It's a rainy Friday, and a good time to bake muffins. Here's my recipe for Apple Spice Muffins:
Mix 2 eggs with 8 oz. Vanilla Greek-style yogurt and a 21 oz. can of apple pie filling.
Add 18 oz. spice cake mix. Combine well, but do not overmix. Grease muffin tins well and fill with batter. Make sure there is at least one apple slice in each section.
Sprinkle tops with cinnamon.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes.
This recipe makes about 20 muffins.
Here's a recipe I resurrected from an old, yellowed, falling-apart Betty Crocker cookbook: Olive Cheese Balls.
On paper towels, drain and dry about 40 pimiento-stuffed green olives. Mix 2 cups (8 oz.) shredded cheese with 1 and 1/4 cups flour.
Add 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine and knead thoroughly
Take about a teaspoon of dough and wrap it around each olive, rolling it into a ball. (That's the fun part.) Place on ungreased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Cover and chill for at least one hour. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 - 20 minutes.
The finished product! I'm serving them as an appetizer with our Easter ham dinner. Next time I'll add a dash of cayenne pepper.
Martini, anyone?
Update: I just re-discovered this recipe which I had forgotten. This is a unique appetizer that I'd like to make again!
Oh, and if you found me here, please check out my newest posts at: Resolutions. Thanks!
Last night Geo and I saw Ed Asner in a one-person play about Franklin D. Roosevelt. We were in the front row. I felt like I was sitting in an easy chair eavesdropping on history.
There was a smooth interplay with “FDR” reminiscing about his days in the White House, and then enacting scenes as they were occurring in the Oval Office.
I needed to overcome a few distractions. Even with makeup, Ed Asner did not exactly look like FDR. And hobbling on two canes did not live up to my understanding of FDR being too paralyzed to support himself. Also, I was enthralled with seeing Ed Asner the actor up on stage right in front of me. It’s not often I see Hollywood stars in person.
For a few brief moments, however, I really felt like I was back in Roosevelt’s time and watching current events, not aware of the outcome. The outrage and sense of urgency at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor were especially powerful.
The last scene was poignant, and I will not reveal it here.
Now every time I think of FDR, I guess I will be picturing Ed Asner. He was that good.
On February 13, Geo and I attended the Northeast Organic Farmers’ Association (NOFA) winter conference. Farmers we are not. However, Geo is interested in the locavore scene here in Vermont, and I am interested in learning new gardening practices. Living in a most rural state, we need to be informed about agriculture.
Keynote speaker LaDonna Redmond of Chicago was worth the price of admission. Unable to find real food in urban supermarkets for her child with multiple allergies, she set forth on a mission of organizing her inner city neighborhood to grow organic veggies. She promotes a sustainable, organic, urban, and local food system that has soul. The food that is grown nourishes not just the body, but also the soul. Food actually becomes a by-product because what is really grown is community. It’s about knowing the people who grow your food, how that food is grown, how it's prepared, and with whom you share it.
She went on to say that the Hippies (who began the back-to-the-land movement) have a lot in common with the Hip-Hop Generation. Both are counter-cultural and anti-establishment, as is sustainable, local and organic agriculture. What she calls the soul-food system is about building community. Community needs to happen in urban areas as well as rural. Through soul-food, the Hippies and Hip-Hop Generation may be able to meet on common ground.
One of the workshops I attended was presented by Lee Reich on weedless no-till gardening. He advises using wet newspapers (4 pages thick) spread out over soil or grass, covering them with an inch or two of compost, and planting seeds directly into the compost. They will take root and grow through the newspaper. The grass or weeds below the newspaper, with no light and air, will smother and die. So this is my plan for my 5 packets of sunflower seeds. I’m collecting newspapers now and will be ready to plant in Spring. This I will do without digging up the lawn in the backyard. Reports to follow.
Jenn challenged me to list 50 things I'd like to do during 2010, and DO them. I took up the challenge. Saturday I checked off #5: See an opera.
Verdi's Simon Boccanegra was performed live at the NY Met, starring none other than Placido Domingo. This performance was broadcast in HD, as it was happening, in select theaters across the U.S., including one in South Burlington. I was there. It was fabulous.
Besides focussing on all the action, the camera took us into the orchestra pit, backstage as the sets were being changed, and even into the audience. I could see notes on the musicians' sheet music, and even beads of sweat on the performers. I especially liked seeing all the detail on the costumes. And, yes, there were subtitles for the Italian lyrics.
I'd recommend this experience for anyone who loves music, even if unfamiliar with opera (like me). I'm already planning to see Rosssini's Armida on May 1st.
Someone famous once said, opera has it all - passion, violence, romance, vengeance, murder - what's not to like?
Jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris is performing in Burlington. Last night he led a workshop on the art of listening. Of course, I had to be there.
Stefon defines music as the science of organizing sound and silence into emotion. The workshop was about experiencing music emotionally. Sitting at the piano, he directed us to close our eyes, then to experience and demonstrate the emotion our ears were hearing. One time he changed just one note in the chord, and the sound - and the emotion - changed noticeably.
When our group was having difficulty demonstrating an appropriate emotional response, he asked us clench our fists, or open and raise our arms, just to feel if if the physical response was in tune with what we were hearing.Then we would sense if it was right or not. This worked. He said the body naturally knows how to respond to emotions.
When I hear a performance, I may walk away impressed with the technique and virtuosity of the musicians. Now I will focus on how I am feeling as the musicians are recreating and communicating emotions musically.
As Stefon said, when he plays, if we’re not feeling it, he is not doing his job. If we come to a performance filled with the distractions and anxieties of the day, he says, let the music take you away. That’s the beauty of it.
I am eager to practice my new listening skills. It won’t be long. We’re hearing Stefon Harris play the marimba and vibraphone tonight at the Flynn, along with the Imani Winds.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra performed in Burlington last night. They are a twenty-piece group playing in the musical tradition of founders Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.
What I find so unique about them is that they’ve been performing Monday nights at the same club – the NY Village Vanguard - for more than 40 years, staying together despite the departure of key players. That’s staying power. In 2009 VJO won a grammy in the category of large jazz ensemble album: Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard.
It’s a great time hearing live jazz performances, but it was a special treat for us to hear the full sound of a jazz orchestra in the style of big band jazz music.
To check out the Village Vanguard, click on my title VJO.
Swing on, VJO!
CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien spoke at UVM yesterday as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day calendar of events. Geo and I arrived early enough for first row seats.
She spoke about Martin Luther King, Jr. as being a servant leader, and because he served as “one of the people,” he had great influence. She noted that a true leader is not just one who can see problems - “anyone can see problems…” – but a person who sees the possibilities within the problems. Although her themes were familiar, she presented them with not-so-familiar quotes of MLK, the people who worked so closely with him, and even her own parents. Her parents, a bi-racial couple, were not discouraged by an oppressive social climate of their times because they knew and passed on to their children that “America is better than that.” They lived, as did MLK, demonstrating what was possible within situations in need of change.
Soledad went on to challenge the audience to look around to see what needs to change, then to personally respond positively and actively to make it happen.
At the reception afterwards, she continued to engage everyone in conversation around her, mostly about her recent experience in Haiti. Geo and I were impressed with her high level of energy that does not quite come across seeing her on TV. I will definitely be looking for her documentaries with new interest.
I'll call it "Lazy Sunday Afternoon Pineapple Cake" because it took less than five minutes to put together.
I mixed a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, 3 eggs, and a generous splash of rum with 1 box of yellow cake mix. This took less than five minutes. I poured the batter into a greased cakepan and topped it off with a handful of pecan pieces. It went into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. What a great aroma! It came out perfectly. To serve, all it needs is a dollop of whipped cream. We'll enjoy this while we're watching the football playoffs today.
Today I wore a jacket without an overcoat. Geo wanted to ride down the interstate in our Subaru with the window open. If it is January in Vermont and the temperature is in the upper thirties with the sun shining - well, it feels almost balmy outside. A lot of that snow accumulation has already melted away.
Yesterday I stopped in at Gardener's Supply for their outlet clearance sale. I picked up a few things, including another string of solar lights for our tree in the front yard. On my way to the checkout counter, I noticed displays of seeds for 2010. Sunflowers! I picked up seeds of unusual varieties. Now that I have them, I will be planning for new flower gardens. January thaw is definitely giving me Spring fever.
