buggykitty

[buggykitty]

Making Strata!

(easiest recipe with pictures)

Step One: Choose your bread!

My partner made me a loaf of focaccia (what a gem), which I thought would be perfect! You can use any kind of bread though :)

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Step Two: Put some bread in an oven safe dish

I tore off two cups of bread and spread it in my dish. You’ll want to oil or butter the dish first. I used olive oil.

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Step Three: Combine Eggs and Milk

Using a whisk, I mixed one cup of milk with one cup of eggs (~4). I added everything bagel seasoning and garlic salt. Next, you’ll pour the mixture over the bread. Make sure the bread gets nice and soaked.

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Step Four: Add cheese!

I mixed in one cup of cheese. I used Parmesan and a Mexican blend because that’s all I had! It really doesn’t matter what type of cheese you use!

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Step Five: Add Extras

Extras typically include meat and veggies. I’m vegetarian so I used four impossible Italian meatballs and a sprinkle of green onions. I would’ve used spinach or peppers, but I didn’t have any :)

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Step Six: Bake!!

At 350°, bake the strata for 20 minutes. The dish should be covered with aluminum foil. Then, take the dish out, uncover it, and bake for 30 more minutes. I checked on it every 10 minutes to make sure it didn’t over cook. It depends on the depth of your dish, but it’s done when the center isn’t liquid at all.

Ta-da!!

When it comes to measurements and ingredients, you can play around. Though, it’s best to stick to this simple rule:

2 parts bread

1 part milk

1 part eggs

1 part cheese

1 part extras

Happy cooking!

[buggykitty]

I found this bird, shocked from slamming into a window. It’s a pine warbler. I held him away from harm until it recovered enough to fly away.

At first, he was shaking and taking heaving breaths. He kept its eyes closed. After about 20 minutes, he was looking around and stretching his wings. He flew off and sat in a nook in the porch for a couple hours.

Now he’s gone. I hope he’s well. I’ll miss him.

[buggykitty]

Final shell necklace (for noooowwww)

Gifted to my lovely friend, Rachel :3

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Another shell necklace! Even though it was my favorite, I gifted it to my lovely friend, Claire.

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Millefiori tapestry, close-up.

The entire tapestry is 790 centimeters wide and 270 centimeters tall, and is currently in Palazzo Dei Vescovi, Pistoia.

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⭐️⭐️⭐️ more jewelry I made ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Here is a necklace I made! The inside of the scallop shell is painted with mermaid scales.

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Beads and painted shells?

Y’all know what’s about to happen. Stay tuned…

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A wee doodle of my favorite mythical creatures 🧜‍♀️

Full version below the cut!!

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Romulus and Remus

News alert: this is real and not from animal crossing. It was actually so trippy seeing this in person ♡

In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus are twin brothers. Their story chronicles the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and eventually the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his fratricide of Remus.

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Demeter 🌾

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The bottom floor of the National Gallery is so underrated

[buggykitty]

This is the entrance ceiling of the National Gallery of Art.

Did you know that its construct was based on a painting?

Interior of the Pantheon, Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini c. 1734

This is one of my favorite paintings of all time. When I saw it for the first time in DC, I looked at it for such a long time. There are so many details that draw you in.

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Amazing (creepy) Ceramics

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As a “Greek Myths retold” genre lover (and reluctant Lore Olympus fan), I have to admit that this is true. They’re unreadable </3

people will write a modern retelling of hades/persephone and unironically make the underworld an office building or something

[buggykitty]

Oh to be a round cat in a renaissance painting

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from The Fall of Man by Hendrick Goltzius c. 1616

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The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Book Review - July 25, 2024

silence becomes a woman

What can I say? The Silence of the Girls does what so many other retellings of Greek Myth don’t do: Allow women to tell their own stories. Something about Briseis speaking in the first person throughout the book gives her narrative an extra kick; it’s more raw, less detached.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a book I love, but it doesn’t unveil the atrocities that the Greeks committed. In both stories, Achilles is a damaged child and a strong leader, but, in Pat Barker’s version, he is also vile and cruel and ruthless. He kills children like cattle and treats women like wine jugs, to be used and tossed aside.

The Silence of the Girls walks the line between Briseis’s desire to find safety and routine in her war torn reality and her persisting hatred of her captors. This story is NOT a romance. Achilles values her no more than a purebred stallion, and Briseis grieves him no more than the plagued rats she lived among.

My only criticism is the, at times, dueling perspectives. Most of the time, Briseis was narrating in the first person, but, sometimes, it was Achilles narrating in the third person. I felt as though the “POV” couldn’t been 100% consistent, but I do think the Achilles’ chapters provided useful insight into the plot.

I love this retelling of the last year(ish) of the Trojan War, and I’m excited to read the next books in the trilogy. Briseis did what she had to to survive, and, if you don’t understand, you’ve never been a slave.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

(4.5/5 stars)

Find me on goodreads!

[buggykitty]

A MEMORIAL TO ICE AT THE DEAD DEER DISCO

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Exhibit from MASS MOCA that I really enjoyed.

Blurb from their website: “Marc Swanson works across diverse media, creating sculptures and environments that explore the relationships between humans, culture, and the natural world. His most ambitious installation to date, A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco is inspired by the dioramas found in natural history museums as well as Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole’s (1801–1848) writings on the negative effects of development in the Catskills region. Additionally, Swanson references the disco, which he explores in relation to freedom and mourning during the AIDS crisis. Taken together, these references create an installation that confronts loss and our inability to control human nature and the world around us.”