertheless. My new favorite way to eat it is an idea I found in my Jan/Feb Cooking Light magazine — lemon-ginger sundaes. It’s more of an idea than a recipe: top a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt with a dollop of lemon curd and a crushed gingersnap. I don’t have a photo because I eat these too fast.

4. Books

While I’ve been sick, I’ve been reading a ton. I’ve been catching up on my magazines but reading lots of books, too. Here are some of the books I’ve been enjoying:

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion — I breezed through this romantic comedy novel about a man with Asperger’s Syndrome falling in love. (Technically the author never directly states that he has Asperger’s, but it’s strongly implied.) I’m not sure if it’s an accurate representation of the way a person with Asperger’s thinks, but taken at face value, Don is an interesting character and I was rooting for him the whole time.  (The Kindle version of this book is only $1.99 right now!)
Sycamore Row by John Grisham — It’s not like you need me to tell you about a John Grisham book. Either you like John Grisham and you read his books or you don’t. I’m one of the likers so I read almost all of his lawyer books eventually and this is his most recent one. This book is about a contested will and it should be pretty boring, honestly. It gets into a lot of details about wills. Tons of them. There are so many details about wills, that you’ll feel like you could open up a law practice specializing in estate planning law when you’re done reading the book. But Grisham is such a good writer that it’s still a good book.
Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman — I watched the Netflix TV series based on this book last year and I really liked it. I’d heard the book is better and treats the subject more seriously and so far I’m finding that to be true. It follows the author through the year she spent in a women’s prison for transporting drug money. It’s an interesting read to me because Piper is a lot like me in many ways (aside from the years she spent shacked up with a drug dealer) and it’s really easy for me to put myself in her place. I just started the book yesterday and I’m already about a third of the way through, because I find it so fascinating.
I Heart My Little A-Holes by Karen Alpert — I received an advanced copy of this book for review and it’s totally cracking me up. Again, I haven’t finished it yet, but I pick it up and read a couple chunks when Orange is the New Black is stressing me out too much. (Am I the only person who does that?) The book is written by Karen Alpert the author of the Baby Sideburns blog and it’s a series of short, hilarious essays about parenting young kids. You can probably guess from the title that this isn’t for people who don’t like swearing or honesty, but I like both of those things.

5. Cute Shoes

Earlier this month, I got these cute shoes for a trip Zach and I are taking to Italy (!!) next month. I am not normally a heels girl, but the place we are staying has a “resort elegant” dress code for evening events so I needed something a little nicer than the clogs I wear whenever I am forced to leave the house. Aren’t they awesome?

What fabulous thing have you been into lately? Share down below in the comments!